Our first NBA Double team is a conversation between Peter and Bennett about the Eastern Conference, specifically Sixers and Celtics. PG in the conversation stands for Peter Gumas and BY stands for Bennett Yetra.
PG: First off, welcome to 1204 and your inaugural post, it’s nice to have you as a NBA consultant. As a Celtics fan, which Eastern Conference team do you fear the most? Which team besides Philly or Toronto do you think could make a run?
BY: Happy to be here! I will start off by saying the obvious, I do not “Fear The Deer”, and will not until Giannis can shoot three pointers or they hire a coach who can actually…coach. The team that keeps me up at night (barely) is probably Toronto just because of the giant question marks that exist around the franchise currently. With the obvious (Kawhi coming in) no one truly knows how he will play. Will he be an MVP candidate like prior years? Will he fake an injury again? Or will he actually play close to 82 games and have his play take a hit from sitting out a year. Also, a note here is that Derozan leaving the squad might actually help. He could’ve easily been a locker room hamper while he was battling Depression, but luckily for Raptors fans I think this doesn’t really have an effect since him and Kawhi have seemingly similar personalities. Now having said all this, I actually believe Philly could have the better run this year because once Philly gets their swag they are a very hard team to beat.
Speaking of Kawhi, will he fake an injury this year on the Raptors?
PG: If I had to give a % chance on this one, I would have to say 30%. Now, I know some of you may say that sounds a little bit too high, but the fact that he has indeed done something so ridiculous previously tells me I can’t put it past him. Plus, he’s playing in Canada, and nothing against Canada or Canadians, but, well, let’s just say it is indeed not Los Angeles.
You are our resident college/high school scout, who in your opinion will be the top rookie in the East this year?
BY: Ben Simmons. Oh is he not a rookie this year as well? Then I will have to say Mohamed Bamba. I do not think he ends up in top 3 voting for Rookie of the Year because the East was short on top draft picks. Mo Bamba is going to get all the playing time he wants and with his size and work ethic he should easily be able to contribute an average of 14-12-2(blocks) a game. He is going to make Orlando fun to watch again, probably for the first time since Dwight howard.
Switching gears here, who has a better chance of making the playoffs, the Heat or Pistons?
PG: I want to say the Pistons, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond in a horribly weak Eastern Conference sounds like a team that should make the playoffs, but something just seemed off with them last year. Miami beat them out this past season, but doesn’t really have any stars and Goran Dragic is starting to show his age. Then there is the whole Whiteside situation. However, I like how Miami plays. Lots of switchable wings (Ellington, Johnson, Richardson, Winslow) who can play defense and knock down a three paired with solid coaching is a good mix.. They will make it hard on the opposing team every night even though they may lack some talent. I’ll cautiously take Miami.
Okay, time to test how much of a Green Teamer you are, if salaries worked, would you trade Brad Stevens for Kevin Durant? If the answer is yes, at what player do you draw the line?
BY: Oh man, that is tough, but no I would not. With our current roster Kevin Durant would add yet another wing to take up minutes and hinder the development of our rising stars, also who are the celtics without Calm Brad. I guess if I’m trading the best coach for a player it would have to be Lebron since he doesn’t allow coaching to begin with. If you already have a championship roster and staff why change?
On to your favorite topic, tanking, Is it harder to tank in the East compared to the West now that the talent is unbalanced? If the Bulls were in the West would they be a Top 3 pick next year?
PG: First, I would argue you don’t have a championship roster because you haven’t won a championship. Now to answer your question, I think if you want to tank you can certainly do it in the East, see Atlanta. But, based on a numbers game, yes if you have more games against bad teams then you are more likely to win, therefore it probably will be slightly harder to tank in the West as opposed to the East. I’ll say yes on a Bulls top 3 pick next year if they were in the West, heck, they may get it in the East, they were pretty close last year and they aren’t better. Wait, I just remembered, they signed Jabari Parker for 20 million, so yes they will be a bottom 3 team.
Now more on your favorite topic, the Celtics. Who averages more points per game, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown?
BY: I am going to go with our Happy Dad on this one. Gordon is just way too hungry after sitting out an entire year and watching his children demolish the Eastern Conference. Plus we finally get to see the Gordon-Brad connection live in the NBA. I expect Gordon to be near 24 PPG, Jayson around 18 PPG and Jaylen around 16 PPG.
