Celtics Summer League
- Thread starter wade boggs chicken dinner
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Poor basketball by the young Celtics. They are lucky not to be down 20 at the half. Too much hero ball, too many missed shots (both treys and layups), too many turnovers. Too much lazy defense going behind picks. Jaylen Brown has been underwhelming, and so has Nader for the second straight game.
Who cares? You want these guys all playing way out of their comfort zones. It should be hero ball.
They've managed 49 points in three quarters. I guess that's way out of my comfort zone.
That's the equivalent of 91 points in an NBA game since they only play 10 minute quarters. Not great, but not as bad as it seems.
Also, Tatum looks good, which seems to me the most important thing.
It's not that he is loose, he's just mechanical with the ball. You can see what he practices but it'snot second nature to him.
Also, from the little I saw of the UT-PHI game, it seems that Fultz does struggle with length as Exum was causing him problems in the first half (7 points,1-3 from 3P land). OTOH, if he's playing off the ball, he's going to hit a lot of jump shots as he seems to be deadly once he has a tiny amount of space.
Final numbers:
Tatum: 23 points (10/18 FG), 10 boards. Go watch his highlights. Now. We have drives. We have threes. We have a pump fake, then a three. We have dunks. We have fall aways. We have a ridiculous dunk off a rebound. We have a pass with his left hand right off the dribble.
Brown: 6 points, 8 boards. He seemed less assertive tonight.
Zizic: 6 points, 6 boards
Nader: 14 points
Ojeleye: 6 points, 3 boards
Fultz ended up with 23/5/5, with 0 steals
Tatum: 23 points (10/18 FG), 10 boards. Go watch his highlights. Now. We have drives. We have threes. We have a pump fake, then a three. We have dunks. We have fall aways. We have a ridiculous dunk off a rebound. We have a pass with his left hand right off the dribble.
Brown: 6 points, 8 boards. He seemed less assertive tonight.
Zizic: 6 points, 6 boards
Nader: 14 points
Ojeleye: 6 points, 3 boards
Fultz ended up with 23/5/5, with 0 steals
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Small sample size obviously, but Fultz and Tatum sure as shit look like 1A and 1B to me. Tatum is deceivingly quick.
One I've noticed about Ojeleye: his feet seem quick enough to stay in front of guards. For example, he was guarding Murray 1-1 on the perimeter and didn't break down. (He also did it on Monday night against a couple of PHI's guards - though mot Fultz - IIRC.). If that's his true ability and not just a fluke, when combined with his 3P shooting, which looks above average, he should be in the NBA for a while.
In fairness, Ball, Jackson, and Fox haven't played yet but I'm sure both Ainge and Colangelo are pleased with the early returns of their trade. Both of these guys look like future impact players.
That first move is vintage Paul Pierce. I'm excited. I also think his "lack of athleticism" is way overblown. Dude looks plenty athletic to me.
He lacks athleticism in the way that people said Jabari Parker lacked athleticism. If you don't jump out of the gym that is a knock against elite prospects but Tatum looks as athletic as he needs to be at the NBA level.
Just watched the first half (replay available on espn3 website in case anyone missed it). I don't watch college ball so I did not know what to expect with Tatum. He can ball man. He is in total control out there. There is zero bust potential, the only question is to upside.
Just watching the replay. Excited by Tatum and his PP-like game. OTOH, Zizic has been somewhat disappointing. I thought he'd be more athletic but instead,is a bit stiff and uncoordinated. But he can run the court and is really good at dunking, which I remember was emphacized in his publicity video.
Exum is BBQ chicken there. Wow.
I hope both these guys pan out - that would be something to see them dueling in an ECF a few years from now.
Tatum is smoooooooooth. Once he puts on some weight...damn, but he's already got the look. Knows how to measure a defender to get his shot up. Squares up to the basket on turnarounds and side-steps off the bounce and pull-ups. The smoothness belies his adequate athleticism, and once he adds some strength to go along with that footwork, this guy is going to score. Maybe sooner than expected, because in this offense he's going to have a lot of space to operate and get a lot of open catch-and-shoot looks, and he looks way more prepared than Jaylen did at this time last year. Cool customer.
25+ in a regular season NBA game? Not likely. If he provides some decent offense off the bench with the ocassional 10-15 point game, I'll be thrilled.
Absolutely. Brown gave the occasional 10-15 point game and Tatum is a lot more polished at that end. Celtics will likely have some games with big leads giving lots of PT for him.
I loved seeing him fake off the close-out on those three pointers and side-step to shoot an open look. He's far more polished than Jaylen and his handle is much tighter.
Yeah, KO dropped ~25 four times his rookie year. Tatum will for sure.
When he's on the floor with IT, Hayward and Horford, he's going to be wide open on the perimeter and running the baseline. Think about all the open looks JB and Jae had last year. On nights when he's feeling it, Tatum could easily go 4-6/5-8 from 3PT.. with a couple transition buckets and free throws mixed in, there's your 25 pts
KO played on a team without Al Horford or Gordon Heyward. How many 25+ games did Jaylen have last year? Zero. His high game was 20 points against Orlando on 1/27. I think you guys are (wet) dreaming, but I'd be thrilled to be wrong.
Edit: organization/spelling
With all those looks that Jae had he only hit for 25 one time all season and for 20 on 11 other occasions over his 90 regular and post season games......and that was without Hayward on the floor.
Anyone can have one night....shit, Acie Earl dropped 40 once.....but I'd be shocked if Tatum had more than one or two 20-point nights as a rookie even if those minutes somehow did open up for him.
I think you are severely overestimating how hard it is to score 25 points in a game. No one is saying he is going to average 25 a night.
I'm astounded about Acie Earl. He really hit 40 points in an NBA game? Against the Celtics, no less. As KG famously said, "Anythinggggg is possible."
Yep. Also if he can't learn his defensive rotations he won't see major minutes (which is hard for a rookie).
Tatum got a whole lot better in March. Is he better than he was in the ACC Tournament? Because he was terrific in those four games.