Kelly Olynyk may have the best chance to contribute to his new team , the Boston Celtics as they enter the Brad Stevens era of basketball in Beantown . With the departure of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn and Coach Doc Rivers to Tinsel Town , the Celtics are officially in rebuilding mode . The 7 foot forward from Gonzaga is literally in the middle of the reconstruction plan . He was the leading scorer for rookies in the Orlando based summer league with 19.5 PPG on 57.8 % shooting and grabbed 7.8 boards per contest to lead that category too .
C . J . McCollum is still performing in the summer league in Las Vegas and has a chance to surpass Olynyk as overall leading scorer having averaged 21 in 5 games thus far in Sin City . On July 16 he tallied 27 against the Chicago tournament entry while playing 39 minutes against the Bulls . He is the property of Portland who selected him from Lehigh with the 10 th overall pick in the draft .
Cody Zeller will be playing for the Charlotte Hornets in the 2014-15 campaign , but for now he ’ ll have to settle for the same old Bobcats until their nickname officially reverts back in 15 months . The name change was made possible by New Orleans going with Pelicans beginning this year . Pelican ’ s ? ... Really ?
No matter what the team moniker , Michael Jordan may have finally made a lottery selection that lives up to the slot where they were selected . While the pick was met with much consternation , so far so good in the Vegas summer league . Another Hoosier ( like Olapido ) and also a 7 footer ( like Olynyk ), Zeller can both spot up from the top of the circle and play with his back to the basket with equal efficiency . He ’ s had solid numbers in the summer league averaging 16.3 PPG and 9.3 RPG through 4 games with 1 remaining .
This year ’ s class of rookies and new faces to the NBA was not met with great enthusiasm . However , as the NBA awaits its next offseason , beginning at the end of June , 2014 when King James may be available along with “ Melo ” and other big names , this group of young guns should be fun to watch .
Sports Passion The Magazine | 11 August 2013 | Issue No . 1