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Is it just me, or were we a better offensive team with KG out? Does anyone have any idea why this is, and does anyone have any suggestions how we can play dominant offense, and dominant defense while KG is on the floor?

Nah. KG is a good facilitator. Rondo's assist numbers went up to compensate for KG's absence.

SonicYouth34 wrote:Nah. KG is a good facilitator. Rondo's assist numbers went up to compensate for KG's absence.

Oh, i agree with you. I love it when KG is able to facilitate. For some reason it just seemed like we moved at a faster pace when he was out though. I guess i would just like for us to run as much when he's in, just like we did when he was out.

When KG is healthy, we have one of the largest +/- margins in the league.

I think we need to add another scorer to the bench. Preferably a combo SG/SF to give Ray and PP some rest while not taking a major hit on the offensive end. TA showed some promise as a scorer before his knee injury, but since then he has been way too inconsistent. We need to add someone like Marion or Brandon Bass.

Looking at the big picture, my take is...our team is TO prone and lacks inside scoring (relative to our three point shooting ability). That is assuming Eddie & Ray stick around. Ray gives us one of the league's best perimeter shooters, Eddie might not be too far off. PP is still one of the league's better shooters. KG doesn't always go to work so much down low, Powe is statistically good but not great down low (as he draws fouls) and his health come end of season might be questionable, Perk is decent but only decent and very TO prone.

TOs - Perk is called on to play more in line with his limitations, we replace Tony, maybe Scal (who is not TO prone only because he plays within his limitations). Rondo is called on to improve.

Inside scoring - keep Powe, utilize KG more in the post, let PP play in the post on occasion when possible, call on Rondo to improve all around. Perk maybe improves a jump shot so he can be an outside alternative to KG's inside presence more often - or Baby could be swapped for Camby in a S&T perhaps. Or Baby could be resigned and play like he did at times in the playoffs.

Jamario Moon gives us TA's defense + height + shooting + no TO's. Marion would give us at least some added inside scoring and be a nice versatile defense/rebounding oriented SF/PF. Odom's in the same boat. Guys like Craig Smith, Hakim Warrick, Eddy Curry, are guys I don't like, but statistically they are underrated inside scorers which could potentially be had (but Curry's contract sucks).

Rondo + PP IMO gives us sufficient slashing ability.

He_Got_Game wrote:Oh, i agree with you. I love it when KG is able to facilitate. For some reason it just seemed like we moved at a faster pace when he was out though. I guess i would just like for us to run as much when he's in, just like we did when he was out.

This is on Rondo and Doc as well. R^2 thrives in up tempo and our guys have no problem running the floor. Rondo needs to push the ball more instead of walking it up the floor all the time

SonicYouth34 wrote:

He_Got_Game wrote:Oh, i agree with you. I love it when KG is able to facilitate. For some reason it just seemed like we moved at a faster pace when he was out though. I guess i would just like for us to run as much when he's in, just like we did when he was out.

This is on Rondo and Doc as well. R^2 thrives in up tempo and our guys have no problem running the floor. Rondo needs to push the ball more instead of walking it up the floor all the time

Right on the money my brother----Rondo runs and we BLOW TEAMS OUT----he Walks, and we have a close game or a LOSS..!!

Even pre-KG and pre-Rondo...really ever since Doc took over our offense always ran its best it seems when we changed our offense to account for an injury or trade...

Yeah, I think they just need to make sure there is some variety. Run some, post up a bit more, run S/R with Pierce and KG, etc.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to bring in a guy like Grant Hill to spell Pierce and Allen

He_Got_Game wrote:Is it just me, or were we a better offensive team with KG out?

It is pretty easy to check this. With Garnett in the lineup we scored 4 more points (per 100 possessions) than without him. If you aren't used to looking at these types of numbers, I can tell you that is a pretty sizable difference. If you factor in the playoffs the difference is even greater. Clearly scoring more = better offense, so our offense is better with Garnett in the lineup. The premise of this thread is false... fact.

So, why are so many Celtics fans agreeing with this? My guess is that people think it's more fun to watch a hyper-athletic point guard run all over the place like maniac than it is to watch Garnett get the ball in the high post and shoot turn-around jump-shots over the defense. Same people that think the spurs are boring because Tim Duncan clinically dissecting post-D's for 40 minutes doesn't hold interest.

Golabki wrote:It is pretty easy to check this. With Garnett in the lineup we scored 4 more points (per 100 possessions) than without him. If you aren't used to looking at these types of numbers, I can tell you that is a pretty sizable difference.

Its not that simple though. You can't accurately judge offensive performance without also taking into account defensive performance / margin of victory. That stuff affects motivation/garbage time/etc.

Edited - I originally read your post as we scored four more points per 100 poss. without KG. Its also worth noting that Ray & Rondo had better offensive plus / minus statistics (Ray was noticeably more important offensively). However if you factor that we were a much better defensive team with KG on the floor, his offensive +/- is still impressive enough.

But considering the KG is our only star caliber offensive player in our front court, you could argue his offensive +/- should have been higher...

Roscoe Sheed wrote:variety.

That is the key word, IMO