I've been a IBWT guy for 20 years. To paraphrase the great Col. Jessup, I don't give a DAMN what answers the fans think that they're entitled to. Double that for the reporters.
2022-2023 General Celtics thread
- Thread starter RorschachsMask
- Start date
They need to figure out how to maximize the value to the team of all of these players, which is a legitimately hard thing to do when your top 8 includes 3 point/combo guards and 2 ballhandling wings.
as @lovegtm noted getting the ball into Smart/DW hands as the primary initiators on offense is a good place to start. Combine quick decisions with player/ball movement. That's when this team is at its best.
I'd like to see less Point Jaylen ISO initiating from the top in the half-court. JB's offense hums when he receives the ball on the move, attacks the rim, pulls up for a jumper, or immediately moves it. This also applies to Tatum, but to a slightly lesser extent, since he's good at baiting doubles and creating 4-3 attacks for others.
I like Nekias Duncan - he put up a nice video with 4 different options the Celtics ran out of a stagger set up
View: https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1625929636415668249?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1625929636415668249?s=20
Is Mikal Bridges any better than Derick White? I ask because apparently MEM offered 4 1st round picks for him (and got rejected), while BOS got White for one 1st, a forever injured, and currently injured Romeo, and a swap that has about a 95% chance of not being a swap.
I was going to ask the same thing about Jrue (I know it's a bad time after he lit us up, but a lot of that was a 3-point heater). I think Jrue is definitely better than White, but how big is the gap? It's not that big.
Bridges is better in that he can guard more positions and disrupts things more with his length. But it's not a huge gap.
The takeaway here is that the Celtics probably need to find ways to feature White more, and get him to play with this level of responsibility and aggression. At the least, he should be taking initiation duties away from Jaylen pretty much always.
Bridges is not any better IMO. Jrue definitely is.
edit: the fact that this is a debate shows how valuable and underrated White is.
edit: the fact that this is a debate shows how valuable and underrated White is.
There is a great level of disconnect even around the more knowledgeable people compared to NBA execs, coaches, and their data on how we undervalue long agile switchable wings in todays game. I’ve heard people downplay Bridges, Hachimura, and I’ll even include Nesmith, value in more than one board or Discord. Is Derrick an equal or better player than Bridges? Even if it’s close the positional value of the player weighs much heavily to Bridges than we credit it.
I’ve always leaned that way which is why I like how Hachimura fits the Lakers and what he did on Giannis last week made me smile but Nesmith continuing to start and play major minutes while many games playing 4-on-5 really opened my eyes to this trend. I think many are undervaluing Grant as well and will be surprised at either what he’s offered and/ what we pay him this summer.
I'm pretty onboard with this, and should probably emphasize Bridges' value more.
2nded. The off ball movement and quick passing has really created a mostly beautiful offense to watch. Kudos to Mazzula for getting them to this point.
Your love for Hachimura is bordering on creepy
Last week against the Bucks he was -10 in 32 minutes and Giannis put up 38/10/6
Ah the single game +/- angle. This is a great example of how numbers lie and how well he defended/protected the rim that game.Your love for Hachimura is bordering on creepy
Last week against the Bucks he was -10 in 32 minutes and Giannis put up 38/10/6
Brogdon having a good game after playing 39 last night seems like a good sign. RW needing a day off after 13, not so much.
Go
His article on White is good as well: https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-appreciating-scale-derrick-white-play-boston-celtics-eastern-conference-player-of-the-week-jayson-tatum-marcus-smart
od breakdown, thanks for posting.
His article on White is good as well: https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-appreciating-scale-derrick-white-play-boston-celtics-eastern-conference-player-of-the-week-jayson-tatum-marcus-smart
Nekias is part of why I’ll never quit Twitter. He watches an insane amount of basketball.
I didn’t watch, but Marcus filling up the boxscore is encouraging. He may have heard the White whispers.
I didn’t watch, but Marcus filling up the boxscore is encouraging. He may have heard the White whispers.
