Vote in our poll: Which Celtics player is most likely to go for his stats rather than help the team?
With the pre-season officially upon us, we here at CelticsLife thought it would be fun to dish out some pre-season award predictions for the Celtics. We came up with eight awards (four positive, four not-so-positive), and will be giving out writer predictions on each of them over the next week or so.
These awards will be named after Celtics greats (and not-so-greats), and hopefully we can have some fun with this. We'll also be posting a poll for everyone to vote on, and be sure to add your two cents in the comment section.
Award #1: The Paul Pierce Award for Team MVP - Writer's pick: Rajon Rondo
Award #2: The P.J. Brown Award for the guy most likely to give the line-up an unexpected boost. - Writer's pick: Kris Humphries
Award #3: The Semih Erden Award for the guy that will be the most fun to sarcastically root for. - Writer's pick: Vitor Faverani
Award #4: The Walter McCarty Award for the guy most likely to become Tommy Heinsohn's pet this year. - Writer's pick: Kelly Olynyk
Award #5: On to the not-so-positive, The Mark Blount Award for the guy most likely to infuriate fans this year. - Writer's pick: Jordan Crawford
Award #6: The Chauncey Billups Award for the guy most likely to be traded mid-season. - Writer's pick: Kris Humphries
Today's Award: The Ricky Davis Award for the guy most likely to try and pad the stat sheet at the expense of the team.
Mike Dyer (Follow Mike - Mike_Dyer13)
MarShon Brooks - It's not that I think Brooks is a bad guy as much as he is in such a typical "stat padding" situation. He's a volume scorer on a bad team trying to prove that he is a viable NBA rotation guy, thus increasing the need to produce points whenever he's in the game. Brooks is never going to be an elite distributor, rebounder or defender — so it's all about buckets.
Mark Vandeusen (Follow Mark - LucidSportsFan)
Jordan Crawford - Almost everything about Jordan Crawford reminds me of Ricky Davis, including watching him launch contested 22-foot jumpers roughly 5 seconds into the shot clock in the 4th quarter of a tight game last night. He also filled up the box score with a Davis-esque 10 points on 5-12 shooting (0-3 3PT), 5 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, and FIVE turnovers.
Eric Blaisdell (Follow Eric - EricBlaisdell13)
MarShon Brooks - The first name that comes to mind is Jordan Crawford, but with Crawford picking up some of the point guard duties in Rajon Rondo's absence, he will actually look to pass more than he has previously when he was used mostly as a volume scorer. Brooks is just as willing a shooter as Crawford and when he plays, Brooks will be looked on to score. Brooks is also trying to salvage his career right now on a roster with a crowded depth chart at shooting guard, so the more stats he can put up in the minutes he gets, the better he'll look. Make it rain!
Danielle Hobeika (aka DH) (Follow DH - dhobeika)
Rajon Rondo - Rondo loves his assists, and while we will need him to score more this season, I don't expect him to give up his attempts to get double-digit assists every game.
Burak Tekin (aka semioticus) (Follow semioticus - semioticusCL)
Gerald Wallace - He has to prove he's worth something after he's played down by almost everyone. He didn't get to use the ball with the Nets last year, so I'm sure that will change.
Matty Mackay (Follow Matty - MattyMackay)
Jordan Crawford - No other competition. Brad Stevens might try and get him away from the pop-a-shot ways of his past but a tiger can’t change his spots.
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| Crawford takes home the Ricky Davis Award |
Karl Dillinger (Follow Karl - karl_dillinger)
Kris Humphries
Padraic O'Connor (Follow Padraic - padraic_oconnor)
Rajon Rondo - Defacto Rondo. There aren't a lot of stat first guys in a starting role on this team, but Rondo is going to fill that thing up. Or Crawford or Brooks are going to go off the rails so it could be one of them.
Julian Edlow (Follow Julian - BleedGreenBlogs)
Brandon Bass / MarShon Brooks - This was the toughest one. Rondo and Green will put up some numbers. But I’ll share this one between Bass and Brooks. I just feel like both will be able to put up some sneaky high scoring games this year.
Jordan Crawford - JORDAN CRAWFORD BE SHOOTING, Y'ALL
Devin Archer (aka Devin A) (Follow Devin - TheCelticD)
Courtney Lee - He's a gritty defender that plays until the last buzzer. No plays off for him.
Writer votes: Jordan Crawford, 3 votes; MarShon Brooks, 2.5 votes; Rajon Rondo, 2 votes; Kris Humphries, 1 vote; Courtney Lee, 1 vote; Gerald Wallace, 1 vote; Brandon Bass, 0.5 vote
Explain your pick in the comment section!
