Which Boston Celtics players are poised to take the biggest leaps next season? If you ask former Celtics center and current Boston broadcaster Brian Scalabrine, the answer is not so easy to come by given the contours of this version of the team and the dynamics of the players on it. Speaking in an interviewwith WEEI Boston Sports Original's "Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson" show, Scal admitted he did not know who it might be.
"I think (Jayson) Tatum's already at the peak, right?" said Scalabrine. "He had an off year because he was hurt, but the year before that, he was awesome, right? I would say the wings … like the Baylor Scheiermans, the Hugo Gonzálezes, the Jordan Walshes. I would say those three guys, (Payton) Pritchard is just going to get
more opportunity, right?"
"Tatum is going to be like handed the keys and it basically falls on him every night," added the NBC Sports Boston broadcaster. "But I would think like those three guys have a really good chance – I don't know."
Scal pointed to the unexpected success of last season to emphasize the difficulty of such a prediction. "I thought at the beginning of the year, the team was going to be – I don't know, six, seven to eight. I fell in love with that team, like last year's team. The wings were awesome. They played hard every single night."
"And in the playoffs … It's almost like we threw everything away. I hope that we keep the same personality, crashing the boards, flying around, playing that style. We were a hard-playing team. I hope that we continue that throughout the entire season, and whatever reason, the playoffs went sideways. I hope that doesn't happen again."
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Brian Scalabrine sees the next Boston Celtics breakout player coming from its wings