Since the highlights above didn't do justice to Tatum's 3rd quarter:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZx5WL4fVFE&ab_channel=NBAonESPN
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZx5WL4fVFE&ab_channel=NBAonESPN
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Marcus was his patented basketball terrorist self tonight. It was a joy to watch.
Hachimura has 300 games of garbage basketball in this league. What are we doing here? He's 25 and hasn't improved at all. I'm starting to think that this is the Andrew Wiggins effect. Anyone with an NBA body might turn into someone someday in the right situation.Your love for Hachimura is bordering on creepy
Last week against the Bucks he was -10 in 32 minutes and Giannis put up 38/10/6
Rob never returned to the game either. Very bad sign both short and long term.
The optimistic view is that it is indeed Rob's angle (as per the injury reports), and that the coaches felt no need to potentially risk a knee injury while attempting to play through a sprained ankle, which can indeed happen. Especially given it was a meaningless game against a bad opponent that will be followed by several days off.
The pessimistic view is that either the team is covering up a high ankle sprain (unlikely they would bother to do that) or his knee is bothering him and the staff is just using the coincidental ankle soreness as a cover.
I'll forever be grateful that Philly was sitting on Mikal Bridges/Shai but decided to trade the pick for Zhaire Smith and a future Miami first, which I believe they sent away in the Tobias Harris deal.
Even at the time, this was quite a bit worse than the Fultz deal. It was the ultimate, "The mystery box could contain everything, even a boat!" trade in the last decade. They had two ready-made starters sitting there for a contending team and opted for one of the highest upside, lowest floor guy in the draft.
Yup. The Sixers had a real window before Simmons flaked out and they blew it. What makes it funnier was that Bridges' mom literally worked for the Sixers. Couldn't have the perfect complement to Embiid/Simmons fall into their lap any better and they blew it on an extremely raw prospect who played 13 NBA games.
He was, but one of his steals involved a blatant foul that the refs chose to ignore. Maybe it was a "Welcome back, Marcus" gift.
Coach Joe has officially earned the job:
View: https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1626233952968253440?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1626233952968253440?s=20
How do they do that if Udoka is still technically in the role?
He didn't start and I'm not sure he would have dressed if the manpower situation wasn't so dire.
They also thought they had a better chance with another shooter out there; hence, Muscala was overused and, at his age, Griffin was sort of (24 minutes). Kornet only played two.
Came in when Mil. was at the foul line; may have done that one other time as well; and he was in just as briefly.
I've seen a few reports that Udoka is no longer a Cs employee: https://hoopswire.com/celtics-notes-jaylen-brown-ime-udoka-jayson-tatum/
No word of terms of separation though.
Given that Tatum is blatantly fouled about seven times every time he drives into traffic I don’t think it’s that big a deal.
love that Cs are finding new ways of getting JT the ball when defense is compromised, like having him be the roll man. Good descriptions of actions here: https://www.celticsblog.com/2023/2/18/23605328/operating-as-the-roll-man-is-jayson-tatum-latest-weapon-boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-marcus-smart
edit: just saw benhogan posted in JT thread too!
edit: just saw benhogan posted in JT thread too!
Tatum can get easy buckets in these type of schemes. I prefer this kind of action over him dribbling the ball over the timeline, setting the offense with five defenders staring at him in help position. When JT gets easy points in transition and off action where others set him up is when he really piles up the point totals. In a recent game against the Pistons, his outside shot wasn’t falling early, but he was 8-9 inside the paint before he made a barrage of long jumpers in the second half to help salt away that game.
Tatum catching the ball at the FT line, either on the move, or with a defender sealed off, is quite a problem to a defense.
It also might make the minute that play occurs less taxing than the one where he has the ball full court, perhaps leading to less late fatigue in big-minute games.
I think this is one area that JM has got them playing improved basketball over last year. The offensive movement and complexity seems another level. Maybe he can help the Patriots in the off season.
