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