Who will be this years Victor Oladipo in the Eastern Conference?
PG: Kyle Lowry…just kidding, I know he’s your favorite player. Does Aaron Gordon count? I really think he could have a huge year, although it may be tough for anyone to notice seeing as he plays for Orlando. He took a 5 PPG jump last year from 12 to 17 and increased his 3 pt % from 28.8% to 33.6%. If he can get that 3pt% up to 36+, he could be lethal. Having a legit PG would help his cause, but I still think he could have a massive leap this year.
You mentioned Oladipo, now how about the Pacers? Was Indiana a one year wonder or will they make even more noise this year?
BY: Glad you asked this question, I truly believe Indiana was a one hit wonder. I see Oladipo getting off to a slow start this year and the team joining him. With that young core and staff I do not see them having the ability to turn momentum around, I mean look at what Lebron did to them in the Playoffs… they completely lost control of their momentum and blew it on multiple occasions. I see them getting either the 5th or 6th seed this year with a first round exit again.
Some Sixer stuff up next, will the 27 nationally televised games this year hurt or help the Sixers?
PG: Jojo eats that camera up, it’ll help him which means the team will benefit. Usually, players get up for national games, so hopefully it will keep them from getting complacent with their schedule.
General question here, which Eastern Conference team that did not make the playoffs last year do you think has improved the most this offseason and which team that did not make the playoffs has the best chance of making the playoffs this year?
BY: The New York Knicks added a lot of raw rookie talent this offseason while sort of cleaning up their past messes. They were able to add a wing in Knox that has a high ceiling, Vonleh at Forward who I have always been high on for absolutely no reason, Hezonja was rescued from Mickey Mouse’s dungeon in Orlando and will help add depth to their wings, not to mention they signed Kadeem “The Dream” Allen so they can stop giving minutes to players like Trey Burke and Emmanuel Mudiay. They could very well inch into the 8th seed this year as long as Knox shows some of what he showed during summer league and college. However, for a team that didn’t make playoffs last year I see the Pistons figuring things out. They have a full year of the “Coach of the Year” being able to coach players like Drummond and Griffin. Am I saying they make a run at it? No way in hell, but they will easily be competing for a 7 or 8 seed when April rolls around.
More Sixers, who will have a bigger impact (positive or negative) to their teams this year; Robert Williams III or Zhaire Smith?
PG: I’m going to say Zhaire. Robert Williams will either be the 9th man and have limited impact on a nightly basis (baring injury), or be such a negative that Stevens will probably just get rid of him before he really becomes a problem. The man had to buy an apartment next to the practice facility so he won’t be late. I can’t say its a bad idea, but if you “miss your alarm” I’m not sure it matters how far you live from the facility, late is late. If Zhaire can make it back by mid-January or early February, I think he can crack the rotation and play some meaningful minutes. This team desperately needs wing defenders (see Boston series) and he looks like he can help there.
Personal question, I’ve been dying to ask you this for years. After you missed the penalty kick to effectively cost the Medfield Warriors the season in the 2008 tournament, what was going through your mind?
BY: “Well I ended a lot of Seniors soccer careers tonight.” It was a very tough event to deal with as a kid who truly cared about the players on his team. I wanted them to succeed and didn’t really care about my own progress at the time, since I received 0 minutes of playing time that playoff game. Going up to the kick, even looking back at it now, I had the right approach; just kick it as hard as I can right down the middle and the Keeper will dive to a side and miss it. Which happened, but I pulled it left and it was saved by their Keeper. My heart dropped and honestly hurt the rest of my soccer career because we might’ve lost the playoffs that day, but I also lost my confidence to achieve greatness. Felt like a real Buckner. Having said that, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I learned a very valuable life lesson that day and something I have been able to carry with me since. But no do not ask me to kick a clutch kick again.
I may have missed on shot, but at least I took it, which leads me to this question, who will have a higher 3 point field goal percentage, Ben Simmons or Markelle Fultz?
PG: Hardest question by far. It’s going to be Markelle because he might actually make one. I’m fairly confident that if he shoots 10% he will be higher than Simmons. At least on a meaningful number of attempts.
That’s all we had for today, stay tuned for some NBA fun coming up in the upcoming weeks!
By Peter Gumas and Bennett Yetra
1204 Sports 