Today marked day number eight for ESPN Boston's Celtics Summer Forecast, headed by Chris Forsberg. So far, the panel of eighteen experts have broken down the answers to seven burning questions leading up to the Celtics 2010-2011 season.
With seven questions in the books, the panel crossed the half-way mark in the summer special today by answering question number eight today. Today's question: Which rookie will have an impact this season?
Nine of the members on the panel went with first-round pick Avery Bradley, while six went with no rookie impact, and three went with second-round pick Luke Harangody. I would up in the Avery Bradley category.
Brandon Paul, Gino's Jungle (Avery Bradley)
With the way Doc Rivers has used rookies in the past, I don't see any of them having a huge impact. If there's one player I can see having any impact at all, it's Bradley. With the Celtics being one of the better defensive teams in the league, I can see him providing some key minutes off the bench checking some of the league's top guards.
With the need for a defensive specialist, I think at one point or another during this season, Avery will get his chance to take upon that role. If he succeeds he could wind up being like the Tony Allen of past years, except hopefully he doesn't jump on pump fakes as much.
Avery is a little bit undersized to be guarding guys like Kobe Bryant, but if he can stick to the fundamentals of good defense and aggrevate the players he guards, he can be successful in this role. A lot of things have to go right, but it is possible that he could be the Celtics lockdown defender.
While I stuck with the majority and went with Avery, a few others thought Luke Harangody might have an impact this season. John Karalis from Red's Army explained Harangody's possible impact the best.
Doc Rivers hates to play rookies. I'm so tempted to say Avery Bradley because of Rivers' quote that "he's an NBA defender right now." That makes me think Rivers will use him. But the Celtics are just too deep at the guard spot. Harangody, however, might get some burn at the 3 because (a) it is Boston's thinnest spot and (b) Marquis Daniels is a stiff breeze away from getting hurt. Now, Harangody isn't exactly a 3, but he'll have to be. And he's the most likely to get minutes out of sheer necessity.
A few others stuck to the guns that Doc will not use his rookies, and there final answer was "no rookie impact". Tommy King from Celtics Town summed it up short and sweet.
None of the rookies will have an impact next season. Rivers is notorious for not playing rookies and, on a veteran-laden team pushing for a championship, these guys have very little chance of cracking the rotation.
If you didn't notice yet, nobody decided to put down Semih Erden as an impact player. With a depth chart that's on the verge of being too deep, Erden will most likely have a bigger impact for Austin Ainge and the Maine Red Claws.
Be sure to head over to ESPN Boston and check out what all the great Celtics bloggers had to say.
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