You understand Jake Issenberg from our Playback channel and his First To The Ground podcast and now, he’s becoming a member of CelticsBlog as a author. Make sure that to take a look at his first piece on Jayson Tatum and his late season taking pictures droop.
What received you into basketball and the Celtics?
My love for basketball and the Boston Celtics might be attributed to 3 individuals: my dad, John Havlicek and Larry Hen. My dad, who grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, had his basketball thoughts molded by the 70s and 80s Celtics. Simply in the present day we had been going backwards and forwards on whether or not or not Giannis’ Bucks will go down as a historic Celtics rival. I stated completely. Dad was on the fence. He did in fact take the chance to remind me that the 1974 Finals sequence between the Celtics and Kareem’s Bucks was his favorite sequence ever. Then someplace between John Havlicek’s final All-Star look and Larry Hen’s rookie yr, my dad moved to Australia, which is how my household ended up as the most important Celtics followers on a single continent.
My love of basketball is definitely traced and was apparent from the start. From Area Jam, NBA Dwell 2003 on XBOX, I’m ashamed to confess the Lakers had been my most performed crew (reduce me some slack — I used to be 10), taking part in basketball yearly of my life as a *very* undersized combo guard, to beginning a basketball podcast in Jayson Tatum’s rookie yr. From the soar I’ve beloved each the sport of basketball and the tradition surrounding it.
What are your strengths and/or favourite matters as a author?
Basketball is enjoyable. I feel basketball content material needs to be enjoyable. Getting swept up within the feelings of sports activities is a part of being a fan however even amidst the ache of a Sport 7 loss to the Miami Warmth in 2023, we are able to attempt to snort by the ache. That’s the way in which I attempt to write. I’m trying ahead to laughing by extra wonderful victories because the Celtics carry again the perfect roster within the NBA.
What’s your daring prediction for the approaching season?
So far as daring predictions for the 2024/2025 Boston Celtics go, it’s laborious to be daring a couple of crew that simply received 64 video games and had one of the crucial dominant seasons in NBA historical past. However I’ll concentrate on possibly essentially the most underrated function participant within the NBA, Sam Hauser.
I’m undecided the basketball world absolutely grasped how effectively Sam Hauser performed within the NBA Finals. He did the factor that received him within the NBA, shot the piss out of the ball – 47.8% from 3 for the sequence. On the opposite finish Hauser was focused by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving relentlessly and held up higher than any non-Celtics fan would ever count on.
I say non-Celtics followers as a result of Celtics followers already knew what Hauser was able to in relation to isolation protection. You don’t need to come into the Hause Lure. Such a impression for a seventh or eighth man will not be simple to seek out. It is going to be laborious to quantify Sam Hauser’s leap into Elite Function Participant territory. He received’t make the All-Star crew. He received’t make an All-Protection crew. However he’ll proceed to impression successful at a excessive stage as Hauser continues to develop his recreation and exceed expectations.
This upcoming season, I’m taking a look at Hauser to proceed bettering his secondary playmaking and skill to attain when he will get run off the road. If we need to nail down some numbers: final season Hauser performed 22 minutes per recreation and averaged 9 factors on 62.6% true taking pictures to associate with 3.5 rebounds and 1 help. I’d prefer to see these numbers bumped as much as 28 minutes per recreation – 14 factors – 5 rebounds – 2.5 assists on 60% or higher true taking pictures. Certain, Tre Murphy and Naji Marshall are the horny function gamers persons are speaking about this offseason, nevertheless it’s Sam Hauser’s time to develop into the function participant each crew needs they’d.
