Official Celtics 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Fencer reregistered]

But also

After Toronto’s Fred VanVleet scored 16 points in the first half, the Celtics changed their coverage on the Raptors’ point guard, using multiple players and looks to limit him. “J-Rich did a great job relieving me off (Fred VanVleet) after he torched me a few times,” Smart said.

https://www.celticsblog.com/2021/11/29/22807058/the-fit-josh-richardson-has-another-role-defining-game-in-win-over-toronto-raptors-boston-celtics

[FlatearthZorro]

Wouldn't that be considered flaming if I posted something at you and then this same gif? I thought you were the PC woke police here. I'm shocked.
Anyways, I still maintain that the guy is nowhere near worth 20 mils and I'm judging him as a 20 mil a year player. I like his passing tho.

Honestly, I don’t care what people say to me. I’m never ever going to warn or report posters for anything toward me. But you’re telling everyone to stop with the “Smart bull”, saying everyone needs a reality check, and saying how AWFUL he is based on stats you clearly don’t have a full grasp of. That’s crap, and you know it.

As far as his shooting, he was brutal to start the year. But over the last 15 games, he has a 54% TS, and with efficiency down across the league, that’s good enough for him. The three ball will get better you’d think, but what I’ve loved is how much he has committed to driving the ball, he’s third in the team in drives to the rim per game, behind Dennis and Tatum. That forces the defense to collapse, and it’s gotten other guys wide open looks.

I get you dislike Smart, and don’t think he’s very good, but since the first 5ish games, he’s been pretty damn excellent on both ends.

Honestly, when it comes to the defense, I think Horford(along with Richardson and Grant being in shape) coming back and getting rid of Kemba is what made us one of the best defenses. We weren't great with Smart last year. I believe we had a top 10 defense(I believe we were like 8th, but I haven't checked so I'm speculating) with Horford/IT/Jae and Avery a few years ago. And as much as I love IT, he was a huge defensive liability, maybe as big as Kemba if not bigger.

[zoyathedestroya]

I don't think this merits a separate thread, but when do we start worrying about Tatum's shooting? He obviously still helps us win games with everything he does, but hard to deny his struggles putting the ball into the basket (incl. in 4th Qs) is one of the major reasons why we're only barely above .500.

Among 21 players averaging at least 18 attempts a game, it's a tossup between him and Dame as the worst shooter. Among 48 players with at least 25% usage rate, he's 43rd in true shooting % with 2 rookies, LeVert, D.Murray, and Payne behind him. JT is below league average in TS% from every zone on the floor so far. Need more pinks and reds on that shot chart and less blues. Maybe ease up on the midrangers too unless you're CP, KD, or LMA.

Spoiler:

Last season's chart was sexy af... (sans the midrange thing)

Ime is smart and experienced enough not to focus on any individual's shooting slump in his public comments as long as they keep improving in the important areas and they continue to play the right way. Process over results. But Tatum just being a bit above average shooting-wise would do wonders for our blah offensive rating and W-L record.

[Feed Your Head]

I don't think this merits a separate thread, but when do we start worrying about Tatum's shooting? He obviously still helps us win games with everything he does, but hard to deny his struggles putting the ball into the basket (incl. in 4th Qs) is one of the major reasons why we're only barely above .500.

Among 21 players averaging at least 18 attempts a game, it's a tossup between him and Dame as the worst shooter. Among 48 players with at least 25% usage rate, he's 43rd in true shooting % with 2 rookies, LeVert, D.Murray, and Payne behind him. JT is below league average in TS% from every zone on the floor so far. Need more pinks and reds on that shot chart and less blues. Maybe ease up on the midrangers too unless you're CP, KD, or LMA.

Spoiler:

Last season's chart was sexy af... (sans the midrange thing)

Ime is smart and experienced enough not to focus on any individual's shooting slump in his public comments as long as they keep improving in the important areas and they continue to play the right way. Process over results. But Tatum just being a bit above average shooting-wise would do wonders for our blah offensive rating and W-L record.

I’m obviously not too concerned as of now, but if January comes and he’s still shooting 40% and low 30s from deep, I’ll be concerned that there’s an underlying reason. Whether fatigue, playing through an injury, or it just being a crap season.

Fortunately, I don’t think it’ll be the case. West coast trips are usually where he is really cooking, so hopefully that’ll be the case again.

[BostonCouchGM]

as I said when the season starts. Tatum had a small window this offseason to put on size and that window was right before the season. He looks like he went on a cycle and put on 5-8 lbs of muscle right before camp. WIth new muscles, comes new strength and decreased coordination. It takes your body a bit to reconcile the differences. I thought it'd be 2-3 weeks and that's where we're sitting right now. As you've seen, he's started to have much better shooting nights here and there. He raised his 3 % from 27% in October to 34% in November and his FT % from 77% to 81%.

It's still a work in progress but I think we'll see less and less bad shooting nights and it'll be a bad memory within another 2-3 weeks when he'll be back to normal (38-40% from three). But also, we have to acknowledge that Ime has been playing non-shooters around him and Jaylen has been injured as well which raises the degree of difficulty on many of his shots. Also, he's playing better defense and while guys aren't hitting shots reflected in more assists, he's been a better play maker.

He has to pick it up if he hopes to make the all-star team and I think he will. What I want to see with this added strength and weight is more aggression going to the hoop. He still seemingly has the skinny guy mentality when driving with many of his shots being scoop layups or floaters. He should be two-handing dunks and posterizing guys, finishing through contact. It's a mental thing and he has to adjust otherwise what exactly is the point of all the added muscle?

[BillessuR6]

Like I said in preseason, Tatum`s shooting mechanics looks a bit different...he needs to go back to his old form...maybe it is just the added muscle but he needs to correct it...