I guess this might as well be in here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bmu-LRFNBA&ab_channel=NBA
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bmu-LRFNBA&ab_channel=NBA
As a Celtics fan, what's a better all star game memory than this?
View: https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1627514878633312256
View: https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1627514878633312256
I'll be reporting this post.We’ll be seeing plenty of that matchup in the 2028 Celtics Lakers finals
Nope. The Spurs will oust LAL in the semis, led by some 2nd round pick they gained in a swap several years earlier.We’ll be seeing plenty of that matchup in the 2028 Celtics Lakers finals
Agree with this and it's been reported on several occasions that JMazz is taking soccer concepts of movement and trying to apply them to the Cs offense. I wish some intrepid reporter or blogger would break that down more, maybe by talking to assistant coaches.
It's also amazing to think about what the Cs offense looked like some 14 months ago.
From Zach Lowe's Power Rankings at The Athletic:
1st Q: +11.4 net rating (previous: +18.6) | Ranked 2nd (previous: 1st)
2nd Q: +4.9 net rating (previous: +5.9) | Ranked 8th (previous: 7th)
3rd Q: +5.4 net rating (previous: +8.1) | Ranked 5th (previous: 4th)
4th Q: +4.2 net rating (previous: +1.7) | Ranked 6th (previous: 12th)
Clutch: +13.7 net rating (previous: +8.0) | Ranked 3rd (previous: 12th) | 26 games (18-8) (Previous: 11 games, 8-3)
Takeaway: Maybe the Celtics should be the top team in the Power Rankings, but considering the injuries, it felt fine to knock them all the way down to third. It’s crazy how this team just doesn’t have a bad quarter throughout the game. Almost the best first quarter team, a top-eight second quarter team, top-five in the third, and then they don’t even let you win garbage time against them. If you are fortunate enough to get to a clutch situation, they’re running that too. Feels like Jayson Tatum gets pushed out of these MVP conversations too easily right now, when he could be leading it.
Nice to see how well they've done in "clutch" time, 3rd best in the league, 18-8 in close games. I feel like that translates well to playoff basketball.
https://theathletic.com/4188841/2023/02/20/nba-power-rankings-week-19/
1st Q: +11.4 net rating (previous: +18.6) | Ranked 2nd (previous: 1st)
2nd Q: +4.9 net rating (previous: +5.9) | Ranked 8th (previous: 7th)
3rd Q: +5.4 net rating (previous: +8.1) | Ranked 5th (previous: 4th)
4th Q: +4.2 net rating (previous: +1.7) | Ranked 6th (previous: 12th)
Clutch: +13.7 net rating (previous: +8.0) | Ranked 3rd (previous: 12th) | 26 games (18-8) (Previous: 11 games, 8-3)
Takeaway: Maybe the Celtics should be the top team in the Power Rankings, but considering the injuries, it felt fine to knock them all the way down to third. It’s crazy how this team just doesn’t have a bad quarter throughout the game. Almost the best first quarter team, a top-eight second quarter team, top-five in the third, and then they don’t even let you win garbage time against them. If you are fortunate enough to get to a clutch situation, they’re running that too. Feels like Jayson Tatum gets pushed out of these MVP conversations too easily right now, when he could be leading it.
Nice to see how well they've done in "clutch" time, 3rd best in the league, 18-8 in close games. I feel like that translates well to playoff basketball.
https://theathletic.com/4188841/2023/02/20/nba-power-rankings-week-19/
Thats interesting. A number of years ago, coaching high school AAU basketball, I tried to implement some of Spain’s tika-taka style. I wanted the offense to have lots of movement and rapid passing. I wanted to get away from standard AAU offenses that revolve around individual one on one play.
Obviously it looked different in basketball than in soccer (plus the players were obviously less skilled), but it did work in some ways. It didn’t work in others of course. It was so different than what the players were used to but on the occasions when it clicked, defenses were pretty helpless because they, too, had never seen anything like it.
Thanks for posting. I didn't watch the game but wanted to see the 3rd qtr J on J ASG dick swing.
That has great.