For Chris Forsberg's "Summer Forecast" series over at ESPN.com, a bunch of the Boston Celtics bloggers around the Internet were asked a string of questions about the team. Today the question is not so simple: "who starts at center?"
If you've been reading my articles lately you know that I am a big supporter of Kris Humphries. I think he'll end up starting at center and has a lot of potential on this team; I'd go as far to say that he could even be resigned after the season. Here was my response:
Kevin O'Connor's response for "Summer Forecast: Center of attention" - ESPN Boston
Despite the fact that many fans dislike Kris Humphries for quite irrational reasons, there is no denying the fact that the man is a very good big man. In 2011, Kris Humphries was a virtual double-double every night, achieving one in 29 of his 62 games played. At only 6-9, Humphries doesn’t have ideal height as a starting center, but his 7-foot wingspan and style of play allow him to play the position. As a banger in the paint, Humphries will spend the majority of his time crashing the offensive boards for putback dunk opportunities. Defensively, Humphries won’t come close to making the impact that Kevin Garnett made the past six years, but he is still a viable help defender that can make hustle plays and block shots from behind.
But our fellow CelticsBlog.com writers, wjsy and Jeff Clark, both disagree. They were a part of the 40 percent of writers that selected the rookie Kelly Olynyk. Here is what they both said:
Jeff Clark's response for "Summer Forecast: Center of attention" - ESPN Boston
It might be a little early to throw a rookie into a starting position (especially with questions about his defense) but he's a legit 7-footer and his outside game would look awfully good alongside my preferred power forward starter Jared Sullinger.
wjsy's response for "Summer Forecast: Center of attention" - ESPN Boston
"Now, your starting center from Brazil, Vitor Faverani!" Uh, no. "A 6'9 center from the University Of Minnesota, Kris Humphries!" Absolutely not. Without question, Kelly Olynyk is going to be the starting center for the Boston Celtics. In year one of the rebuild, Stevens needs to find out which players can serve as part of the foundation for the franchise and Olynyk is his most skilled big man. Ideally, Olynyk could have benefited from a mentorship with KG, but instead, he'll have to learn the hard way. That'll mean more growing pains and possibly a longer learning curve without the safety net of a vet helping him out, but right now, he's our best option for the future. Skeptics will point out that Kelly isn't a prototypical 5; he's undersized and isn't much a rim protector. However, the NBA game is trending towards small ball and Stevens is a master at getting the most out of undersized and less athletic lineups. At Butler, he went to two straight Final Fours with only two bigs in his rotation. And let's face it: being compared to Dirk Nowitki is one thing, but when people use your name in the same sentence as Kevin McHale, Celtics fans expect you to play.
At this point you could make the argument that power forward and center are relatively interchangeable. I think Olynyk has a chance to start at power forward, not center. Even then, a different big man could start every night depending on the matchups. I was surprised to see that out of 13 total responses, only one person selected Jared Sullinger as the starting center.
If you'd like to see everyone else's answers, click here for the link. Who do you think starts? Comment below and make sure to vote in the poll!