Celtics guard Jrue Holiday is one of the NBA’s most accomplished players, but even he was impressed by the amount of talent on the U.S. Olympic team, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. Holiday, who has two gold medals and two NBA titles in the past four years, said this year’s Olympics was especially memorable because of the quality of the players involved.
“Those are some of the best players in the world,” he said. “It was fun to go out there and play. Devin Booker, the way that he played, kind of how you play off each other with him is pretty easy. I think Steph Curry is just different, I mean, one of the best players in the world. So to go out there and be his teammate for the first time ever was cool, too. It was an amazing experience. Played with some legends and against some legends, and again, brought back some gold.”
The offseason is nearly over for Holiday and his teammates, who will report to training camp in a few weeks to begin the process of defending their title. The summer has gone by quickly, as Holiday said his memories are still fresh from Boston’s championship celebration in June.
“The medal in Paris was cool, it was obviously against France, so it was kind of literally us against the world,” he said. “But winning here was amazing. I’m not sure anything tops that. To be able to win here in Boston, Game 5, the crowd, the (halfcourt) shot Payton (Pritchard) hit. It was all just so overwhelming that was amazing. Then the parade was crazy, too. I still feel like I’m still on a high with everything going on.”
There’s more from Boston:
- After signing an Exhibit 10 deal, Lonnie Walker IV is hoping to win a roster spot in camp just like he did last year on a veteran’s minimum contract in Brooklyn, Terada adds in a separate story. Terada calls the signing a low-risk move for the Celtics and points out that Walker is only 25 even though he has six years of NBA experience. Walker could provide depth at shooting guard behind Pritchard if he makes the team, or he could wind up with Boston’s G League affiliate in Maine.
- Playing time for Boston’s bench appears to be unsettled behind Pritchard and Sam Hauser, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. Walker will be given a chance to earn a reserve role, but he’ll have to outperform midseason acquisition Jaden Springer and rookie Baylor Scheierman in training camp.
- In the same piece, Robb gives Boston’s front office an A for how it handled this summer. The roster of last season’s title team returns nearly intact, and big men Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta were retained on club-friendly contracts.
Yep, it may be the Celtics center position is our first issue to get set. Last year I thought Luke played extremely well, fit the team style of play fine & deserved more playing time except being held back behind KP & Al. (And we know Luke can shoot threes.) Big & strong center Neemias Queta too seemed held back, likely back behind Luke. But Queta brings aggressive offensive rebounding which Celts could sorely use. Whichever, or Tillman, we’ll watch for an answer. Coach?
I agree C position is a key. Always like Luke and Quetta looks promising. I know Al can give you mins there. Adding KP to this. Just makes this team strong and deep. It provides different looks that are hard to deal with. Celtics can go small ball and still have size. Celtics can go wing heavy with shooters. And still have a team that plays D. To me their depth and ability to change it up and adapt. Is what makes them a winner. But they need a healthy KP for that. Without KP especially in playoffs. The Knicks, Sixers, Cavs all are more formidable.
I’d add Heat and Pacers to that too. Moves made by these two teams pay off. They are going to be tough.
lol Knicks more formidable? Where do you get your crack?
Apart , he said “without Porzingis”. You can disagree, but most analysts are saying exactly that. Celtics are best of all teams when all teams are healthy, but injuries loom large in the East. (The pre-season movement on NBA futures in Vegas has historically high variance because of this.) Porzingis is the only Celtic with a concerning injury history.
Of course, the Knicks have much greater injury concerns than Celtics. Their only legit C, Robinson, is even more injury prone than Porzingis, and they have no real backup to him or at PF (Knicks decided to pay 6 guards like starters). Anunoby is among the least available starters in the NBA. And Thibodeau has a crazy habit of playing guys with injury histories 45 mins/game, so his teams are always among the most injured in the league.
Every contender in the East other than Cleveland and Indy have major injury concerns based on the historical availability of key players. In particular, history suggests Philly (Embiid & George) and Milwaukee (Giannis, Middleton, and Lillard) won’t be healthy enough to win multiple playoff series, and Thibodeau has a history of overplaying guys to the point of injury.
Celtics were historically lucky last year that playoff opponents were hurt — see Butler+Rozier, Mitchell+Allen, Haliburton+Mathurin. Healthiest contender will win the East.
All sounds good.