Preseason’s Over: Your Takeaways?

[Kuberski33]

1. Jaylen & Tatum weren't engaged in either game
2. Jaylen looks like he hasn't practiced much since the playoffs ended

Neither of the above are anything to be concerned about.
More worrisome are the following:

3. At least one and possibly 2 members of their early season rotation have no record of success in the league.
4. Seeing no evidence that Hayward's ball movement has been replaced
5. When the 3's aren't falling there aren't a lot of other options available to generate offense
6. Too much NBA deadwood on the roster - still.
8. Bench scoring after Teague - no idea where it's coming from
7. Team looks like it's still figuring out how it wants to play

Positives-
8. Teague looks like a good signing
9. Pritchard and Nesmith look like they'll be NBA players eventually
10. What we're seeing isn't surprising given the circumstances.  It's pre season and after a deep run in the playoffs which ended only 2 months ago, it's going to take time to get back in gear. - unfortunately it's going to show in the won-loss record in the short term.

[Who]

Need 2 more pre season games to fine tune

- Celts as of now are behind 76ers, Heat and Nets. Maybe Bucks, but they have looked bad in the pre season also
- Brad has to stop starting Green
- NBA 3 pt line has been difficult to digest for many of the younger players

What do you mean maybe Bucks? Cs are fifth in talent in the east for sure.

Yeah, I reckon that is the case. Cs are 5th best in East.

Probably behind Raptors too

Did the Raptors not get worse this summer? They lost Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

What did they do to replace those guys / get better?

[Somebody]

Need 2 more pre season games to fine tune

- Celts as of now are behind 76ers, Heat and Nets. Maybe Bucks, but they have looked bad in the pre season also
- Brad has to stop starting Green
- NBA 3 pt line has been difficult to digest for many of the younger players

What do you mean maybe Bucks? Cs are fifth in talent in the east for sure.

Yeah, I reckon that is the case. Cs are 5th best in East.

Probably behind Raptors too

Did the Raptors not get worse this summer? They lost Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

What did they do to replace those guys / get better?

They did get Tippy Toe Baynes to replace Gasol, but yeah I think they got worse barring player development.

[NKY fan]

What’s going on with the decision on players options that are due in a week?
Are they waiting the Christmas game to decide? If Danny and Brad really believed in: Timelord, Grant and Romeo their options would have been picked already for next year... they also have to decide on Green soon.
If I had to bet Romeos option would be picked but there are real discussions on Grant and Timelord options. If we are in the luxury tax territory next year their contracts might be painful for Wyc...
Another consideration is if they pick up the above three options for next year then next season we are looking at 7-8 players on rookie contracts again meaning we are back to where we were last year (and this year) in terms of depth.

[Ogaju]

LOL Ogaju...

_ First there is 29 other teams in the league, fans that all want the same, fans who want the same : to win in the quickest way possible. There is also places like Los Angeles or Miami who have an advantage to find an easyest way to cash in FA and change roster in few years. As I posted we tryed the trade for big stars/FA way (Kirie, Gordon, AD), all of them leaved in bad ways or rejected us badly -ad we lost Gilgeous Alexander in the Kirie trade....
_ Second, no it is no insanity, because our team change each years, the plan is not the same than last year (many of you folks were very very negativ last year after Kririe leaving) and the expectations are also (I mean the only year where we really had to do evthg to win now was 4 years ago and it was during half of the first match before Haward injurie ruined it). I mean I will be more critic if we fall in first round of PO
_ Third, the redundant narration is on your side not in ours : I don't say we will win the title this year; we choose the youth moovement just one year ago and you need some patience for that. Maybe JB as some say won't progress much more (but he is still borderline all star and it is not becasue he put only 16 points in a preseason game it changes that stuff...). You folks are angry when Kririe team fall, then you are mad and negativ when he leaves, then after Raptors come back to a 7 game in ECSF you see we will loose and then when our surpisingly good team go in final you still see a lot of limitation... That with a superstar of 22 who is on line of PO records of the best all time young on the league etc... Last year Philly sucked in big largness, we blew them in PO and now they are far away behind us because they brought Stephen Curry and 2010 version of Danny Green... Did they ?
_ Forth I don't say Ainge is perfect and maybe some of the last choices (last year draft, maybe Pritchrd this year, no move at trade dealine last year) were not that good... But I am a little less self confident in my short term views than you guys... As many time I didn't liked what Ainge did and finally it brought gold (alos because of luck and context I get it). Smae for Stevens who was a little outcoached by Spoelstra and Nurse. But still is a top 5 coach in the league
_ Fifth, even if our both regards on others are true, that I am insane with to much positivity and you insane with negativity I still prefere my blindness and it makes me more of a supporter.   

