Each Players Performance

celticsnut · Post #1 » by **celticsnut** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:16 pm

Figured I would give my two cents on each player from last night...

Pierce - He looks to literally be in the best shape I have ever seen him. He is quicker, seems to have more lift. Jumper looks solid and his D is still great. I am never not comfortable with the ball in his hands late. The high screen and roll late in games will kill teams.

Ray - He is a turnover machine. Made a couple nice jumpers but other than that i thought played pretty awful.

Perk - I love that 12-15 foot jumper from the baseline. He will get that shot all season. He looks real skinny compared to last year and could stuggle a but with huge players like Shaq, but I thought he made a great adjustment on the Diesel after the first quarter.

Rondo - His defense and rebounding are awesome. For the first time maybe ever he was fighting over and under screens. Bascially put Mo in check the entire game. He will average 10+ assists no doubt this season.

KG - The lift and stride still isnt there but it will come. I actually thought he played soft. If he doesnt make that late fade/turnaround in Shaq's grill we are all screaming terrible shot. HE needs to be a man down on that block and go to work.

Sheed - the Guy will straight gun but we knew that. If we could get him on the block a little more I would be ecstatic. His D was solid and seems to fit the team scheme great.

Quis - In my opinion will be the reason we win or dont win the championship this season. His defense is awesome and he is our new Posey minus the jumper. Although he did hit a nice corner three. For people who dont know a ton about him, he has a very high bball IQ and just understands what he needs to bring to the game.

Eddie - thought his D was solid, took one really awful shot. Stay tuned on him.

Shelden - A pleasant surprise for me. I thought he rebounded and defended great. His hands are shaky at best, but in his defense he was receiving the ball in some odd places.

I think this was a great first game for us. I mean hell we havent won there since 2004. Doc will need to limit KG's minutes better. Tonight is a real test for us since the bobcats play us great all the time. Much different team that cleveland from an athleticism point of view. Should also be interesting to see how we play on the 2nd night of a back to back.

Our schedule is frontloaded with road games so if we can start this season say 31-9 in the first half we will likely win 65.

Dogen · Post #2 » by **Dogen** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:42 pm

Good eval. I agree with a lot of it but I'm also going to give Ray the benefit of the doubt since he is clearly playing a different role this year-- or at least so far that is how it appears. I like the more active Ray, moving with the ball instead of just getting the set jump shots. Before, he was doubled by Rondo's man and had to move through so many screens to even get the ball. So I think he'll get a chance to work on initiating his own moves off the dribble and going to the hoop and/or passing. It's not his forte, but I think he will be able to integrate it into the offense with less to's over time.

BadWolf · Post #3 » by **BadWolf** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:15 pm

Anyone worried about Perk's 1 rebound (which i think wasn't really a rebound, he catched a ball that Varejao and Sheed? fought over)?

Post #4 » by **ParticleMan** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:50 pm

nah, perk will get his rebounds. last night he was totally focused on keeping shaq off the glass, which lowers the rebound rate. he did a great job on shaq overall. perk is the least of our concerns.

good evals overall. if Quis can actually hit that corner 3 at a decent clip, even like 35%, thats so huge.

Rondo definitely hedged over screens more, which was good, although Mo just went the other way so he still lost his man.

Eddie is a guy who won't be effective against a good defensive team, since all you have to do is have a guy stay with him at all times. his numbers will come against the mediocre D's, which is fine, someone needs to do it.

Banks2Pierce · Post #5 » by **Banks2Pierce** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:20 pm

BadWolf wrote:Anyone worried about Perk's 1 rebound (which i think wasn't really a rebound, he catched a ball that Varejao and Sheed? fought over)?

Not at all. It doesn't help when you have Shaq and you have Pierce and Rondo skying in and fighting for your rebounds. BTW, Pierce was a monster on those boards last night. He is so strong and can keep even the pf's/c's on his back while still jumping pretty high.

celticsnut · Post #6 » by **celticsnut** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:37 pm

Yeah Pierce was raising up to grab some boards. He started out like this the last two seasons though rebounding at a double digit stint.

Hemingway · Post #7 » by **Hemingway** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:43 pm

It was great to see Perk taking those 12 footers. Even though he missed more than he made, he needs to take those if let open every time. If him and Rondo get decent shots down, there is really no way to defend us.

Zin5 · Post #8 » by **Zin5** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:12 pm

BadWolf wrote:Anyone worried about Perk's 1 rebound (which i think wasn't really a rebound, he catched a ball that Varejao and Sheed? fought over)?

We outrebounded Cleveland by six. We're a very good rebounding team, I wouldn't worry about one player's rebounding.