I feel like Jrue and Hauser's ability to relocate has been a major factor while Grant's not ad good at it and that's why his efficiency has dropped.
Kristaps Porzingis to Celtics!!!!!
- Thread starter SoxJox
- Start date
And with this comment the entire lower bowl is now filled with the daughters of the Johnny Damon pink hatters the remainder of the season!!His feet are too big for the corner.
One thing I've been pretty happy is that his technical foul issues have completely fallen off. He had 6 techs as of November 11, after just 9 games. In the last 31 games he's picked up just two more techs, and he's now tied for 8th in technical fouls (with Tatum, among others).
Ha Potted Plant offense a classic
No more hunched over Grant & Smart just standing there with his outstretched hands, staring at the ball & waiting...
Jrue, Hauser, White, PP, OB are relentlessly cutting, relocating, & crashing.
Took a few weeks for Jrue to figure out his off-ball role, but going 44% from 3 is an unexpected bonus to the #1 rate offense.
KP/JT unlock a lot of that Corner3 action.
Adam Taylor with a deeper dive on JJ's comments:
https://thecelticschronicle.substack.com/p/deep-diving-into-jj-redicks-comments
Great piece from Adam Taylor & should be required reading.
It's time to let the crunch-time offense run through Tatum/KP. Let them cook.
Fun article here on the effect KP has on the Cs, focusing on the 3Q run against NYK on Saturday. One bit:
On the other end, Porziņģis communicates an off-ball switch, passing Hart off to Brown and picking up Precious Achiuwa, allowing him to stay closer to the paint, where he can step in to contest Brunson’s floater and force a miss. He’s developed into a monster rim protector, sitting fourth in the NBA in contested shots per game and ninth in blocks. Opponents are shooting just 59.8% inside the restricted area against Boston with Porziņģis on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass, which would rank No. 1 in the NBA over the course of the full season, and just 51.9% at the rim when he’s the nearest defender, according to Second Spectrum’s tracking data — the fifth-stingiest mark among the 195 players to contest at least 100 up-close tries.
Love going back (9 months later) and reading posts (post-KP trade)
This thread's first 8-9 pages are gold & pretty damn prescient.
Let's review the receipts:
1. KP is a TOP 25-30 player & has been a game-changing addition
2. Smart has played 20 forgettable games for Memphis
3. Draft picks + MB/TL turned into Jrue Holiday
4. Starting Derrick White is now a cusp All-Star
5. Muscala/Gallinari were sunk costs & eventually bought out
A lot of this board got it right. This site is excellent.
This thread's first 8-9 pages are gold & pretty damn prescient.
Let's review the receipts:
1. KP is a TOP 25-30 player & has been a game-changing addition
2. Smart has played 20 forgettable games for Memphis
3. Draft picks + MB/TL turned into Jrue Holiday
4. Starting Derrick White is now a cusp All-Star
5. Muscala/Gallinari were sunk costs & eventually bought out
A lot of this board got it right. This site is excellent.
I think most of the concerns that people had was prior to the Jrue deal. Once that was made many fans were sitting back nodding as if to say, “Yeah ok I get this now”
In aggregate yes, Marcus was really traded for Jrue and Brogdon/TL for Porzingis. The catch is when they acquired KP there was zero way of knowing Jrue would be available 60+ days later.
He’s been everything I expected, and then some.
I was amused reading back and seeing someone arguing with me that Porzingis isn’t a better shooter than Smart.
For sure.... but even as a stand alone deal with Smart for Porzingis and a bigger role for Brogdon, PP, and/or unknown newly acquired guard X, I think Brad was very comfortable making that trade. Porzingis is such a good fit for this team and objectively just so much better than Smart.
Things obviously fell into place even more when it turned out unknown newly acquired guard X was Jrue Holiday, but even if it was someone else less accomplished, the KP trade was a home run.
