Curious what you're basing this on re: Kyrie. He certainly started slow but has come on very strong of late.
It was from watching games but I saw this on the C's own page.
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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25209864/boston-celtics-not-concerned-sluggish-offense-first-10-games-season
Well played.Down 25-10 late 1st coming off two losses in Phoenix. Brad has his work cut out for him here.
20 points midway through the 2nd quarter. This is precisely what this team and/or Ainge needed! How this team responds in the 2nd half and/or tomorrow night in Utah will tell us all everything we need to know about this team.
Fortunately we have the worlds greatest coach to put the ball in the basket.
The 2nd half last night was the initial reaction phase to that disgusting first half of basketball. How do they come out tonight......will last night be a wake-up call or do they become complacent after getting the win while continuing to struggle with the same issues they have for most of the season?
They would need someone to replace Rozier, who is/was supposed to be the knockdown shooter off the bench who could come in for 20-25 minutes a game and bomb away. He shot 38% from 3 last year and is currently at 43% this year. Unfortunately, this year he's decided to take more mid range jump shots for some reason so it's hurting his overall FG%. He's shooting 34% from 2. On a positive note, at least he's continuing to improve his numbers from within 3 feet. .355-->.469-->.535-->.600.
Kyrie along with Ainge and other staff members went to pay respects to Jaylen Brown's jumpshot.
The NBA, I believe under Kiki Vandeweghe's guidance (but I could be wrong), have began producing many of their own advanced stats however I can't find anything on deflections or other "hustle" stats that the league or a site are publishing. When I was in Las Vegas for one of the summer leagues a few years ago, the Dunn draft of 2016, the league had a team tracking several hustle stats with one of them including deflections. It was a joke among our group of Rhode Islanders when someone mentioned Kris Dunn scoring well in this area while diminutive guard Bryce Cotton was in our group getting chided about possibly never having a deflection in his career. I don't recall ever seeing these published though.
Nba.com. Semi has one recorded deflection.
It's not about acquiring things so much as dumping an offensive mouth to feed. They have better players who can get better shots or move the ball. Terry was effective last year because all their better options were hurt. But now I'd rather have Kyrie, Hayward (once healthy) and Tatum having more offensive responsibilities. Rozier is a malcontent black hole and it's likely infecting everyone. Trade him for a future pick, pass first guard or a 3-pt specialist who can space the floor for others.
Not loved by C fans, but Pitino is probably one of the 5 greatest college coaches of all-time. Turned four separate programs around. Being a Cuse fan/grad I've been watching him up close since the early 80s. Not sure if you read it but I'd recommend Rick's book Success is a Choice.
For your first point, you have to play Hayward as a starter both for ego reasons and because it is ultimately the unit we expect to start in the playoffs. Losing a handful of extra regular season games is a small price to pay to maintain role consistency.
You're kind of making my point. There isn't much of a sample size of Baynes and Horford playing together since Brad has them both playing the 5. Last year when Aron started with Al, they played well together. Aron did the dirty work on both offense and defense, took the pounding from the other team's big man and Al effectively guarded big wings.
I’m sorry but considering Kyrie was going to a memorial service for his grandfather this is a dick Post.
Gets marginally better when you include the bench because Morris and Rozier are hitting 3s at better rates than any of the starters.
Cook shot 47% from 3 in the 18 games he started in place of Curry last year while avg 15/4/4. This offense is ideal for his skillset which consists primarily of locating space off the dribble to get off a clean look from 3 more than Cook not being a great shooter.
Plus Bogut and Ezeli before that. To answer your (rhetorical) question:
Briefly (since the Cook phenomenon is also be discussed in the NBA Game Thread): he was undrafted out of Duke in 2015, likely due to his small frame and lack of elite quickness. Found a place in the G-League, and has impressed everywhere he's been, including Portland, ME with the Red Claws. Had a cup of coffee in the NBA in New Orleans and Dallas (both of whom were fairly glutted with small guards who could shoot) before Bob Myers and his scouting staff took a flier on him. I wouldn't give Myers too much credit for being a genius in this instance, though — they signed him to a non-guaranteed two-way deal, and I don't think they really knew what they had in him till Curry went down.
Not exactly apples-to-apples, since the Ws have another (nearly) full-sized rotation C in Kevon Looney, who's been getting 17 minutes a game.
Where is all this "punishment" and "wear and tear" on Horford at the 5 as if he's some undersized SF being asked to play out of position? Horford has played the 5 throughout his career when the league had back-to-basket 5's putting a "physical punishment" on poor ole Al. Playing Baynes and Horford regularly together to start games with exception toward a small number of particular matchups sounds like an awful idea with how the NBA game is played today as one of them will surely be at a disadvantage defending out of position. I mean Horford wasn't asked to chase perimeter players out at the 3-point line while defending them off the dribble when he was younger.....this sounds like a horrible and idea unfair to him to asking him to do this now.
100% this. Thanks for some insight into how it works for the Warriors.
Thanks. I mean, HRB makes good points about asking a lot of Horford to guard the perimeter, too. I know Horford’s not as switchable as Draymond, but I’ve always thought of him as athletic and switchable enough to play alongside another big for 10-12 minutes a game without getting killed, unless you’re playing against a real 5-out three-point bombing team.
Why would you expect this when we've seen Horford play his entire career at the 5 with nearly identical pre and post-ASB numbers with his playoff numbers also eerily similar to those of the regular season?
SRN, you've completely articulated my thoughts on the use of Horford/Baynes. Its situational for me. Detroit/Philly, Baynes starts on Drummond/Embiid. I had this same issue during the EC playoff finals with the Cavs last year. I wanted Brad to match up Baynes when Tristan Thompson was playing. Brad was a little slow on that trigger (not that it was the reason for losing the series).
I think there's a case for starting Baynes in certain matchups, but beyond that I agree with you.
Wild shade at Horford IMO
I don't see this to do with Horford at all and directed at Ainge to make some roster moves for veterans. It's clearly in reference to the Lakers going on a little run since adding Tyson Chandler imo rather than running out a third of their rotation with 21-year olds playing for their first contract.
