Official Celtics 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Bostondave]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

[sam_I_am]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

So you think 29 min per game in 61 games is Ime running RW into the ground? So if you were coach you would have played him 20 min? 50 games? Seriously, blaming Udoka for this is weak. Rob plays less minutes than almost every starting center in NBA.

[Bostondave]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

So you think 29 min per game in 61 games is Ime running RW into the ground? So if you were coach you would have played him 20 min? 50 games? Seriously, blaming Udoka for this is weak. Rob plays less minutes than almost every starting center in NBA.

Iwe has been playing a tighter rotation with that tight rotation logging a lot of minutes. Especially Tatum. The results would seem to be logical to me in most cases and I guess what is playing out right now in realtime some players. Marcus seems strong. Ot he's just playing through whatever nagging problems he might or might not have.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[Feed Your Head]

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The Celtics defense still projects as ferocious, regardless of Williams’ status. Al Horford’s versatility has been credited by league personnel as key an ingredient as any within Boston’s scheme. It was just two years ago the Celtics reached the conference finals with Daniel Theis, reacquired from Houston at the trade deadline, as their starting 5. They’ve since seen both Theis and Grant Williams have success alongside Horford this season.

It took half a season, but that approach has since passed with flying colors. Udoka, sources told B/R, balances the line between establishing a level of seriousness and a loose environment while focusing on communicating clear roles and hierarchies for Celtics players and coaching staffers alike.


It should also be noted that Stevens, after being elevated to team president and general manager, permitted Udoka to hire his own staff, whereas front offices across the NBA have grown more active in handpicking assistants underneath their head coach.

That all feels like a distant memory now. By all accounts, Tatum and Brown have maintained a friendship off the court and relished playing alongside each other. Perhaps all those conversations, that each All-Star needs the ball, that they were stepping on each other’s toes, were actually a byproduct of the Celtics’ greater team alchemy, not the tandem’s stylistic fit. Of course there was less creative opportunity for both Tatum and Brown when Kemba Walker—Kyrie Irving before him—and Gordon Hayward commanded a lot of oxygen in Brad Stevens’ offense.

League figures credit Tatum—known for his quiet, humble demeanor—for taking a larger role as a vocal leader for Boston this season. For a coaching staff with such deep San Antonio ties, Tatum’s approach to his craft, his professionalism, his consistency all runs parallel to those of Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan.

Leading by example still matters, too. During games, both Tatum and Brown’s commitment to defense has helped establish expectations down Boston’s roster.

Boston has six more regular-season games to tweak and experiment its scheme without Robert Williams, one of the league’s most valuable defenders this season. But if any team can sustain such a loss, it’s one with the NBA’s best-ranked defense and an offense that has two proven playoff isolation scorers in Tatum and Brown.

“They’ve finally figured it out,” said one Eastern Conference executive. “When you do that, and you have two top-20 players, that’s very, very scary.”

[zoyathedestroya]

Every team faces other teams with an incomplete roster due to injuries so I don't wanna hear, "but they were missing this and that player."

The Celtics, who allegedly only beat on the bad teams, is the best team against elite teams, both by record and BY FAR net rating.

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...when we had Rob. I imagine we won't be as dominant now.

[playa-hater]

So who are we replacing RW with?? Need to add a Big to this roster. I have been screaming Daniel Oturu for a while. Is he still available and why the hell not??

[zoyathedestroya]

So who are we replacing RW with?? Need to add a Big to this roster. I have been screaming Daniel Oturu for a while. Is he still available and why the hell not??

It's too late to actually replace Rob from outside the roster. Trying to familiarize yourself with rotations, schemes, etc. this late in the season will only hurt the team.

I think Ime will just ride with the Horford-Other Williams tandem, with Tatum playing the roamer and weakside help role. Theis is the main backup big and you're hoping Kornet doesn't suck in the 5-8 minutes he'll play in case of foul trouble to main bigs.

We just signed Juwan Morgan for the last open spot so I don't think there's an FA big that drew their interest.

[zoyathedestroya]

Best "non-clutch" team in the NBA!

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Not sure that's something to be proud of haha but I'll take it.

[sam_I_am]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

So you think 29 min per game in 61 games is Ime running RW into the ground? So if you were coach you would have played him 20 min? 50 games? Seriously, blaming Udoka for this is weak. Rob plays less minutes than almost every starting center in NBA.

Iwe has been playing a tighter rotation with that tight rotation logging a lot of minutes. Especially Tatum. The results would seem to be logical to me in most cases and I guess what is playing out right now in realtime some players. Marcus seems strong. Ot he's just playing through whatever nagging problems he might or might not have.

