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What Evan Turner Can Bring To The Celtics

It seems that the Boston Celtics are getting very close to making the acquisition of Evan Turner official, and this move can make a big difference.

Though Turner hasn’t garnered the same respect as his fellow draftsmen John Wall, both the first two picks of the 2010 Draft, he is still an effective player.

Last season, Turner had a season of two half’s, the first playing as the main guy for a Philadelphia 76ers team who was looking towards the draft, and the 2nd was being traded to the Indiana Pacers to be hardly used as the Pacers crumbled internally.

And while that season seems bipolar at the very least, Turners time in Philly is what we should look at.

The first half was his best statistical season in his career for points (17.4 PPG), steals (1.0 SPG) and free throws (.829%) while also being a distributor and crashing the boards. Now while many may take these stats with a pinch of salt, because Turner was playing on a terrible Philadelphia team who was trying to tank hard, it does show that Turner was able to be consistent and post his numbers while also being guarded by the oppositions best defender or even doubled at times. Showing his growth as an offensive player who can play anywhere in the back court.

And that’s what the Boston Celtics need, offense.

Though Boston is a relatively young team, and were missing their star player Rajon Rondo for the majority of the season, the new coach Brad Stevens managed to make the Celtics the 13th best defensive team in the league. No bad at all. And seeing as players such as Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley are all a year older, you can assume their games are growing too. Also the fact that Rondo is returning, and newly drafted two-way guard Marcus Smart joining the team, Boston looks set to grow defensively.

But offense was Bostons “Achilles heel” to improving their 25-57 record. They were ranked 26th offensively, 7 spots down from the “tanking” Philadelphia team that Evan turner was at the helm of.

So acquiring Evan Turner may not be anywhere near getting a player like Kevin Love, but Turner brings added offense to a team who is looking to get much better and quickly. The Celtics may not be playoff contenders this season, but one more signing or trade could push them back into contention in a dismal East.

Author: Jack McNally

As a British NBA fan I was definitely a rare find during the early 00’s, but I started to write all my NBA thoughts and ideas down, and I guess other people around the world found them interesting.
And so I started covering the Boston Celtics for TheRunnerSports, and safe to say I’m having more fun than ever.

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