Official Celtics 2020-21 Regular Season Thread

[greenroom31]

The mediocre middle of the east is still incredibly scrunched up. We're now only 1 game behind the third place Hawks(!?!?) and 2 games ahead of the 9th seed Pacers. We're also 6.5 games behind the the 3rd place Bucks and 7.5 games ahead of the 12th seed Wizards.

The potential of this team to be in top bracket of the playoffs or go in the lottery with just a few wins or losses here and there is astounding. We may be mediocre this year but still have a lot of company in the Eastern Conference.

We're one game behind the 4th place Hawks (not 3rd place). The top 3 spots are pretty much locked in for the Eastern Conference given that most teams have around 18 games left to play. Even if Milwaukee goes 10-9 to end the season we'd have to go 15-3 to tie them.

Agree that there's a lot of mediocrity in the East though... if we can get to the 4-5 game we've got a coin-flop shot at round 2, but then would most likely have to face Philly or Brooklyn which would be rough. 6th seed against Milwaukee we'd be underdogs but still have some chance, but 7th seed or higher I don't see us getting past round 1 barring key injuries for our opponents.

Would love to be wrong, but seems to be a 2 team race in the East this year (3 if you believe in the Bucks).

[ParticleMan]

i'd be happy with avoiding a play in game.
at this point it's about consistency. on any given night we can beat anyone or lose to anyone. it's hard to predict the endgame based on strength of schedule or whatnot.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[grindtime22]

Marcus Smart is up to 55.6 TS%

Its 59.58% since he came back

[playa-hater]

It's hard to now how much affect Covid can have on an individual when everyone is different. But for people wondering if Tatum has been the same since he caught it, this should provide some light. having to take an inhaler before a game tells of breathing related issues.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31254061/boston-celtics-jayson-tatum-fighting-covid-19-effects-close-100-percent-performance-picks-up

[hugepatsfan]

I like the way the rotation is shaping up. I think Theis/Thompson/R Williams was a log jam. I think thinning that out to just R Williams and Thompson has helped establish roles and removed those awful 2 big lineups.

Excited to see if Fournier can pick up where he left off once he's back. Along with Langford doing a pretty nice job recently, that goes a long way in improving our wing depth.

R Williams' passing ability at the 5 has opened up a lot of things. I think Brown/Tatum are growing as playmakers, but it's still not a strength for either. And it's never been the strength of Kemba's game either. Starting plays with Rob has opened up a lot more off ball movement and action for the perimeter guys early in the shot clock. That's getting them better looks when they shoot but also making the reads easier on them from a playmaking standpoint since the defense is already broken down to some degree. Smart in particular thrives as a playmaker off of this IMO because defenses don't respect his paint finishes enough for him to break the defense down off the dribble himself to start the play. But now that you have Rob initiating the play as a passer the off ball action is breaking the defense down for the eventual ball handler.

A 2nd unit of Pritchard / Langford / Fournier / Grant or Semi (matchup dependent) / Thompson has some intriguing potential too. Good defensive effort levels there ad I think enough offensive initiation with Fournier and Pritchard. In reality this unit is practically always going to be staggered with one of Brown/Tatum but I think there's a little more juice there than there was early on before Langford was back, Thompson's role was weird and Fournier wasn't acquired yet.

Very excited about how this team could come together and make a competitive run.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

So the Celtics now have an official podcast with Marc D’amico and Abby Chin as the hosts. First episode with Danny Ainge was great, as it also had Sean Grande and Perk on.

However, the second episode has Marcus Smart. Give it a listen, and you will realize why that dude is fearless. He’s gone through some ****. I will be a fan of his no matter what uniform he has on.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1woqUzMPbqf1FddSye47ur?si=pRhI_VXhSuW7reWq4XYoOg

[zoyathedestroya]

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I've been pointing out that our offense has looked good to great for a while now, even before the trade deadline. We've been moving the ball better, we're playing at a quicker pace, getting into our sets faster, and we're taking more threes. It just hasn't led to wins right away because our defense was still crap. Now that our defense has caught up, we're stringing a couple of quality wins.

[Parliament10]

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[playa-hater]

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Definitely think/feel Tatum is moving in the right direction with play-making. just wish I could say the same for J Brown.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[cloverleaf]

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Which was basically when he stopped treating it as such...

[zoyathedestroya]

Post-trade-deadline, all FIVE of our main rotation wings -- Tatum, Brown, Smart, Fournier, Langford -- have been shooting at least 40% from beyond the arc. I just thought it was worth mentioning. Hope they can keep that up. Romeo, of course, isn't a high-volume shooter from 3. He hasn't been taking too many shots from anywhere so far. But it would be encouraging if he can keep hitting those open threes. It can open up his dribble-drive game.

[2Mas]

We are really starting to come together.

Progress.

[2Mas]

Post-trade-deadline, all FIVE of our main rotation wings -- Tatum, Brown, Smart, Fournier, Langford -- have been shooting at least 40% from beyond the arc. I just thought it was worth mentioning. Hope they can keep that up. Romeo, of course, isn't a high-volume shooter from 3. He hasn't been taking too many shots from anywhere so far. But it would be encouraging if he can keep hitting those open threes. It can open up his dribble-drive game.

Really like Romeo's activity level.

But whenever he gets the ball he looks so scared still.

[playa-hater]

Post-trade-deadline, all FIVE of our main rotation wings -- Tatum, Brown, Smart, Fournier, Langford -- have been shooting at least 40% from beyond the arc. I just thought it was worth mentioning. Hope they can keep that up. Romeo, of course, isn't a high-volume shooter from 3. He hasn't been taking too many shots from anywhere so far. But it would be encouraging if he can keep hitting those open threes. It can open up his dribble-drive game.

Really like Romeo's activity level.

But whenever he gets the ball he looks so scared still.

nothing Time won't cure

[bisme37]

So I gotta say I'm pretty pumped about the C's right now, more than any other time this season outside of the first few games.

We're getting healthy, forming chemistry and putting wins together at the right time. Kemba's playing well and the Jays are going supernova. And most of all the team is actually playing with a confidence and swagger that's been totally missing.

I think we can fairly say the team is performing much better than their record at this point. And it's awesome that we still have Fournier to add to this group.

[BK_2020]

I think we can fairly say the team is performing much better than their record at this point. And it's awesome that we still have Fournier to add to this group.

The Cs are 4th best in the East by SRS and 9th best overall above the Mavs. Not bad for how the season looked a little while ago.

[Ernest]

Nice to see TT continue to prove his doubters wrong. I know it will be very unpopular on here but maybe we should start him over Rob. Doesn't even matter who is better, just feel like we have a better chance to get out to a good start with TT. Letting Rob play against a 2nd string center could help keep him out of foul trouble and make getting those lob dunks easier. I'm so high on both of them I don't even miss Theis who I was high on too.

[MagicBagley18]

Post-trade-deadline, all FIVE of our main rotation wings -- Tatum, Brown, Smart, Fournier, Langford -- have been shooting at least 40% from beyond the arc. I just thought it was worth mentioning. Hope they can keep that up. Romeo, of course, isn't a high-volume shooter from 3. He hasn't been taking too many shots from anywhere so far. But it would be encouraging if he can keep hitting those open threes. It can open up his dribble-drive game.

Really like Romeo's activity level.

But whenever he gets the ball he looks so scared still.

I thought a few games ago he looked pretty poised. He’s up and down as expected. I remember Avery Bradley used to get the ball and immediately look to pass when he was a new comer