So you think playing 3 bench players close to starter minutes is overtaxing team so Ime should divide bench player minutes up so we play 5 bench players 20 minutes like some other teams do? Because our starters are at league average or below, as in RW and Horford.

[BK_2020]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

So you think 29 min per game in 61 games is Ime running RW into the ground? So if you were coach you would have played him 20 min? 50 games? Seriously, blaming Udoka for this is weak. Rob plays less minutes than almost every starting center in NBA.

Iwe has been playing a tighter rotation with that tight rotation logging a lot of minutes. Especially Tatum. The results would seem to be logical to me in most cases and I guess what is playing out right now in realtime some players. Marcus seems strong. Ot he's just playing through whatever nagging problems he might or might not have.

Tatum averages 36.2 minutes per game as a 23 yr old which is 6th in the league and separated from the 32nd most MPG (Terry Rozier) by only 2.2 mins per game.
Who else on the Celtics plays a lot of minutes? The next highest is Jaylen with 33.7, tied for 33rd in the league and not even .5 min more than bigs like Embiid and Jokic.

[BK_2020]

So who are we replacing RW with?? Need to add a Big to this roster. I have been screaming Daniel Oturu for a while. Is he still available and why the hell not??

We should bring Yabusele back and I'm only half joking.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Iwe has been playing a tighter rotation with that tight rotation logging a lot of minutes. Especially Tatum. The results would seem to be logical to me in most cases and I guess what is playing out right now in realtime some players. Marcus seems strong. Ot he's just playing through whatever nagging problems he might or might not have.

MPG this year vs last year
Jayson Tatum 36.2 vs 35.8
Jaylen Brown 33.7 vs 34.5
Marcus Smart 32.6 vs 32.9
Everybody else below 30 minutes. Udoka doesn't push them harder than Stevens.

Tatum is #5 in MPG in the league, Brown is #34, Smart #50, Williams is #85 and Horford #92. Apart from Tatum, nobody plays a lot of minutes on the Celtics.

[sam_I_am]

Did Celtics players stay out of Toronto game because of vaccine status? Rumor is spreading.

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[Feed Your Head]

Did Celtics players stay out of Toronto game because of vaccine status? Rumor is spreading.

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No lol.

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?s=20&t=TUJqL5LdZ-X67w-0_YmcjQ

[sam_I_am]

ESPN loves to smear Boston teams.

[Slax]

OK, from my distance observing I think there are some evil portents. I hope I'm wrong but there just might be a price to the coach's tight rotation that's cropping up now at a critical time. R Williams seemingly done and I surely don't know what it means to sit most of the starters with various ailments but IMO it's not a good thing. He might have run his team into the ground. And that'd be a downright shame because this team has heart and hustle and what something I've never seen in all my years of watching basketball. I've never seen almost an entire squad be simultaneously "hot". The entire group performing at the absolute maximum and at their best at whatever their skill sets are. The passers making tremendous passes, the rebounders raking in boards, the shooters shooting lights out, the playmakers making plays. Everything clicking. It's coming up to crunchtime now and we'll see if Ime has run his team into the ground with his very tight rotations. I'm having bad feelings. Twenty-somethings I don't think should be banged up like this. R. Williams seems to me has always been fragile and injury prone.

But perhaps there's some deeper game going on here. There's a crunch at the top in the East. Maybe there's some games being played with positioning. But seems to me there are some dark clouds showing that are causeing me a bit of anxiety that I didn't have two days ago.

Everybody has mild nagging injuries like tendinopathy by the end of an 82-game season. Just look at the phenomenal games they both played against against Minny the day before if you think they are seriously hampered by injuries right now. Ime is taking the opportunity to rest Tatum and Brown on a B2B before the playoffs to keep them fresh. You have to put stuff on the injury report and claim it's serious enough to force a guy to sit so you don't get in trouble with the league like the Spurs. I'm sure they genuinely do have some knee soreness, but so does everybody.

Horford having a baby and Rob tearing the meniscus right when we planned a rest for Tatum and Brown are just coincidence.

[Parliament10]

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[Marvel]

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So what does that mean in terms of timeline?

[Feed Your Head]

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So what does that mean in terms of timeline?

It’s misleading, because both of his options are surgery. Either he gets a cleanup, and misses 4-6 weeks. Or he gets a full repair, and he’s out for a few months.

It all depends on the severity of the tear, and they need to see what type of shape the surrounding area is in.