I
have a friend named of Nakeem Middleton. We both attended KIPP: Ways Academy for 6th-8th grade. Nakeem was a very skilled basketball player and made the school team all 3 years and started in 7th and 8th. Once he graduated from KIPP he went on to play basketball at Joseph Wheeler High school in Marietta, Georgia. This school has arguably one of the best basketball programs in Georgia. He benched the team his freshman and sophomore year due to the firepower in the lineup including one particular player. Nakeem was accompanied by 6’7, 220 pound shooting guard Jaylen Brown. Surprisingly Brown was drafted 3rd overall to my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. He was drafted out of University of Cal, Berkeley averaging 14.6 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game. This is pretty amazing to know that I had close friend play on the same team as a lottery pick. This now brings me to talk about the Boston Celtics. Boston’s biggest move was signing center Al Horford after his contract ended in Atlanta. It was sad for Hawks fans to see him leave but I key addition to the gaping hole in the Celtics depth chart. They also recently signed Gerald Green in the off season who played well for Miami last season. A Lot of their draft picks where big men from overseas. This was smart for the C’s considering their roster is loaded with guards. These players are Ante Zizic from Croatia, Guerschon Yabusele from France and Abel Nader from Egypt. The Celtics also drafted solid center in Ben Bentil from Providence, although he is a little undersized he certainly knows how to play the game. Lastly, Demetrius Jackson is a very quick guard from Notre Dame who was also selected in the draft. They took some chances in trying to sign Russell Westbook and Blake Griffin this season but both decided to re-sign with their former teams. I predict the Celtics make the playoffs with the 4th or 5th seed and make a run in the 2nd round. My sleeper pick will be R.J Hunter this year as I expect a lot from him this year. The starting line-up will be I.T running the point, Bradley at the 2, Crowder at the 3, Either Olynk or Amir at the 4 and Horford at the 5. This is a solid line up to me and all of these players play hard every night.
“With the 1st pick of the 2004 NBA Draft the Orlando Magic select, Dwight Howard !” Now fast forward 12 years later, this 6’11 center from my hometown Atlanta, GA now plays for the Atlanta Hawks. Howard said back in 2010 that he would not be able to handle the pressure of playing for his hometown team. He obviously changed his mind since then and will be snatching down boards and slamming in put-back dunks for the Hawks this upcoming season. This is a very good edition for the Hawks in my opinion due to the loss of Al Horford. The Hawks also traded away Jeff Teague in the off season and he was definitely a Hawks fan favorite along with Horford, they were both drafted by the Hawks and big contributors to their recent success. Although Teague left, this means Hawks fans will be able to see the true potential of the German backup guard, Dennis Schroeder. The coaching staff and fans have high hopes for Schroeder a lot of weight will be on his shoulders. The Hawks resigned Kris Humphries after he produced some solid numbers at the end of the regular season. They also signed Jarrett Jack (another Georgia native) to the team. In the draft they selected 6’7 SG Taurean Prince from Baylor, he is a good three and D player. With their second pick they took 6’6 Deandre Bembry from St. Joseph’s University. Bembry is an old- school player who could potentially grow to be a superstar. I predict the starting line-up will be Schroeder at point guard, Korver at shooting guard, Bazemore as the small forward, Millsap playing the power forward and Howard at center.
