Welcome back to the Celtics season tipoff countdown!

Each day, we’ll give a review of news surrounding the Celtics. We’ll also look back in history to see what happened on today’s date in team history (August 31st). To round out the day’s post, we’ll give you stats and fun facts related to the number of days remaining before the first game (46 today). Let’s get to it!

Recent Team News

The NBA 2K19 Ratings for the entire starting lineup have been revealed for the Celtics. Kyrie Irving leads the unit with a 93 overall, followed by Gordon Hayward with an 88. Jayson Tatum is close behind with an 87, Al Horford has an 86, and Jaylen Brown rounds out the starting five with an 84. Hayward’s rating is the same as it was last year, while Tatum’s took a leap. The 20th installment of the iconic video game franchise is set to be released on September 11th.

Via NBA 2K/Twitter

Chris Forsberg of ESPN recently released an article detailed what occurred when Kyrie Irving was shipped up to Boston. There were a few interesting quotes from various Celtics. Brad Stevens said, “First of all, I didn’t think [the trade] was happening, and then, in about a 20-hour period, it went from, ‘I didn’t think it was happening’ to ‘Holy smokes, this might happen.” Stevens also told Forsberg, “The range of emotions were really wild because you would have no thought that Isaiah Thomas would ever be a part of a trade.” Danny Ainge added, when talking about the discussions within Boston’s top brass, “Everybody, unanimously, wanted to do it.”

Read the full article here.

On This Date

August 31, 1956: The Celtics claimed Andy Phillip off of the waivers. Phillip played for two seasons with Boston, averaging 19.3 minutes per game.

August 31, 2016: The Celtics waived John Holland. Holland did not appear in a game for the team.

Stats (2017-18)

  • Jaylen Brown averaged 46% shooting from the field.

On This Date

  • Aron Baynes is the first and only Celtics player to ever don the number 46.

 

That concludes today’s Countdown to Celtics Tipoff. Make sure to check back here tomorrow as the clock continues to tick towards the 2018-19 season!