Author Topic: We are too small  (Read 3841 times)

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Re: We are too small
« Reply #15 on: November 13, 2018, 06:56:46 PM »

Offline Surferdad

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The Celtics have the best defensive rating in the league. For all the crying about defense we hell Indy, Portland and Phoenix in regular time to 100 points each. In Indy, Phoenix and Denver the player that killed us were Oladipo, Booker and Murray. All guards.

Boston is also 7th in defensive rebounds per game and 11th in total rebounds per game.

What this team needs to do is get out of the shooting slump they are in. They generate more open looks in the league than anyone but are hitting those open looks at a terrible %.

We aren't too small 6'3" PG, 6'7" SG, 6'8" SF, 6'9" PF, 6'10' PF. And we are extremely long. We just need to improve our shooting. That's it.
Nick, i’ve been saying the same thing in these threads. Higher fg% will cure a lot of ills.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #16 on: November 13, 2018, 07:06:32 PM »

Offline GreenEnvy

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well, right now the celtics are 11th in the nba in total rebounds per team. so they arent getting killed too often in that category.

I’m too lazy to look it up and am curious, what’s our rank in rebounding percentage?

I feel like that rank may be higher than it should because we force a lot more misses than the average team, although we probably play at a slower pace.

I don’t think we get killed on the glass but I also don’t think we are particularly great. Rozier is the only plus rebounder for his position, imo.
We are 7th in defreb% and 20th in totreb% but we are so low in totreb% because we shoot the most perimeter shots in the NBA and make no attempt at offensive rebounding because we would rather get back on defense and stop fast breaks. Therefore we are last in the league in offreb%.

So we are actually almost elite at defensive rebounding.

In addition to not crashing the offensive glass, I think we prefer to get back and set our defense rather than attempt an unlikely offensive board. So I can live with not going for offensive rebounds all the time as long as we continue to defend like we have been and limit their possessions.

In this era, a guy routinely going for an offensive rebound is likely to create a lot of 4-on-4 breaks which almost everyone can shoot threes now, so I think we get back by design.
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Re: We are too small
« Reply #17 on: November 13, 2018, 07:10:30 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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What this team needs to do is get out of the shooting slump they are in. They generate more open looks in the league than anyone but are hitting those open looks at a terrible %.




What I want to know about this "open looks" stat is -- who is getting those shots?

Subjectively, I feel like a lot of those open looks are for guys who the other team is happy to let shoot, i.e. Aron Baynes, Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward (for now), Semi Ojeleye, etc.

Most players, even poor shooters, do well with open looks, but I do think it's worth figuring out just how good all these open looks are.  Because if the open looks are by and large for guys who are historically poor shooters, it may not be so easy to simply "shoot better."


Taking a look at the Celtics' shooting percentages ...

Kyrie is shooting 40.5% on threes, which is about as good as you could hope.

Morris is shooting a super unsustainable 48.4%.

Horford is wallowing at 27.6%.  We should expect that to improve for sure.  He accounts for 4.4 attempts per game.

Tatum is hitting 38.6% of his 4.4 attempts; that may go up, but it's probably around what we should expect.

Brown is hitting only 27.5%, similar to Horford.  I would expect him to end up closer to 36%.

Gordon is at 31.9% but it may not be reasonable to expect a ton of improvement there, at least for the near term.

Smart, Baynes, Semi, Theis ... these guys are hitting around 30-33%, which is what I would expect for them anyway.



So yeah ... Horford and Brown should get better.  Although I think it's important to note that if the both of them were shooting a combined 40% on their ~9 attempts per game, that would only net the Celts an additional 1.2 made threes per game, or about 3.6 points per game.  That said, better shooting from those two would make the starting lineup a lot more potent and may open up scoring opportunities in other areas.

« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 07:17:59 PM by PhoSita »
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Re: We are too small
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2018, 07:16:32 PM »

Offline jc3celticsphan

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We keep getting killed inside by big, talented centers.

When will Brad get it? We need to start Baynes and play Williams.
williams deserves PT. it kind of just hit me today the modern nba can use more legnthy athletics players tatum seems to be that build. not a fan of baynes however he can shoot so i hope that changes. quick

It seems we could use another SG/SF having two PG's probably isn't helping this lol

Re: We are too small
« Reply #19 on: November 13, 2018, 07:17:45 PM »

Offline Chris22

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well, right now the celtics are 11th in the nba in total rebounds per team. so they arent getting killed too often in that category.

