Raptors (30-19) at Celtics (30-18) Game #49 2/1/17

[trickybilly]

Its getting harder to talk about IT sophisticatedly.

OMG! and, wow, and, what the? Is about as classy writing anyone can muster

[celticslove]

Isaiah Thomas turning into a legitimate dark horse MVP candidate

I see it as a 3-man battle between Westbrook, Harden & IT4. He is incredible!

Westbrook is slowly losing his case. They are only few games now between .500 record.

Yes he will still get votes but if his stats just stay incredible because of a crazy high usage rate on a below .500 team he loses a lot of his luster.

too bad media doesn't like boston, harden will win

[Denis998]

The magic number is 1. Either 1 win from Boston or 1 loss from Toronto and Brad is going to the All Star game.

[jpotter33]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

[liam]

The magic number is 1. Either 1 win from Boston or 1 loss from Toronto and Brad is going to the All Star game.

The Raps have a cup cake schedule but they have been losing to a lot of pretty bad teams lately and we are on a roll!

[saltlover]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

[Sketch5]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

Exactly. If he rants and rages all the time, players will just glaze over during the rants. He does the same thing with refs.

It's like parents that yell at their kids all the time, their yelling and the kids aren't scared of their threats. But a parent that does if once in a while gets better results when they do raise their voices.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

WE THE 4TH!!!


WE THE 4TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[greece66]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

Telling Stevens how we would have done it better takes half the fun away from being a blogger.

[jpotter33]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

Naw, he can certainly be tougher and hold players more accountable.

And I just love the fact that you can't criticize Brad anymore without it being suggested that "you think you can coach better than him," or some other useless drivel like that.

People need to stop being so biased and homers. Even the best players and coaches have things that they can be criticized for, including Brad. Brad is a good coach, but he does make some highly questionable rotation decisions at times, and I do wish he'd hold the players more accountable.

[greece66]

@jpotter33

>highly questionable rotation decisions>

>holding players more accountable>

this is vague. basically just saying Stevens could do better.

IMO if you could give concrete examples, it would help the conversation go forward.

[saltlover]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

Naw, he can certainly be tougher and hold players more accountable.

And I just love the fact that you can't criticize Brad anymore without it being suggested that "you think you can coach better than him," or some other useless drivel like that.

People need to stop being so biased and homers. Even the best players and coaches have things that they can be criticized for, including Brad. Brad is a good coach, but he does make some highly questionable rotation decisions at times, and I do wish he'd hold the players more accountable.

No, you don't get a pass on this one by calling me "biased" and a "homer."  You literally have ZERO idea how to motivate NBA players. Have you met any of the players on the Celtics? Spent 5 minutes with them?  Do you know if shouting at them in the middle of a play is more likely to help them focus instead of distract them?  Do you know what injuries you're asking them to play through? Do you know what the scouting report told them to do?

You literally know NONE of this.  And a whole lot more.  One of the most widely complemented characteristics of Brad's coaching is his demeanor.  To say that he should do anything differently is being biased in your own ability to evaluate things.  No more, no less.

It's really annoying how consistently self-righteous you can be, quality win after quality win.

[jpotter33]

@jpotter33

>highly questionable rotation decisions>

>holding players more accountable>

this is vague. basically just saying Stevens could do better.

IMO if you could give concrete examples, it would help the conversation go forward.

I give examples all the time.

There are three prominent ones that I harp on all of the time. First is this insistence to continue starting Al and Amir, which has clearly not worked since neither of them are capable of defending out on the perimeter. And it wasn't just due to KO's injury like Salt theorized earlier in another thread. He's said that JJ will still only be starting against certain teams, which just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Second is this insistence of still going to the three guard (point guards, nonetheless) lineups, even when they've been a disaster by almost every measure. Statistically and by the eye test, those lineups are beyond terrible, but Brad just continues to go to them for trust reasons or something like that.

Third is his inconsistent usage of staggering IT and Horford, especially when we have injuries, specifically when Smart has to play mainly with the first unit. This is something that he should ALWAYS do, because it helps to always have a primary focus of offense for the defense to focus on. Yet, he's been very inconsistent in this regard, and a lot of times it's caused big runs with the bench giving up leads sans IT and AL.

He has improved on some rotation decisions, though, such as having Smart be the primary ballhandler behind IT. At the start of the year, he had Rozier doing a lot of the ballhandling, but he recognized that it wasn't working. He also has started having IT off the ball more, which is also something that works really well in small doses.

And I applaud him for those moves. He is a good coach, but he's far from perfect and far from being above criticism. And this whole notion that you can't criticize him without thinking you're a "better coach" or something is just nonsense. People here need to lighten up. Nobody is above criticism.

[greece66]

@jpotter33

thank you and TP.

[jpotter33]

According to IT, apparently Brad chewed out the guys at halftime and was as mad as he's ever been.

No wonder they came out much better in the second half. Brad has to be that kind of coach more often.

No he doesn't. Just needs to save it for the right moments. I think it's pretty clear he knows how to coach, even if you could do better.

Naw, he can certainly be tougher and hold players more accountable.

And I just love the fact that you can't criticize Brad anymore without it being suggested that "you think you can coach better than him," or some other useless drivel like that.

People need to stop being so biased and homers. Even the best players and coaches have things that they can be criticized for, including Brad. Brad is a good coach, but he does make some highly questionable rotation decisions at times, and I do wish he'd hold the players more accountable.

No, you don't get a pass on this one by calling me "biased" and a "homer."  You literally have ZERO idea how to motivate NBA players. Have you met any of the players on the Celtics? Spent 5 minutes with them?  Do you know if shouting at them in the middle of a play is more likely to help them focus instead of distract them?  Do you know what injuries you're asking them to play through? Do you know what the scouting report told them to do?

You literally know NONE of this.  And a whole lot more.  One of the most widely complemented characteristics of Brad's coaching is his demeanor.  To say that he should do anything differently is being biased in your own ability to evaluate things.  No more, no less.

It's really annoying how consistently self-righteous you can be, quality win after quality win.

Lol. Get over yourself. 

I'm not sure what your deal with Brad is, but if your feathers get this ruffled over me questioning a coach's rotation decisions and me actually giving Brad a compliment for roasting our players' effort in the first half, then perhaps some introspection is called for to attain some objectivity. Good grief.