The other, semi-quiet upgrade is giving White more responsibility and crunchtime minutes, removing any ambiguity about closing lineups (at least at G). Last year, all too frequently we'd see those minutes given to Smart or Brogdon who just aren't as good as White but had a greater "pedigree."
Absolutely. There will definitely be a lot more difficult matchups than what we're seeing right now, but the C's lost last year to the Bulls a couple times, the Magic a few times, they lost to this Indiana team, they lost to the Wizards, etc.
His son apparently wrote a book on him that should at least be entertaining.
Darrell Griffith led the NBA in 83-84 with 91 3PM.
That would be a helluva finishing piece. Just takes a little Brad + Danny + Kelly's Agent backroom tinkering.
Always felt Marcus dragging opposing PGs down to the block and working from there was a good option for Smart. Wish we would have seen more of that.
Brogdon is better in a vacuum, but in the non-vacuum, he costs $22M to PP's $4M this year and $7M thereafter.
Agree. I didn't have time to do this yesterday but compare that picture to this picture from G6 against MIA. It's amazing how much space teams were willing to give Marcus and Al.
The spacing is great but lets not act like its totally novel for this team. They use 5 out for years. a quick youtube search and I find the same spacing in like 20 seconds: View: https://youtu.be/Be00j_TqYcw?si=z1RlAc8kN8wQ9na4&t=73
Yes, and now the 5 who are out are much better shooters, which makes a big difference.
Assuming Utah is a seller at the deadline I wouldn't imagine Olynyk remains. The match here makes too much sense and we have the salary fodder of those on our deep bench who haven't grasped a role on the team.
This is just how Miami plays their zone defense, its pretty unique and they generally have very high wings and as a result give up a ton of 3s but also generate a lot of turnovers.
Miami often deployed a kind of matchup zone and might still defend us similarly in a playoff scenario. We struggle a lot with their length and really struggled to break their zone concepts so while it is nice to have better shooters we are probably still vulnerable to going cold against the way they play us. Better to have better shooters taking those shots of course but I think the talk about post ups (although hard to post a zone) and having more ways to attack the way they defend would be more important in a 7 game series. We aren’t likely to simply out talent teams late in the playoffs and need to use the regular season to prepare better for the scenarios the team will face
100%. Marcus was fantastic on the block. Seeemed like every time he'd score or find an open shooter.
He really does look great and a career year shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but he's the biggest candidate (by far) for regression after the first few games. Shooting .579 from 3 and .733 from 2, those would be insane for anyone and both marks are nearly 200 points higher than they were last year (and last year was the best shooting season of his career). All five starters have played like all-stars thus far, if they keep this up (or something close to it) I'm curious to see how many of them make it.
That's a different conversation.
The basic positions are MIA's zone but the distance away from the shooters is set by the particular matchup. For example, see this from the game last week. Both Love and Lowry are at least one step, maybe two steps closer to KP and Jrue than the defenders were to Smart and Horford in G6. Note that this possession ended in a Jrue 3P when Tatum threw him the ball at shoulder height and Jrue never brought the ball down and just shot over Lowry (as opposed to Smart, who has a big dip in his jump shot as we analysed many moons ago).
Yea, I am just saying you see the same defensive spacing in that video clip. We are definitely more threatening this year.
Sorry missed your first response. Let's take the play that you posted. I think that's Jarrett Allen guarding Horford. His foot is basically on the lane line - which is what 3 feet closer to the lane than what was occurring last night against IND. Plus, if you let the play continue, when JT drives the ball, Allen's first step is towards the lane. JT gets rid of the ball at a good time, which leaves us with the picture below.
CJM using PP as a high-energy player to pressure the ball in the backcourt also slightly narrows the PP/MB role divide.
Do we have the salaries to make that work? I think Kelly would have to be bought out by Danny. Then again, who knows what Brad could string together?
Look I don't wanna get too pedantic about this, we all agree KP and Jrue have more gravity than Horford and smart.
