Post#29 » by bigfoot_cryptozoology » Tue Feb 6, 2024 2:12 am
The Celtics could use an upgrade! Here's Zach Lowe from his podcast (Thanks Jablo1312):
"They're starting to, leak oil is a little strong, they're starting to wobble a little bit and have put together some performances that have made me be (concerned). They started the season 26-6 , they're now 11-6 since. When they were 26-6 , they averaged 121 points per 100 possessions , #2 in the league, 110 points allowed, that was #2 in the league. In the 11-6 stretch, they're down to 119/100 on offense, which doesn't sound like a big drop off, it's just two points, but offense trends up over the season, and we've seen this movie with Boston before, that's 9th in that span. 112 points allowed, that's 5th. Their net rating has dropped from 10.4 plus to plus 6.8, which is the difference between great and just good, they're like 5th in net rating in the 11-6 stretch. Still good, still like, everything's fine, I just haven't loved, just haven't loved it. Their starting, the version of their starting five with Horford in Porzingis's place is minus five in 215 minutes, it just hasn't played well and Porzingis feels just so essential to their team.
And I'm just gonna read you…what percentile thier share of shot attempts at the rim in their last 15-ish games since January 10th would rank on a zero to 100 scale: 5th, 25th, 7th, 9th, 13th, 8th,19th ,38th, 16th, 26th, 10th, 6th, 9th. I'm sorry to keep harping on this, it's not a crisis, but it's a thing. They shoot too many threes, they do not get to the rim enough, I know some people within their team would say: when we get to the rim and we miss, it's a jailbreak going to the other end, with threes we can set our defense. The math says this. The math says you're amazing, and you are amazing. I am not sitting here advocating that the Boston Celtics turn into like the 1994 Knicks. I'm just saying those numbers I just read are problematic, and they suggest that a 5-10% shift of your philosophy, a small but noticeable shift, is necessary. Because they had seven free throws last night. They don't get to the line a lot, they don't offensive rebound a lot, they are just too dependent on threes. Maybe this is just the malaise of we're awesome, we're good, we're gonna take the easier way out in some of these games, but those numbers, it's just ice cold blue up and down those numbers, and it's just something I'm monitoring. They're down to like 28th for the season, in percentage of shot attempts at the rim, it's too low, it needs to get higher."