I enjoy your posts guy you are the ultimate rah rah the team can do no wrong guy. lol So do not include me in that insanity. I want change I want improvement so you cannot call that insane running it back hoping for a different result. It is fans that challenge the organization that make it better not the fans that accept nonsense. Looks like even Brad agrees that the team played terribly yesterday.

[Vermont Green]

This is what I said in the Nets game thread:

As to the game, it is tough on the Celtics right now with 4 key players injured, 3 of which (Walker, Theis, Thompson) are potential starters.  You are basically throwing out combinations that have never played together and have hardly practiced together.   Hard to make any judgments on players or the team as a whole under the circumstances other than to expect a slow start to the season.

We have key players hurt (although good to see Theis on the court at least) and we will be counting on rookies, who have played a total of 2 preseason games and have hardly practiced, and new players, to fill in.  I expect it to be "not pretty" for a bit if not longer than a bit but we still have a good core team.  How good depends a lot on Walker getting back and at what level.

To start the season, our core line up may well look like:

Smart
Brown
Tatum
Theis
Thompson

with Teague leading the second unit including Javonte Green, GWill, RWill, and some rookies and journeymen.  If/when we get Walker and Langford back, that reinforces the core unit and the bench but until then, yikes.

[SparzWizard]

The Celtics look like they're balling like a #6 seed with their key players out.

I hope that's not the long-term goal this season.

[tonydelk]

Right now the cs need a bench scorer badly.  Semi or edwards can go immediately. Neither are nba players and its evident.  There has to be a better option out there then those two. 

[OhioGreen]

One more observation from the two preseason games.  I really like Payton Pritchard, and think he's gonna be our PG of the future, but really dislike the way BS has used him so far.  Almost exclusively has him playing the 2, either with Teague or Waters at the 1.
First, I don't like the small backcourt combination, and secondly, you're taking away Pritchards ability to get teammates open with his ballhandling, and get himself scoring ops.  When he's at the 2 they've essentially got him standing on the wings getting the occasional three point chance.
Really like to see Smart go back to 6th man(where he excels) and use PP with the other starters, handling and distributing.  Now it's just give it to JT, have everyone stand around and watch him go ISO.  Takes all the movement out of the offense.

[PhoSita]

Without Kemba healthy, this team doesn't have enough players to put in the rotation who can pressure an opposing defense. 

They're going to get by defensively, for the most part, but until Kemba is back this team is going to be hard to watch offensively for long stretches.

[coco]

Without Kemba healthy, this team doesn't have enough players to put in the rotation who can pressure an opposing defense. 

They're going to get by defensively, for the most part, but until Kemba is back this team is going to be hard to watch offensively for long stretches.

We can’t count on Kemba.  He’ll be in-and-out of the rotation until he is no longer a Celtic.

...if he wasn’t ready for the restart (after a 4 months break) and is not ready now after a 2 month break;  it’s not looking good.  For me; Kemba is an ocasional - as opposed to rotation - player.  The situation is detrimental to developing team chemistry.

[Ogaju]

Without Kemba healthy, this team doesn't have enough players to put in the rotation who can pressure an opposing defense. 

They're going to get by defensively, for the most part, but until Kemba is back this team is going to be hard to watch offensively for long stretches.

We can’t count on Kemba.  He’ll be in-and-out of the rotation until he is no longer a Celtic.

...if he wasn’t ready for the restart (after a 4 months break) and is not ready now after a 2 month break;  it’s not looking good.  For me; Kemba is an ocasional - as opposed to rotation - player.  The situation is detrimental to developing team chemistry.

Can someone please coach bringing up the ball out of Jayson Tatum? He should hand the ball to his point guard after a rebound unless there is a clear fast break opportunity. The idea of him dribbling up the ball like a PG is the height of indiscipline and any serious coach would coach that out o him immediately.

[Kuberski33]

What’s going on with the decision on players options that are due in a week?
Are they waiting the Christmas game to decide? If Danny and Brad really believed in: Timelord, Grant and Romeo their options would have been picked already for next year... they also have to decide on Green soon.
If I had to bet Romeos option would be picked but there are real discussions on Grant and Timelord options. If we are in the luxury tax territory next year their contracts might be painful for Wyc...
Another consideration is if they pick up the above three options for next year then next season we are looking at 7-8 players on rookie contracts again meaning we are back to where we were last year (and this year) in terms of depth.

