The reason why Korver was an All Star was because the Hawks were very, very good. I doubt the Celtics will be half of the team the Hawks were last year.
This is true, but the Hawks had what four All Stars last year as a result of that record?
* Jeff Teague: 15.9 PTS, 7.0 AST, 2.5 REB, 1.7 STL, 0.4 BLK, 46% FG, 34% 3PT, 86% FT
* Al Horford: 15.2 PTS, 7.2 REB, 3.2 AST, 0.9 STL, 1.3 BLK, 54% FG, 31% 3PT, 76% FT
* Paul Millsap: 16.7 PTS, 7.8 REB, 3.1 AST, 1.8 STL, 0.9 BLK, 48% FG, 36% 2PT, 76% FT
* Kyle Korver: 12.1 PTS, 4.1 REB, 2.6 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.6 BLK, 49% FG, 49% 3PT, 90% FT
None of those numbers really stand out as being All-Star worthy number if you look at them in isolation.
I don't expect Boston being a top 2-4 seed, but if they fall somewhere between 5-6 then teams who fall in that range tend to get a 'token' All-Star selection or two by default. If that happens for Boston, then which 1 or 2 players on the Celtics roster is most likely to make it?
Thomas is certain to have a big impact, but how often have you seen a bench player make an All-Star team? It's pretty rare. Even if you look at the 6MOTY winners over the years, I can't recall the last one that made it. Maybe Manu Ginobilli for the Spurs?
So chances are it would be one of the starters, and right now the starting lineup looks to be Smart, Bradley, Crowder, Lee, Zeller.
Out of those guys we can confidently say Crowder has no hope, and Zeller also has close to no hope.
That leaves Smart, Bradley and Lee.
Smart could have a breakout year potentially, but while I can see him having a much better year, I don't see him having anything close to an All-Star year.
That leaves Bradley and Lee, who I believe are the most "all-star worthy" players on the Celtics. Lee because he can have a massive impact on offense and on the boards. Bradley because he can have a huge impact on offense and on defense.
In fact looking at the results over the first two summer league games, David Lee and Avery Bradley seem to clearly stand out as the two best players on the team. I suspect that will carry over to the regular season, and I think those two guys will be the clear leaders of that first unit.
Again though, this all assumes that the improvements Bradley is showing in pre-season are not a fluke (the improved passing, ball handling, outside shooting) because if he's legitimately made huge improvements to those parts of his game, then he's going to be one hell of a player.