Celts Deploy Magical Poof Of Smoke But Can't Escape With the Win! NBA Cup Loss vs ORL 11/7

[Bad-Thoma]

Yup, Walsh showing some nice flashes.

I'm sure he knows how important this season is for his career. He even acknowledged that in an interview the other day..saying how he knows he's playing for his life haha.

He's definitely gonna play hard when he's out there.

I'm not sure why people get down on him, he's 21 years old and was the 38th pick 2 years ago. There's no timeline where patience wasn't going to be needed but he has the potential to be a good rotational player and a really good defender. Hopefully this is the year where the work starts to show.

It's just that regardless of how old he is, it's his 3rd season. And what we have sene in recent years is NBA teams have been showing less patience with young players - especially players who are 2nd round picks or UDFA. Often times they only give them a year or 2 and if they're not at a certain level, they trade or waive them.

We've seen it with lots of guys over these past few years. Even 1st round picks like Keon Johnson, Kobe Bufkin, Cam Whitmore, Usman Garuba, Tyty Washington, etc. got either traded or waived before their 3rd season was over..

Sure, fair enough for some of these guys (I'm not looking up their ages or draft positions because I don't care that much) but Walsh was drafted at 19 years old as the 38th pick. He's been stashed in Maine mostly as the team has been good, which really was ideal as the reps were probably exactly what he needed. I don't see a reason to be low on him OR high on him, the body of work isn't there and sometimes patience pays off. This year will be huge and I'm watching him with an open mind.

[Green89]

After these blunders Joe remained with the starting 5 which played horrible defense
The lineup with Walsh and Hugo did damage
4 minutes down 5 is an open game
Allowing open 3s and And1s with horrible defense cost us the game

You're not wrong but like I keep saying, the only reason why Joe has job security is because the players have his back.

There's a hierarchy when it comes to coaching in the NBA.

It would cause controversy if Joe didn't go back with the starters to finish the game.

Hugo and Walsh did damage, so it was up to the starters to get the job done.
They failed.

NBA coaching is not just about X's and O's and game management.
There's politics involved.

Just ask Taylor Jenkins.

If anyone aside from White or Brown gets benched in crunch time, even if they started the game, there should not be ANY controversy.

[Fierce1]

After these blunders Joe remained with the starting 5 which played horrible defense
The lineup with Walsh and Hugo did damage
4 minutes down 5 is an open game
Allowing open 3s and And1s with horrible defense cost us the game

You're not wrong but like I keep saying, the only reason why Joe has job security is because the players have his back.

There's a hierarchy when it comes to coaching in the NBA.

It would cause controversy if Joe didn't go back with the starters to finish the game.

Hugo and Walsh did damage, so it was up to the starters to get the job done.
They failed.

NBA coaching is not just about X's and O's and game management.
There's politics involved.

Just ask Taylor Jenkins.

If anyone aside from White or Brown gets benched in crunch time, even if they started the game, there should not be ANY controversy.

I agree.

But you know how the media works.
If Joe didn't put PP back in to close out the game, you know what would happen in the postgame interview.

It's just the politics of professional sports.