[keevsnick1]

I don't think this merits a separate thread, but when do we start worrying about Tatum's shooting? He obviously still helps us win games with everything he does, but hard to deny his struggles putting the ball into the basket (incl. in 4th Qs) is one of the major reasons why we're only barely above .500.

Among 21 players averaging at least 18 attempts a game, it's a tossup between him and Dame as the worst shooter. Among 48 players with at least 25% usage rate, he's 43rd in true shooting % with 2 rookies, LeVert, D.Murray, and Payne behind him. JT is below league average in TS% from every zone on the floor so far. Need more pinks and reds on that shot chart and less blues. Maybe ease up on the midrangers too unless you're CP, KD, or LMA.

Spoiler:

Last season's chart was sexy af... (sans the midrange thing)

Ime is smart and experienced enough not to focus on any individual's shooting slump in his public comments as long as they keep improving in the important areas and they continue to play the right way. Process over results. But Tatum just being a bit above average shooting-wise would do wonders for our blah offensive rating and W-L record.

It really just depends on what your expectations for him are. Am I concerned that he's gonna have a 50% TS and be low thirties from three all year? No, not at all. I think he'll have a hot streak eventually and likely finish right up where he usually does efficiency wise. Keep in mind most everybody, even a lot of stars, have taken a hit in the shooting department.

Am I concerned that maybe he doesn't have the kind of immense scoring efficiency upside that it takes to be a Elite NBA MVP level guy? Sure, he's now in year five and he's never really been better than slightly above average efficiency wise. Doesn't get to the hoop as much as you'd like, doesn't take enough FT's, and his side step three has abandoned him. But its certainly not to late for him to have an efficiency leap either.

I don't know just don't think you should panic too much about a 20 game sample, if its mid January at the 40 game mark and this is STILL happening then we can revisit it.

[zoyathedestroya]

15 of Celtics next 18 games are against .500-or-over teams. The other 3 are barely under. Winning is tough this season. Not too many gimmes on the schedule.

For the upcoming West trip...

No Dame, no Lebron, no Kawhi, no Booker. If Cs stay healthy, we catch a bit of a break. Ban injuries, btw.

[Parliament10]

7th thru 11th seed, in the Eastern Conf., are all currently at 11-10.

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[zoyathedestroya]

Before the matchup vs. Cs, Sixers had the 8th best offensive rating in the NBA (111.8). They had an offensive rating of 94.6 vs. the Cs and dropped outside the top 10 in offense.

In the upcoming road trip, Cs top 4 defense will be tested against the #1, #2, and #6 offense in the league. Then they will come home to immediately face NBA's 9th best and 3rd best offense.

*per cleaningtheglass

[zoyathedestroya]

Jaylen Brown, pre-hammy, per36: 25.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.2 spg, +5.7 on 49/40/78 splits
Jaylen Brown, post-hammy, per36: 19.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.1 spg, +2.9 on 39/30/72 splits

Still productive, just way less efficient. My personal uninformed recommendation is get him more rest during the road trip. JRich/Romeo/Nesmith can pretty much fill the void until he's 110%. Feels like we're playing with fire and begging for a setback.

[playa-hater]

Even before J Brown's hammy. but after his knee flared up, it seemed like he lost some explosiveness. Especially after what he did game one. He can still shoot and score well enough, but clearly looks different overall. I am guessing between missing time for his knees and his hammy, his legs lost quite a bit with no training.

maybe physically he is at or near 100% health, but just weaker from an athletic standpoint.

If Jaylen and/or the coaching staff insist on his continual playing, I would hope he is given less minutes as to not agitate any old injury. Boston is deep at wing position anyway.

[BK_2020]

Jaylen Brown, the 25 year old "star" who has to sit 2nd end of back to backs.
I guess it's not as bad as the MPJ situation but still.

[Fencer reregistered]

Interesting play.

Toward its end, Horford was threatening to set a screen for Tatum, influencing Embiid (?) to lean toward the outside. Philly's only hope would have been for #0 to fly around the circle to where Tatum would wind up after the Horford screen, freeing Embiid to cover Rob more closely. But the lob play might well have worked even if he had.

Until the point where Horford threatened to spring Tatum free, it was basically 3-on-3, with each of Tatum and Brown keeping a defender with them in a corner.

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[Celts17Pride]

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[zoyathedestroya]

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[Feed Your Head]

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[Feed Your Head]

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The crowd had developed a buzz unlike anything Schröder had heard so late in a blowout NBA game. “This one was special,” Schröder said. "I think Jayson Tatum, I think he mentioned that everybody in this locker room, they work, try to get better. And everybody tries to help the team win. To see that paying off like that, getting hot in that fourth quarter, means a lot for me and my teammates for sure.”

[Hal14]

Jaylen Brown, the 25 year old "star" who has to sit 2nd end of back to backs.
I guess it's not as bad as the MPJ situation but still.

dude, chill. brown sitting the last 2 games had nothing to do with back to backs. he sat out the last 2 games as a precaution because the hamstring injury he just missed 8 games with got re-aggravated in the philly game.

The dude is a star player, one of the cornerstones of the franchise, under contract long term and only 25. So yeah, you're going to be cautious and protect your investment - you're going to take it easy and make sure you don't rush him back into the lineup. Hamstring injuries have a tendency to linger and creep back up on you - need to err on the side of caution.

Giannis just sat out the 2nd night of a back to back the other night. I suppose he's a trash player who should be mocked by Bucks fans too, huh? No - he was injured earlier this season so bucks are being careful with him, since he's a star player, cornerstone of the franchise and under contract long term so they're not taking any chances.

[Hal14]

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