The Boston Celtics made quite a run in this year’s playoffs even without Kyrie Irving. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals and pushed the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers to the limit despite only being led by the young pair of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and with Terry Rozier covering the hole temporarily left by Irving.
The Celtics can have a better finish next season with Irving expected to make a full recovery from a minor knee surgery done on him last March. In fact, Irving has now been cleared to participate in on-court activities and is even now doing 1-on-1 drills, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Windhorst made that report while he was in Las Vegas on Thursday. Irving and plenty of other NBA stars attended Thursday’s Team USA minicamp under the watch of San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Irving even dropped some ball-handling wisdom earlier today, teaching Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Victor Oladipo a few tricks to navigate through the paint on offense.
Boston is excited at what lays ahead of the team with Irving and Gordon Hayward expected to play an entire season together after a lengthy and painful delay. Those pair of veterans combined with the much improved and vastly matured set of Celtics youngsters are going to be a problem in the Eastern Conference. Boston is even currently considered as the top favorite to rule the East, according to most sportsbooks.
Last season, Irving played in 60 games and averaged 24.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists over that span.
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