Boston Celtics News Thoughts: Finding a Center, Player Poll, Isaiah Thomas, Yam Madar

It’s a quiet time for the Boston Celtics and other non-playoff participants in the NBA. While four teams hash things out for a championship, the rest are going through the process of trying to be one of those four next season.

It’s not that things aren’t happening. It’s more that a bunch of little things are happening. What I’m doing is pressing all the little slivers of soap together to make a full bar.

Finding a center

Mitchell Robinson went through the process of deleting his social media again, a regular, annual occurrence for him. This time, though, he called it “the start of a new chapter in my life.”

He’s a center. The Celtics could use a center. Could this be a match for both sides?

There's no actual link between Boston and Robinson at the moment, but Stevens will surely explore all options, including poking around at Robinson’s asking price and what he might be worth on the open market. The Knicks have his Bird Rights, but they're also starting to get really expensive. The Knicks make plenty of money, but Robinson, Landry Shamet, and Jordan Clarkson are all unrestricted free agents, and Ariel Hukporti is a restricted free agent.

Filling those spots will make them a second apron team, so it’s worth watching what moves they decide to make. Robinson’s worth will be very interesting to monitor because he’s very good at some things, but he’s a non-shooter and he can get played off the floor with a “hack-a” strategy.

Is he a mid-level guy? Does someone give him the Bruce Brown monster contract so they can reach the salary floor? Does the new CBA depress his value?

I’m not saying the Celtics should jump at the chance to try to lure Robinson away, but they should probably hang around the periphery to see if they can snag a bargain somehow.

Most obnoxious fans

The Athletic’s anonymous player poll is always pretty revealing, but Celtics fans got the dual honor of being voted most passionate AND most obnoxious.

Take a bow. You earned it.

There's something to that, especially when you consider the amount of winning Boston has done over the years. Successful sports teams fuel a lot of civic pride, and nothing feels better in the dead of a cold, brutal winter than getting together with 19,000 friends to yell at opposing players.

TD Garden is a genuinely loud arena. Having been around the league, I can honestly say that few arenas can match the passion in Boston.

A couple of other notes from the poll:

► 41% of the players polled voted Victor Wembanyama best defensive player. No one else got more than 4.6% of the vote. The only Celtic was Derrick White, who was listed as “also getting votes.” That's a tough blow to Jaylen Brown, who loves to call himself the best two-way player in the league.

If he’s truly the best, wouldn’t at least a couple of wings out there have voted for him? To be fair, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Chet Holmgren, and Bam Adebayo, all elite defenders, only got “also getting votes” status, so it doesn’t mean much.

Every year, he says he wants to make the All-Defensive team, but he never has. He was 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting in his second season, but that's the only award he’s won for his defense. I say Brown should take some motivation from this and set his sights on having his best defensive season next year.

►White, Brown, and Payton Pritchard were among the “most underrated players,” which is a nice thing to see. No Celtics were on the most overrated, which is even better. That honor, by the way, went to Alperin Sengun.

Sengun is quickly taking over for Rudy Gobert as the league’s most hated player.

Isaiah Thomas the GM?

Thomas had nothing but love for the Boston Celtics in his new “Point Game” podcast. Thomas is now a scout for the Celtics, based in his home town of Seattle. He said this is “a step in the right direction in terms of hopefully one day maybe being a GM or head of basketball operations,” which is very interesting to me.

People were very critical of Danny Ainge for trading Thomas after his hip injury, which was the beginning of the end of his run in the NBA. It was a cold-blooded decision, which is exactly the kind of decision Thomas would have to make if he rose to that level in a front office.

I’m very curious to see if he can pull that off. Thomas is one of the most emotional players I’ve ever seen, and the GM job is one that demands emotion be checked at the door. A GM who gets emotionally attached to certain players is one who will fail.

I hope Thomas can make it, because he seems to really want to be part of a team in some capacity. I just think his greatest strength is his greatest weakness here. This will be an interesting journey for him.

A college basketball breaking point

NIL is destroying college basketball, but not the way people originally said it would.

Yam Madar, drafted by the Celtics in 2020 and a one-time Celtics summer league participant, is apparently trying to play basketball for LSU next season, despite being 25-years-old and having years of pro experience overseas.

What was supposed to be a way for players to earn money off their name, image, and likeness through things like endorsements, video games, and jersey sales has turned into a straight salary that is turning the NCAA into a minor pro league.

College is supposed to be where high school seniors go, grow, and become men. It’s not a place for grown men to try to advance their pro careers.

What does Madar want to do, anyway? Beat the snot out of 19-year-olds? What is he trying to prove?

A line has to be drawn somewhere. This needs to be it.

Add us as a preferred source on Google