Gerald Green just got waived. He's an upgrade over Javonte. Maybe there are better options out there, but Javonte sure as heck isn't the answer to much except taking up a roster spot.

[tstorey_97]

The games were meaningless beyond running around and getting in shape.

The rooks got some time which is good since they may not have G-league this year.

Starting unit will "start" against Bucks and we can see what's up.

Pritchard is going to be a good bench player as time goes by. He will get some minutes now as Walker isn't, but Waters (below) looks a step ahead as of today. This makes sense as he has a one year jump. I do still see Pritchard hitting threes in the NBA.

Nesmith looked ok....needs minutes, but, he has a slowish, but excellent shot

Smart is a good veteran point guard, but Teague is a better veteran point guard.

Theis looked fine last night. Tatum and Brown will be fine.

Robert looks below average, I don't know if he'll improve, I sure hope so, but, if Thompson is ok, Robert won't get many minutes.

Waters looked very good last night unlike most of the rest of the team. He ran the floor and fought hard, made some good plays. Maybe he will get minutes, I don't know.

Edwards is suffering mightily.

Semi is Semi, he won't lose the game for you which is good.

I am still grumpy about losing to the Heat. I don't like Pat Riley as he was a Laker back in the day and always will be to me.

The core of Smart Tatum Brown Theis play really well together as they have for a long time. They play very very tough defense and check on each other really well.

I'm not sure about Kemba's injury.

My guess is if you add Thompson to the group, the team improves as he is an NBA starting center and I have and will always view Theis as a perfect backup NBA center.

If Walker returns you have Smart and Theis and Teague off the bench, which means we have a better team than last year.

The issue is the east got better and it will be a dogfight which is good. The Celtics are a team that is suited for a dogfight as they play defense.

I think we get sucked into offensive stats and forget that Red built his teams off of defense and he won more titles than any other north American sports executive in history....which means he is right.




 

[Scottiej23]

LOL Ogaju...

_ First there is 29 other teams in the league, fans that all want the same, fans who want the same : to win in the quickest way possible. There is also places like Los Angeles or Miami who have an advantage to find an easyest way to cash in FA and change roster in few years. As I posted we tryed the trade for big stars/FA way (Kirie, Gordon, AD), all of them leaved in bad ways or rejected us badly -ad we lost Gilgeous Alexander in the Kirie trade....
_ Second, no it is no insanity, because our team change each years, the plan is not the same than last year (many of you folks were very very negativ last year after Kririe leaving) and the expectations are also (I mean the only year where we really had to do evthg to win now was 4 years ago and it was during half of the first match before Haward injurie ruined it). I mean I will be more critic if we fall in first round of PO
_ Third, the redundant narration is on your side not in ours : I don't say we will win the title this year; we choose the youth moovement just one year ago and you need some patience for that. Maybe JB as some say won't progress much more (but he is still borderline all star and it is not becasue he put only 16 points in a preseason game it changes that stuff...). You folks are angry when Kririe team fall, then you are mad and negativ when he leaves, then after Raptors come back to a 7 game in ECSF you see we will loose and then when our surpisingly good team go in final you still see a lot of limitation... That with a superstar of 22 who is on line of PO records of the best all time young on the league etc... Last year Philly sucked in big largness, we blew them in PO and now they are far away behind us because they brought Stephen Curry and 2010 version of Danny Green... Did they ?
_ Forth I don't say Ainge is perfect and maybe some of the last choices (last year draft, maybe Pritchrd this year, no move at trade dealine last year) were not that good... But I am a little less self confident in my short term views than you guys... As many time I didn't liked what Ainge did and finally it brought gold (alos because of luck and context I get it). Smae for Stevens who was a little outcoached by Spoelstra and Nurse. But still is a top 5 coach in the league
_ Fifth, even if our both regards on others are true, that I am insane with to much positivity and you insane with negativity I still prefere my blindness and it makes me more of a supporter.   

I want change I want improvement so you cannot call that insane running it back hoping for a different result. It is fans that challenge the organization that make it better not the fans that accept nonsense.

What a bunch of self-righteous nonsense. There is some rubbish that gets posted here, but this really takes the cake. You really think your incessant whining is "challenging" the organisation? All you do is carp and complain and anyone who doesn't agree with your rambling is just a "rah-rah" who believes everything is perfect. Ridiculous...