Definitely agree with your last statement but as for spacing, the screenshots are just an example but I agree that we should all focus on the actual plays. The example I showed my son is the play below. Note KP's and JB's defenders hugged up on them. So White does a simple curl and by the time Toppin reacts, White is in the lane driving to the basket and Toppin is only beginning to recover. But also note that there is absolutely no help from the other two defenders. So White just has to beat Toppin and he does for a layup. And even if he didn't, JT is being guarded by the shortest player on the court in the post.
There is no way for the Celtics to acquire Olynyk's $12.2M salary, given that the team can no longer aggregate outgoing salaries due to being above the final apron. So a buyout is the only way to make it happen. But he does just sneak under the $12.4M threshold for a buyout target, so there's that.
They can aggregate this year, not next. The Clippers just aggregated to acquire Harden.
Thanks for this as those UNLV teams (Paddio plus Gilliam and Banks) drew me in as well. Will need to go back and read all those articles.
I think almost all those guys are more likely to be trade candidates than buyout guys
Clearly, the NBA doesn't allow under-the-table deals
Correct. We’re potentially in for the wildest trade deadline and draft night dealings we’ve seen in a loooooong time as teams lock themselves into whichever CBA straight jacket they deem most advantageous to their 3ish year plans
Yes if he's the target. It depends if we have injuries where we need a guy like him or are simply looking to upgrade our bench. Like I'd say Horford goes down we will likely be packaging guys to be sure we acquire a comparable replacement.
I feel like the 2 plays against Miami starting at 1:45 in this video are new to his game / his role / his standing with the Celtics.
That's fairly tough to make the money work--how many min guys are you packaging? I think that kind of aggregation is possible post Dec 15, but still.
He also seems much more willing to take (and is making) the pull up 3 in transition. The team as a whole seems to be feasting on those.
If we are looking to dump a couple of those backend guys it can be done w 2-3 depending who they are. Whoever is 11-15 on the depth chart can easily be moved as it would also give us the opportunity for a buyout guy or two. All I'm saying is that we could add him for little cost but if a big went down we have the pieces to do it sooner and quicker
That finish on the move at 1:45 looked like Sam Cassell. I know Scal has mentioned Sam has worked with Tatum on posting up but I assume he’s working with the guards too and the early results are promising.
Regularly last night, Sam Cassel was up off the bench spending time one on one between whistles, or during free throws, with Tatum, White and Jrue at different points. I noticed it because he was standing over by the end of where the coach can stand toward halfcourt, and I did a double take when I realized it wasn't Joe there.
If I am understanding the CBA correctly, teams over either tax apron can only take back up to 110% of outgoing salary in a trade this year. Olynyk make $12.195 this season, so the C's would have to send out $11.087 to trade for him. Nobody on the deep bench makes more than Kornet at $2.4, so you would have to aggregate all of Kornet/Brissett/Svi/Stevens/Banton/Walsh to trade for Olynyk. I think to make a trade work you would have to trade for some ballast with the Grant TPE, wait out the 60 day trade restriction, and then trade the acquired ballast with 3 of the bench mob in a 4-for-1. So it's doable, but incredibly unlikely. I think the more likely option for a 3rd big, that I know has been brought up in another thread, is that Chicago implodes and the C's flip a 2nd for Drummond (who, while obviously a different skillset, DARKO has rated rougly equivalent to Al and only makes $3.36).
My new favorite stat for Celtic in-game enjoyment.
So much balance among the C's starters that his scoring numbers might be a little off from last year, but he's got an opportunity to rack up some assists and rebounds and be a near triple double guy.
Having the best record in the league, especially by margin, can go a long way in getting him there too but it will take nothing short of an injury to get past Jokic.
I would not mind Olly returning to the Celtics as the 9th player in the rotation. Last year in 29 minutes and 68 games he averaged 12.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4 assists. He shot 39.4% on 3 pointers. If any current bench player did that SoSH would be happy as hell.
