Official Celtics 2022 Off-Season Thread

[Andrew McCeltic]

What's the non-effort/mental strength explanation for this team's bad ball movement? Too many bad habits for Tatum and Brown to change, so the team regresses? That's not about "effort", it's about slow and uneven growth.

Is Ime being vague about defining roles, implementing his system and explaining what he wants?

Or do we just not have the mix of talents that makes "executing" easier? We got rid of Kemba and Fournier, we have a few guys who are good at playing off the ball in complementary roles and can score unobtrusively - Horford, JRich, Grant - Romeo and Rob are not bad, either. They don't take advantage of Rob or Al as passers and playmakers, Juancho doesn't play even though they said they liked getting him because he was a great cutter off the ball.. other than Jaylen, our average offensive IQ is better than our performance..

[Andrew McCeltic]

We might hugely overrate Smart, it's taken for granted he's our third best player.. but maybe he's our fourth or fifth best.. what would he be on a good team? We had Jaylen/Jayson/Kyrie/Hayward/Al ahead of him at one point..

Like, say he's elite defensively. So was Robert Covington, but if you swap Smart for a younger Covington - or for PJ Tucker - prime Avery Bradley, Patrick Beverley.. we don't talk about him like he's in that tier. But he's not even a top 20 point guard! He has that Antoine Walker optical illusion on offense - solid passer, takes too many threes, and he carries himself like a good player, he takes a lot of shots that look good, where he looks like a star until he bricks it.

You can't just get rid of him, but the way we overrate him hides the fact the cupboard on this roster is bare. We don't have a big 2.5, we have a big 1.5, the drop-off from Brown to Marcus is steep, and from Marcus to JRich isn't a big step down.

[Andrew McCeltic]

The other weird thing about this team's chemistry is that we're getting a lot out of our rotation guys! Schroeder is putting up virtually identical numbers to his year in LA when they were ready to pay him 80 million. Josh Richardson is shooting 45/40/84, Grant is 49/42/89.. Rob is a near double double in 28 minutes a night on great efficiency.. Horford is getting almost 8 boards and 4 assists, he's just having a down year from three (27 percent, worse than Smart). What more could you want around your stars?

[zoyathedestroya]

Danny sleeping on the job again.

Read on Twitter

[Curmudgeon]

Allison Feaster is a finalist for the GM job in Portland.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Bruno and Aaron sent to G League

[Andrew McCeltic]

Tatum’s putting up career lows in field goal and three point percentage.. not talked about much as a problem.

[BostonCouchGM]

Bruno and Aaron sent to G League

Poor kid. Really hoping he and Pritchard can escape this mess at the trade deadline or the offseason

[Andrew McCeltic]

Nesmith isn't being held back by "this mess" - he plays rushed and bricks shots. It's all mental for him, but not because of the short leash and limited reps. Also possible his early season shooting at Vanderbilt was a fluke..

[zoyathedestroya]

Read on Twitter

Back on track for a .500 season and 1st round exit! YEAH, BABY, YEAHHHH!!!

[BK_2020]

Bruno and Aaron sent to G League

Poor kid. Really hoping he and Pritchard can escape this mess at the trade deadline or the offseason

Hopefully Pritchard flourishes once he's away from the team that holds him down, just like how Sekou and Luka Samanic have become superstars.

[Patsfan1081]

Read on Twitter

Back on track for a .500 season and 1st round exit! YEAH, BABY, YEAHHHH!!!

Mediocrity is the worst position to be in, and this team is currently that. In the past I argued they couldnt be a treadmill because of all their assets and young players. Not sure you can argue that now as they limited assets.

[Parliament10]

Read on Twitter

[Larry_Russell]

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Trade incoming???

[Celts17Pride]

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Trade incoming???

This is common. Get the young players some playing time on Sunday in the G League. Call them back up for the game on Monday. Nothing to see here.

[Larry_Russell]

Read on Twitter

Trade incoming???

This is common. Get the young players some playing time on Sunday in the G League. Call them back up for the game on Monday. Nothing to see here.

ik

[keevsnick1]

The other weird thing about this team's chemistry is that we're getting a lot out of our rotation guys! Schroeder is putting up virtually identical numbers to his year in LA when they were ready to pay him 80 million. Josh Richardson is shooting 45/40/84, Grant is 49/42/89.. Rob is a near double double in 28 minutes a night on great efficiency.. Horford is getting almost 8 boards and 4 assists, he's just having a down year from three (27 percent, worse than Smart). What more could you want around your stars?

Well ideally your starting PG would be shooting above 30% from three, your starting PF would be shooting above 30% from 3, and you sixth man would be shooting above 33% from three.

When your number 3-6 rotation players (Smart-Williams-Al-Schroder) are ALL non shooters, you're gonna have a bad time. Those guys are all giving you stuff individually, or would be better in different situations, but none of the rebounding/defense/passing ect matters if the spacing KILLS your offense.

[keevsnick1]

We might hugely overrate Smart, it's taken for granted he's our third best player.. but maybe he's our fourth or fifth best.. what would he be on a good team? We had Jaylen/Jayson/Kyrie/Hayward/Al ahead of him at one point..

Like, say he's elite defensively. So was Robert Covington, but if you swap Smart for a younger Covington - or for PJ Tucker - prime Avery Bradley, Patrick Beverley.. we don't talk about him like he's in that tier. But he's not even a top 20 point guard! He has that Antoine Walker optical illusion on offense - solid passer, takes too many threes, and he carries himself like a good player, he takes a lot of shots that look good, where he looks like a star until he bricks it.

You can't just get rid of him, but the way we overrate him hides the fact the cupboard on this roster is bare. We don't have a big 2.5, we have a big 1.5, the drop-off from Brown to Marcus is steep, and from Marcus to JRich isn't a big step down.

Smart does a lot of things well. Awesome man defender, one of the most switchable guards in the league, pretty decent secondary playmaker, can run a competent PnR. Its just that the ONE thing he is well below average at, shooting/spacing the floor, is incredibly important to a team's offense. Especially if you are running offense through Tatum/Brown with him off ball. You almost can't play him on a team with a non-shooting center, because that means you're limiting your offense to a max of three shooters in crunch time when the best teams play 4 or even five.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Horford shooting like he did the last 4-5 years would go a long way. They could try starting Grant, or putting JRich at the 3 and Tatum at the 4.. but they didn't plan around Al regressing from range.

[keevsnick1]

Celtics all the way up to the 5th ranked defense, only .2 pointer per 100 behind the 4th ranked.

Of course, also all the way down at 24th on offense.