Agreed. As I noted in the gamethread, the C's clearly have a road problem. If the standings hold - and there is essentially another half of season - they will play the 76ers with Philly holding home-court. And if they make it out of the first round, they will have to play just about everyone else on the road as well.
Really, he played 2 minutes and there was 2 plays in which Aaron Gordon had a full head of steam, and TimeLord fouled him? How did the rest of the team do against Aaron Gordon in the other 46 minutes tonight?
Disclaimer: Long time Kyrie fan here.
Ainge needs to look in the mirror and wondered how he allowed this to happen. Kyrie is frustrated and he lashed out today. After back to back garbage performances by a team that looked like it had turned things around, I think his frustration is understandable.
Kyrie is clearly clamoring for more veterans. He doesn’t seem to want to play with the Tatum’s, Brown’s, and Rozier’s of the world. Kyrie himself obviously isn’t getting traded and neither are Tatum and Brown. Rozier is obviously a possibility at this point. I don’t want Ainge making the 2019 equivalent of the Joe Johnson trade but he does have to keep Kyrie happy. It puts the team in a tough position.
I agree though I think what others are focusing on is that he said anything at all. We are so accustomed to players doing the sports cliche thing that when a person says something candid its news, even if the message is fairly tame.
The issue with waiting that long and allowing Tatum and Brown to continue regressing is the shine also goes off them. Would they be the most attractive players that NO could get if they put AD up for a trade? Right now yes, but who knows in 6 months.
I have been quietly banging the "Hayward might be a problem" drum all season but he's inked to a big contract and there's nothing to be done about it now.
I certainly don't think Tatum is regressing, nor will he "continue to regress". He's going through the typical growth curve most young NBA players go through. His decision making: when to pass, when to shoot, when to drive, what to do off the ball, etc. still needs work. But that takes most NBA players several years to perfect. It took Paul Pierce a few seasons, and he was 2 years older than Tatum when he came into the league.
I take it to mean that the minutes of the other guards and Tatum and possibly Morris would go up to make up for Rozier’s 20. I don’t think anyone really wants Wanamaker to take those minutes.
Whether anyone wants Wanamaker running the second unit or not that is who Brad has called on in two of the three games Kyrie has been out (when Rozier started) since Smart moved into the starting lineup with 22 and 18 minutes in those respective games.
This is true, as is the points about hitting an extra shot here or there, but the Celtics looked so bad last night in the 4th quarter in so many areas of the game. Their talent held them in it. If they were playing a marginally better team they would have been crushed.
It often starts with Kyrie, not the young players. The difference is that he's much better at it than they are.
In the Dallas game, where Wanamaker got 22 minutes, the Celtics entered Q4 up by 16 and won by 21 - so many of those minutes were garbage minutes.
Kyrie playing hero ball may very well be a symptom of the other players not being in the best position to take a pass from Kyrie, or Kyrie feeling such a pass would lead to a bad shot.
Agreed. The comments are not a good look by the so-called "team leader". Kyrie Game 7 MIA job and Gordon's earlier season comments about last years playoff run are not a good look. That may have Rozier/Brown/Tatum a bit jaded with their well-compensated teammates.
Attitude aside, I think Rozier is just getting too many minutes better given to Smart+wing players.
I'm still confused by what happened on that last play. Based on what Gordon Hayward said, it sounded like the play that was drawn up was a pass to Al, then Kyrie takes off in a sprint and Al passes/hands off to him. It was the same look they used in Phoenix earlier in the year. But instead, Gordon passed it to Tatum. Gordon said after the game that's what Kyrie was mad about.
I've been beating this drum in the game threads for a long time now. No, he absolutely cannot play a 9 man, 20 minute rotation come the playoffs. Frankly, he needs to stop doing it right NOW, IMO. Terry Rozier should not have been on the court in a game that wasn't decided last night, for 17 minutes. And Kyrie Irving and Tatum and Morris need to be playing more than 31-33 minutes a night in games that aren't blowouts.
I think there were multiple options: JT or the Al/Kyrie handoff. https://clutchpoints.com/celtics-news-brad-stevens-says-kyrie-irving-option-final-play/
Rozier sucks, but Kyrie is outperforming a strong majority of point guards defensively this season. If you don’t want to buy into advanced metrics (like DRPM, where he’s top 10 among PG), his traditional stats like steals and blocks are all the best of his career. And his hustle numbers are consistent with a greatly increased effort and focus defensively. He’s averaging 2.4 (up from 2.0 last year) deflections, 1.9 loose balls recovered (from 1.3), and .24 charges taken per game (from .10).
They weren't just missing Kyrie in the two games Wanamaker player big minutes.
