Heh. But it really tis the season to let the kids play, without the typical home court advantage anticipated for the playoffs. I know I’d sacrifice a couple of wins if it means getting Nesmith, Pritchard and/or Romeo more prepared for meaningful minutes. The top priority should be getting to the playoffs healthy, particularly for Kemba. If we can get the young guns some developmental minutes in the process, all the better.
I’m not looking forward to all the takes about how <insert random vet here> would be getting more wins now, while simultaneously lamenting nothing happening with 1st rounders.
Oh it’s coming. I’ll do my part and promise to limit my tiresome takes rueing the passing on Desmond Bane, Xavier Tillman, or Isaiah Joe to once per every other game thread.
Strus tore his ACL in his second game with the Bulls. I don't think this reflects much of anything from the Bulls' perspective.
He was 26/27 in the G League from FT line, 36/117 from 3. I don't think either sample size is indictive of anything.
Just caught up watching the BRK game and one thing I noticed was how young BOS is. BRef doesn't have rosters up yet as they are not finalized but poking around, seems like BOS/DEN should be 1-2 in youngest playoff contenders. And with Kemba not playing early, the Cs are functionally going to be even younger.
There wasn't really enough offseason for guys to take those leaps, so there will be a lot of guys figuring it out (or not) on the fly over the course of the year.
guilty as charged.
But the team that won the EC wasn’t that team. Only three of the top eight in total minutes were under 28.
it was a follow up subtweet
February to June was the offseason, and I think it was actually likely to be even more impactful than a normal offseason since guys didn't have to worry about meshing with new coaches, new teammate, new systems, new roles etc.
Doesn't bum me out, as long as the early shot clock heat checks aren't part of the good shot repertoire. Guys, including Smart, GW and Theis, have to take open shots or else the offense just gums up.
When I take great shots I’m a great shooter is an all time great quote. Fire away Marcus
What you or I or the average basketball fan considers "open" is likely different within the Celtics organization - there are shots they want all players to take, some shots that only go to a few guys and then the stupid ones which pretty much go to Tatum, Brown, Smart and maybe Kemba. This means that we may get more of those "no! no! no!" shots early in the shot clock when Smart has the ball and space. However if it means fewer contested/mid-shot clock shots, then so be it.
They're going to run a lot of primary offense through Tatum; that writing has been on the wall for awhile.
They really need Jaylen to step up in the half court. He gets a lot of good transition buckets or pull ups but we need him to be a creator as well. This is also probably why Smart has the green light. I think he might average 14-15 ppg this year with the added volume.
Holy Hot Take! Marcus is one of the best post-up player on the Cs right now and certainly when he runs PnR, he takes and makes a lot of 2Ps.
This is fascinating because last year his pull-up and catch-and-shoot numbers flipped so do they really not want him taking pull-ups? This is a trend that bears watching because it really will tell you how the Celtics organization feels about certain shots (of course it also is tied to a specific individual so it may be hard to divine too much information) but if he is still taking those early pull-ups that Forsberg references, its likely a shot the Cs want him taking. We really cannot discuss what are good and bad shots from a macro level until/unless we have an idea of what the C's consider good and bad.
I think that we can analyze Marcus with analytics and logic until the cows come home, but none of it will make much sense until the offense settles into some kind of rhythm and identity.
He also attempted considerably more 2's last year than the previous year, although it is more in line with his career numbers. 2019 was the outlier by far. He also has been taking less 2 pointers ratiowise.
Agree on the general point but - going from memory here so I'm sure someone will correct me if my memory is faulty - but isn't Brad on record saying that he never tells people not to shoot because he would hated that when he was a player?
BRef doesn't have statistics out yet but I would suspect that BOS is among the youngest playoff contenders in the league this year. This year is going to be bumpy.
A player without a green light would be like playing 4 vs 5 basketball. I get some players don't get the ball on offense much because they are dreadful but I can't imagine them not having a green light. Most players play within their means.
Smart has missed two of every three shots he’s taken in his career from 3-10 feet. It’s the worst part of his game. Theoretically, he could be a beast on the post against most covers, but unless they plan on posting him up a lot, with him getting to the rim, that part of his game is pretty inconsequential.
