The good thing I can take out of this is at at least we are playing well in portions - the first couple of games we played attrocious the entire game.
Against Washington for example we were pretty solid in the first quarter, third quarter and in overtime. We sucked anus in the second and fourth.
Today was similar - we sucked badly in the first half, but we showed some real fight in the second.
I don't think I need to point too much at the things we did badly in this game, because they are obvious. Instead I'm going to mainly point out the things I liked:
1. The Big Three
Kevin Garnett has been outstanding - he's pretty much playing at the same intense level as he did in the playoffs last season, despite it only being 5 games in. Love this guy!
Rondo has been pretty spectacular as well. Yeah he's made some questionable decisions here and there but his scoring and assists are up, his turnovers are down and his FG% and 3PT% are both way up (though he didn't shoot well tonight). You can't argue with 20 assists - that's 40% of our scoring tonight coming off of Rondo's assists.
Despite the number of complaints about him, Pierce has been strong as well. He's struggling with his midrange jumper, but he did so last year as well. The important thing is that when his shot isn't falling he's finding other ways to score / contribute (24 points on 8-16 shooting, along with 5 assists and 4 rebouds).
2. Terry
He started his first 3 games pretty slow, but the last two games Terry has given us the type of offense I had been expecting from him. He is averaging 14.5 over the last two games on 12-22 FG (55%), 4-9 3PT (45%) and 5-5 FT (100%). He's also averaging 2 ASS:TO over those two games, and he's plays some intense defense in some of that time as well. He has been pretty invisible in the first half of games, but he's been coming out pretty strong in the second half.
3. Barbosa
Barbosa hasn't gotten a huge number of minutes and he hasn't been especially aggressive on offense, but overall I like what he's given us. He's plays surprisingly solid defense (which I didn't expect), he's scored very efficiently, and he hasn't made any stupid mistakes. Plus he's still fast as lightning out there.
4. Wilcox
Wilcox has been fantastic. He was non-existent in his first 2 or 3 games due to conditioning, but he has absolutely made the most of every minute on the court. Doc has been steadilly increasing those minutes (he played 12 tonight) and every minute Wilcox is on the court, that's one extra minute that we don't have Sully or Bass playing center.
5. Bass
Bass hass been decent, if not outstanding. He's been surprisingly inconsistent (usually he's the model of consistency) and has been giving us excellent games followed by mediocre games. Prior to today he has been averaging 7.5 rebounds per 30 minutes (as opposed to 5.9 RP30 last season) which is s big improvement. He's also been more aggressive attacking the basket which I like. His jumper hasn't been quite as lethal as last year though, but I'm hoping he'll get that back. He adds some aggressiveness to the second unit which I think works very well for us.
6. Proper Small Ball
One thing that I learned today is that if we do play small ball, it needs to be proper small ball.
The potential benefits of small ball are two-fold:
1. You increase your quickness on defensive rotations
2. Nore perimeter shooting to help stretch the floor
With Sullinger at the 5 and Bass at the 4 we are not playing proper small ball, because:
1. Sully doesn't really stretch the floor
2. Sully + Bass doesn't give is any quickness advantage
The result is that we get all the negatives of playing small ball (i.e. we are smaller) but none of the benefits (we lack scoring and our defense sucks).
Towards the end of the game today Doc went proper small with KG/Wilcox at C, Pierce/Green at PF and three guards (Terry/Rondo/Barbosa/Lee) on the perimeter. As soon as he did this our perimeter defense improved dramatically, the quick hands of our bigs were disrupting their interior offense, our perimeter shooters helped to spread the floor, and we were out running on the fast breaks.
If Doc wants to play small ball THIS is the type of rotation he needs to go with.
More impressive is that it was the first time we've seen Doc go with that type of lineup this season, and they it already fit like clockwork. There were a few minutes there where our defense really looked like Celtics D.
Now, for the bad...
Somebody needs to tell Sullinger and Green that we are still in the preseason.
Sullinger was playing with a real sense of aggression in the preseason, like he had nothing to loose. He was going hard after rebounds, boxing out constantly, wasn't afraid to bang inside, and was doing a great job of getting to the line. Regular season he's been much more passive - it's almost like he knows he's a rookie, so he needs to take a backseat and let the veterans show him how it's done. Hell no! It was his aggression and confidence in the preseason that made him look like a 5 year veteran out there, and he needs to get back to that if we are going to be an elite team.
Similar words for Green - I get the feeling his issues right now are all confidence related. In the preseason when games didn't count, he was never shy about taking his shot. Even if he had a guy on him he would try to blow by him on defense, or he'd try to post him up, or with shorter guys he'd pull up and shoot over them. It seemed like he was playing relatively fearless because he knew the games didn't matter, and he was playing great as a result. Regular season and now the games count - as soon as he touches the ball he holds it and waits...then when a defender comes within 5 feet of him he picks up the ball, holds it long enough for the defense to set up, and then tries to throw a bail-out pass to KG or Rondo. It looks to me like he's afraid of having his shot blocked, afraid of missing or afraid of being seen as a ballhog. None of that here!! He needs to pretend these are pickup games - I don't care if he turns the ball over, if he clangs off the front rim or if he doesn't seen an open guy in the corner...he needs to look to score every time he touches the ball, and the rest will come. Last season Doc came to KG with the '20 shot' rule - every night he needed to take 20 shot attempts. He needs to go to Green with a '10 shot' rule - if he doesn't take at least 10 FG attempts every night, he's getting benched.
Lee has been pretty unspectacular, but I didn't expect a huge amount from him...he was always going to be a filler rather than a key piece IMHO. Green and Sullinger however are key pieces to this team - we desperately need the skillsets they bring to the game. As those guys go, so will this team.
December 15 is a good date. It's a full month from now, so by that time we will be able to see once and for all what these guys are made of. I couldn't give up on them just yet because it's way too early, but if Sully and Green haven't picked up their game by December 15 I'd be sending them out (along with possibly Lee) in an attempt to get a proper starting big who isn't afraid to play with aggression - Millsap, Smith, Varejao, Hickson, Sanders, Laundry...take your pick.