Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Robert Williams said he just got a place right next to the Celtics new practice facility. “Two-minute walk, said Williams who laughed and added, “Can’t be late!”
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) August 12, 2018
It’s the middle of August, and you know what that means here in Celtics-land… We’ll grab any tidbit of news we can and try to stretch a few hundred words out of it, all for the viewing pleasure of you, our faithful Red’s Army readers.
Today’s blog revolves around a single tweet from Chris Forsberg, mostly because of what it indicates about Williams’ willingness to work on acknowledged weaknesses.
Brighton, the internet informs me, is a “quieter and more residential neighborhood”, with one of the local attractions being a branch of the city library. It would seem that Robert Williams picked his Boston domicile more for its proximity to work than its proximity to distractions, which bodes well.
Yesterday, Chuck posted another one of Forsberg’s tweets:
Robert Williams on working out with vets like Horford, Baynes: “I learned you got to be a sponge when you’re around those guys. Their work ethic — you’ve got guys in the offseason 6 in the morning coming in to get treatment and work out. They’re not obligated to do that."
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) August 12, 2018
It’s a sort of evergreen observation. Seemingly every rookie that hits the pros is surprised by how much work these guys put into their games. It’s like they think the best guys in the league got where they are strictly on raw ability and innate aptitude.
If you went through the league from top to bottom, you probably couldn’t find a better mentor for Robert Williams than Al Horford, and the Celtics, as a whole, are a team that seems to take basketball seriously. Kyrie Irving frequently talks about basketball as a ‘craft’. Jaylen Brown actually wanted to suit up for Summer League, and there is a professional atmosphere around the team that lends itself to working on one’s game, as opposed to, say, what’s going on in Los Angeles right now (side note: I still can’t believe the Lakers drafted Ball over Tatum–and I still can’t believe that they were so dead-set on drafting Ball that the Celtics could trade back to the #3 spot and know they were still going to get Tatum).
Page 2: Where Katz and Westerholm talk Philly, and…??
The Celtics and 76ers have reignited one of the fiercest rivalries in the NBA over the last year. The players talked no end of trash throughout their five-game playoff series, and the fanbases have spent the summer at one another’s throats.
So the article promises 11 things to watch, but they only get to number two, and the story abruptly ends with this sentence: “A summary of the Celtics/Sixers series, in tweet form.” So, I don’t know what’s going on.
What I do know is that when you read that article, it becomes pretty clear just how hard folks are trying to make the Sixers into a legitimate rival with the Celtics.
The Celtics, minus Irving and Hayward, spanked the Sixers in a five game laugher that demonstrated just how wide the gap is between these two teams in all of the areas that matter. Philly has a reasonable amount of talent, but they are, collectively, impossibly easy for a decent team to victimize. During the playoffs, the Celtics put on a clinic in exploiting the weaknesses of Simmons’ and Embiid’s games.
What I said above about working on the craft of basketball applies here. Neither Embiid nor Simmons have been noted for their work ethic, and as may be expected from a team that did absolutely nothing to develop and improve past acquisitions like Okafor and Noel, the Sixer seem to have no interest in encouraging these guys to spend their offseasons getting better at basketball. This upcoming season, I expect Embiid–if his health holds up–to be a bit better, as well as Simmons, but I don’t think they’re going to be much better and I don’t think the team as a whole is going to make significant strides from where they ended up this past season.
The Sixers are not as talented as the Celtics, and they sure as shooting aren’t as well-coached, so it seem frankly impossible to imagine any sort of scenario in which the two teams will be evenly matched.
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