BOSTON – The Boston Celtics have quite a bandwagon of followers heading into this season, and you can count former Celtics great Kevin McHale among them.
McHale, an analyst for Turner Sports, discussed his thoughts on his former team via conference call on Tuesday.
“They will play very well,” McHale said of the Celtics. “(Al) Horford was a good pick up for them. But I think (they) would like to get another star type of player.”
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Indeed, the Celtics set their sights this past offseason on landing the top two free agents, Kevin Durant and Al Horford.
Boston was able to sign Horford to a four-year, $113 contract while Durant decided to leave Oklahoma City and sign with the Golden State Warriors.
While the Celtics may lack that 1-2 superstar punch a number of teams possess, there’s still a lot to like about this team heading into this season.
Boston Celtics
“They have a lot of young players. I think they have a great coach and great chemistry and a great fight to them,” McHale said. “They will win games in the 80s and have a tremendous fight about that team. They need another guy like (Isaiah) Thomas. That’s not taking away from anything they have. It’s hard to win playoff games if you don’t have that horse coming down and shifting and giving space to other players.”
You can bet Danny Ainge, McHale’s former teammate and current president of basketball operations for the Celtics, will be on the hunt to find a difference-making, game-changing talent all season.
“Danny is doing it the right way,” McHale said. “He’s not panicking. . . Which is the opposite of the guy I know. Danny is one of the most impulsive people I know and I’m shocked he doesn’t make a trade every week. He is a disciplined general manager which is funny because he is (a) very undisciplined person.”