The Boston Celtics are one of the more intriguing teams to pay attention to as the 2015-16 NBA season is set to begin. Last season the Celtics surprised a lot of people by making the playoffs with an extremely young roster. This season the Celtics have improved that roster and seem to be even better than they were last year and one of the reasons for that is the acquisition of David Lee. Lee is expected to play a huge role for the Celtics in his first year there and Brad Stevens plans to run his offense through him, according to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe.
Lee was with the Golden State Warriors for the past five seasons but was reduced to a smaller role last year as they went in a different, younger direction. The Warriors traded Lee to the Celtics earlier this offseason and he should fit in perfectly as he will easily be their best interior scorer and will bring big time experience to a very young team.
Stevens has said that he thinks of Lee as a point forward because he is a good decision maker on the floor and that is backed up by his 2.7 assists per 36 minutes in his career which is pretty good for a 6 foot-9 forward. Stevens said the Celtics plan to run their offense through Lee at times this season.
"We're going to try to play through him quite a bit especially when he's not on the floor with Isaiah," said Stevens.
The Isaiah he is referring to is Isaiah Thomas who is the Celtics best scorer and possibly their best player. Stevens hasn't decided on a starting lineup yet but Lee is expected to start alongside Amir Johnson in the frontcourt. Thomas still has a chance to start at point guard but it seems as though Stevens would rather start Marcus Smart and bring Thomas off the bench.
When Thomas isn't on the floor it makes sense to run the offense through Lee as he will be the best scorer in the starting lineup and he can create for others. When Lee and Thomas are on the floor together he won't be as much of a focal point but it does give the Celtics some solid options.
In his five seasons with the Warriors Lee averaged 16.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game while making 51 percent of his field goals. In his 11th season in the NBA the 32 year old forward will once again be a focal point and should put up some solid numbers in Boston.
