Celtic duo land All-League team nods in HoopsHype’s mock vote
The Boston Celtics are getting some love by the team over at our sister site HoopsHype, who have named a number of Celtics players to their All-League teams for the soon-to-arrive 2020-21 NBA season.
In order to simulate the voting process as best they could, the HoopsHype staff were to select a big man, two guards and two forwards for each of the three All-NBA teams and the All-Rookie teams and All-Defensive teams. After which, the results were tabulated and published for us to compare and contrast with our own expectations for hardware distribution at the end of the coming campaign.
Celtics have much to do in little time to be the team they want to be https://t.co/3XouYag2Zi
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 19, 2020
These are the Celtics they envision earning All-League accolades by season’s end written up by HoopsHype’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
All-NBA 3rd Team - Jayson Tatum
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
While there's a non-negligible chance the nascent superstar takes another leap with more responsibilities and the touches that come with it, it's not unreasonable to predict a return to the All-NBA 3rd Team for the Duke product in 2020-21. While Tatum got more second-team votes than former MVP Steph Curry, positional considerations bumped the Missouri native back, so this assessment isn't without acknowledging that growth. "Tatum, who is now actually listed at 6-foot-10, has moments on the floor where he looks like a future MVP candidate," shared HoopsHype. "Tatum is just 22 years old and he has all the makings of a franchise cornerstone."
All-Defensive 1st Team - Marcus Smart
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Flower Mound native is seen as likely to earn First-Team All-Defense for the third time in his career, and we have to say we don't disagree. If voters weren't so focused on handing the award to big men, we'd say he'd have a shot at Defensive Player of the Year as well. Noting how Smart helped hold perimeter shooting of opponents to just 34% on the season in 2019-20 (the league's second-best rate), it seems HoopsHype holds the Oklahoma State product in a similar regard. "His steal percentage ranked in the 90th percentile among all combo guards this past season, per Cleaning the Glass," they related. "He recorded his career-best block percentage (0.8 percent) in 2019-20 as well." [jwplayer yyMs441t-z6KDnl0B] [lawrence-related id=44591,44584,44581,44567] [listicle id=44587]