Yea, there were a bunch of good takes here (light reading before the start of the Warriors game
)The addition of draft picks & Brad publicly moving Malcolm, signaled that they weren't finished. Brad has no interest in drafting/developing late Firsts, they are trade currency. A follow-up deal was a foregone conclusion.
kudos to @Cellar-Door @lovegtm @Ed Hillel @Fishy1 @radsoxfan + several others
Zach Harper of The Athletic also gave the heist an "A" right away
Sitting out today with a quad, so clearly he was a waste of resources and will never be a factor when it counts the most.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39646639/celtics-kristaps-porzingis-quad-vs-warriors
Reader’s note: sarcasm
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39646639/celtics-kristaps-porzingis-quad-vs-warriors
Reader’s note: sarcasm
oh great now the Warriors will win and everyone will lose their minds for a couple weeks
At least we get to see X bang with Draymond some more.
He took one right in the quad Friday that I thought was a nutshot initially. Now, what I don't know is when someone needs a blow and doesn't want to run afoul of Silver, do they look for something in the prior game that isn't easily refuted?
100% imo. If you’re a contender and looking for games to get your stars out of you are going to be looking for every opportunity that arises to get it through without scrutiny.
The Celtics not allowing it to get close in crunch time really helped, because they were able to keep KP on the bench the rest of the game. Really helps the plausible deniability.
There is no other team for which I have this worry. Even the Heat.
(Yes, I know random stuff can happen. I'm talking about "large human goes insane" stuff.)
IIRC, I didn't like the eventual deal as much as I would have liked the proposed (but unavailable in the end) trade of Brogdon to the Clippers, KP to Boston, keep Smart. I thought we came out ahead there, unloading surplus for a big area of need. But then again, we would have likely been unable to acquire Holiday after having done so - I think Smart + TL wouldn't work financially, and we were out of tradable contracts unless we included like Horford or something. But I think that was a reasonable middle ground at the time: "I wish the Clippers hadn't gotten cold feet, because I would've preferred that trade... but either way, this is an upgrade". A view which is probably wrong in retrospect, as Smart has not delivered for Memphis and probably would not have delivered for us. But I think some fraction of posters were of a similar view - the big priority was unloading a malcontent Brogdon for a position of need, and getting rid of Smart was maybe something they were open to, but not something they were looking to do.Yea, there were a bunch of good takes here (light reading before the start of the Warriors game
The addition of draft picks & Brad publicly moving Malcolm, signaled that they weren't finished. Brad has no interest in drafting/developing late Firsts, they are trade currency. A follow-up deal was a foregone conclusion.
kudos to @Cellar-Door @lovegtm @Ed Hillel @Fishy1 @radsoxfan + several others
Zach Harper of The Athletic also gave the heist an "A" right away
The real heist was getting Holiday, in other words. Trading away a guard and getting KP was happening either way.
Is this where we talk about how KP is slowing the team down---just look what they did today when they get to play a game without him clogging up the court!
I'm guessing here, but even if Brogdon goes in the original deal I bet Brad is still trading Smart for Jones + 2 Firsts.
White played a lot better than Smart last season and it was time for Derrick to take over point.
Anyways, Jrue deal worked out magically. PDX did well under the circumstances so didn't feel it was a classic heist. PDX really should have moved Brogdon/TL to someone like Miami at the time and kept on adding draft assets. If you're going to tank, may as well go full speed ahead
I think PDX (and other teams like ATL) are waiting until this summer where teams like LAL and DAL will have 3 1st rounders to deal, not just one.
This I agree with, Portland did fine - it's that we basically heisted the entire league, beating them to the punch on an obviously available Jrue. Nobody moreso than the Bucks, clearly.
I think Miami is really the team that missed out. I don't know if they were still reeling from missing out on Dame or if Portland would even take the time to deal with Riley, but Jrue would've fit perfectly into their lineup, in a way that Rozier does not. He's basically a younger, bigger version of Kyle Lowry.
The Bucks were a net loss after Jrue landing with us. They had to have thought it might happen.
Remember that the Bucks were also trying to get Giannis to sign his extension--which the Dame trade acccomplished. I suspect they knew the Celtics were a possibility for Jrue, but it was only a 1/3 - 1/4 chance...and getting Giannis extended was worth it.
Credit to Brad for coming hard at Jrue and getting it done; I agree with you on the above for this season (but would do it again as Milwaukee because I get Giannis signed)