You haven't been watching the last few games.

We need interior defense and rebounds.

Start Baynes and play Williams.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 07:26:16 PM by Chris22 »

Re: We are too small
« Reply #20 on: November 13, 2018, 07:55:45 PM »

Offline nickagneta

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well, right now the celtics are 11th in the nba in total rebounds per team. so they arent getting killed too often in that category.

You haven't been watching the last few games.

We need interior defense and rebounds.

Start Baynes and play Williams.
We held Portland to 17 points below their average points scored per game. We held the Blazers two biggest scorers to 7 points below their average and 6 points below their average. We shot a paltry 33% from three. If we shoot a good 38%from three we win the game by two. Size of players did not cost us the Portland game. Missing open three pointers did.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #21 on: November 13, 2018, 08:34:18 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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It seems other teams have small ball guys like us now and it has lost its magic.   The trouble is they also have bigs to punish us, too.  I have always thought small as a tactical option in a game, not to be the basis of your primary basketball system.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #22 on: November 13, 2018, 09:03:01 PM »

Offline moiso

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We keep getting killed inside by big, talented centers.

When will Brad get it? We need to start Baynes and play Williams.
williams deserves PT. it kind of just hit me today the modern nba can use more legnthy athletics players tatum seems to be that build. not a fan of baynes however he can shoot so i hope that changes. quick

It seems we could use another SG/SF having two PG's probably isn't helping this lol
How do you know what PT Williams deserves?  Are you at the practices?  Do you understand the nuances of the game better than Brad Stevens?  Williams is probably the most fascinating player we have due to his freakish tools and athleticism.  He’s probably the guy I’d most like watch and he probably makes the most spectacular plays.  But I’m sure he is getting the amount of PT that he deserves at this point.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #23 on: November 13, 2018, 09:05:01 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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It seems other teams have small ball guys like us now and it has lost its magic.   

The trick now is to be able to play "small" while nonetheless fielding a team that gives up nothing in height or wingspan.
You’ll have to excuse my lengthiness—the reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom & forget to let up. Thus much precious time is lost.
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Re: We are too small
« Reply #24 on: November 13, 2018, 09:06:58 PM »

Offline moiso

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I really feel like danny should try to explore options for WCS give us some size and points in the paint.
Too bad we didn’t grab him last year when nobody liked him all that much.  He’s playing very well this year and I’m sure the Kings would be looking for a lot more at this point in time.  I like the idea though.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #25 on: November 13, 2018, 09:18:16 PM »

Offline Chris22

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In our last three losses....

Denver outrebounded us by 7.
Utah outrebounded us by 17.
Portland outrebounded us by 13.

Plus, the big centers are scoring inside on us at will.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #26 on: November 13, 2018, 10:14:20 PM »

Online SHAQATTACK

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In our last three losses....

Denver outrebounded us by 7.
Utah outrebounded us by 17.
Portland outrebounded us by 13.

Plus, the big centers are scoring inside on us at will.


th lebron era has begun to fade.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #27 on: November 14, 2018, 06:06:43 AM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Quote
The trick now is to be able to play "small" while nonetheless fielding a team that gives up nothing in height or wingspan.

Agree, but we made it our primary option.

Re: We are too small
« Reply #28 on: November 14, 2018, 08:43:02 AM »

Offline mmmmm

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The trick now is to be able to play "small" while nonetheless fielding a team that gives up nothing in height or wingspan.

Agree, but we made it our primary option.

So far this season, it's been nearly our _only_ option, with Brad opting to floor just one "true big" (any of Al, Baynes, Theis, Yabusele or Williams) over 90% of the time.

Considering that we are also putting two "smalls" (any of Kyrie, Rozier, Smart or Wanamaker) on the floor a lot, that means we are putting a lot of very small lineups on the floor.

As many have noted, this didn't hurt us on defense for the first 9 games -- we were pretty awesome on D through that.  But teams seem to have been specifically targeting it the last few games.

Well, the NBA is a game of adjustments.  Lets see how Brad adjusts.
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