You know Jake Issenberg from our Playback channel and his First To The Floor podcast and now, he’s joining CelticsBlog as a writer. Make sure to check out his first piece on Jayson Tatum and his late season shooting slump.
What got you into basketball and the Celtics?
My love for basketball and the Boston Celtics can be attributed to three people: my dad, John Havlicek and Larry Bird. My dad, who grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, had his basketball mind molded by the 70s and 80s Celtics. Just today we were going back and forth on whether or not Giannis’ Bucks will go down as a historic Celtics rival. I said absolutely. Dad was on the fence. He did of course take the opportunity to remind me that the 1974 Finals series between the Celtics and Kareem’s Bucks was his favourite series ever. Then somewhere between John Havlicek’s last All-Star appearance and Larry Bird’s rookie year, my dad moved to Australia, which is how my family ended up as the biggest Celtics fans on a single continent.
My love of basketball is easily traced and was obvious from the beginning. From Space Jam, NBA Live 2003 on XBOX, I’m ashamed to admit the Lakers were my most played team (cut me some slack — I was 10), playing basketball every year of my life as a *very* undersized combo guard, to starting a basketball podcast in Jayson Tatum’s rookie year. From the jump I have loved both the game of basketball and the culture surrounding it.
What are your strengths and/or favorite topics as a writer?
Basketball is fun. I think basketball content should be fun. Getting swept up in the emotions of sports is part of being a fan but even amidst the pain of a Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat in 2023, we can try to laugh through the pain. That’s the way I try to write. I am looking forward to laughing through more glorious victories as the Celtics bring back the best roster in the NBA.
What is your bold prediction for the coming season?
As far as bold predictions for the 2024/2025 Boston Celtics go, it’s hard to be bold about a team that just won 64 games and had one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history. But I will focus on maybe the most underrated role player in the NBA, Sam Hauser.
I’m not sure the basketball world fully grasped how well Sam Hauser played in the NBA Finals. He did the thing that got him in the NBA, shot the piss out of the ball – 47.8% from 3 for the series. On the other end Hauser was targeted by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving relentlessly and held up better than any non-Celtics fan would ever expect.
I say non-Celtics fans because Celtics fans already knew what Hauser was capable of when it comes to isolation defense. You don’t want to come into the Hause Trap. This type of impact for a 7th or 8th man is not easy to find. It will be hard to quantify Sam Hauser’s leap into Elite Role Player territory. He won’t make the All-Star team. He won’t make an All-Defense team. But he will continue to impact winning at a high level as Hauser continues to develop his game and exceed expectations.
This upcoming season, I’m looking at Hauser to continue improving his secondary playmaking and ability to score when he gets run off the line. If we want to nail down some numbers: last season Hauser played 22 minutes per game and averaged 9 points on 62.6% true shooting to go along with 3.5 rebounds and 1 assist. I’d like to see those numbers bumped up to 28 minutes per game – 14 points – 5 rebounds – 2.5 assists on 60% or better true shooting. Sure, Tre Murphy and Naji Marshall are the sexy role players people are talking about this offseason, but it’s Sam Hauser’s time to become the role player every team wishes they had.
