Strategy MUST change for Celtics

[KGBirdBias]

I don't know what you expected this team to be.  It is small, young, and very thin.

well, if they resigned either sully or big baby at least one problem would be solved.

more seriously, as far as i am concerned, everything thing this team does this year is a bonus. after losing hayward and having so many kids, i thought anything over .500 would be great.

now look at this team. missing its star, only 4 returning players, how many rookies? this is still a rebuild team in my mind. a chance for tatum to develop is more important than forcing him to score regardless of any habits it gives him.

i would wish the team had one consistent scorer off the bench. rozier has flashes of scoring, but too often mixed in with flashes of bone-headed decision making. 

i am enjoying this year so far. 

p.s. to the OP, you list a series of complaints and specifics you want changed. but i dont see any mention of the particular strategy you want the celtics to change. what specifically is the strategy you want us to discuss here?

I'm not saying do these things all the time but switch up the strategy at times.
-For weeks and weeks I've been saying move Tatum to the 6th man role. Start Semi or Morris. Tatum can always finish the games with the starters. We need more scoring on the 2nd unit and it gives him a chance to be assertive.

-I would use Baynes and Theis more down the stretch of games. Horford is helping on the offensive end with his 3s but he's killing the team because he can't rebound. 2nd shots late are killers.

-Have to start hiding Kyrie in PnRs because he's always trailing.

-Run more sets and PnRs with Kyrie and Tatum.
-Run more 3 man games with Kyrie, Tatum and Horford. Those are 3 tough covers

[mctyson]

No defensive rebounds in the last 6 minutes of the game is inexcusable. Why is Stevens going small in the 2nd half? I don't understand some of the rotations and why are the wrong players getting so many shots?

It really started showing up in the Jazz game.  Stevens likes to play small, especially when the team is struggling to score (to increase the pace).  He does not like 'traditional' bigs such as Baynes, because they cannot switch on everyone.

What he continues to forget is that the Celtics "small" is much smaller than most other teams because we go with 4-guard lineups sometimes.  I am sorry but I do not blame effort and boxing out when 6'7" guys tip the ball over 6'2" guys.

[KGBirdBias]

No defensive rebounds in the last 6 minutes of the game is inexcusable. Why is Stevens going small in the 2nd half? I don't understand some of the rotations and why are the wrong players getting so many shots?

It really started showing up in the Jazz game.  Stevens likes to play small, especially when the team is struggling to score (to increase the pace).  He does not like 'traditional' bigs such as Baynes, because they cannot switch on everyone.

What he continues to forget is that the Celtics "small" is much smaller than most other teams because we go with 4-guard lineups sometimes.  I am sorry but I do not blame effort and boxing out when 6'7" guys tip the ball over 6'2" guys.

LOL great points. Hey Stevens is a great coach and he knows more than me but some of these deficiencies are glaring. You're right our small ball is really extreme small ball because he's trying to play Smart on forwards. Speeding up the pace doesn't matter when you can't get a rebound. The bigs may not be able to swtich on everything but size clogs the lanes and they're harder to shoot over. Play small ball when you are behind and you need to scramble with pressure defense, traps and you want to change the pace. We're you're up or the game is tight, you want to be able to draw fouls or get 2nd chances with bigs.

If small ball means playing Horford at the 5...ok, but if Semi is the 5, then we're in trouble...and I've seen that lineup.

[mctyson]

We're starting a second-year player and a rookie... what did everyone expect. The unloading of IT was a step towards the future, unfortunately, Hayward got seriously injured.

Now we have folks pointing fingers at Kyrie because his defense is suspect? Seriously? You just unloaded one of the most useless defensive players in NBA history.

I well remember the talk about this team prior to the start of the season, everyone was in agreement, the team is young, rebounding would still be a problem, and it would take time for the true potential of this team to surface. Most of what we all predicted is now coming to true.

We all got spoiled by that winning streak.

There was nothing spoiling about it.  They were not playing great offensively and were coming back from some large deficits to win in the 4th quarter.  They were doing that because they were defending and rebounding exceptionally well.

Something changed in the past month, and one would think the coaching staff would figure out what it is.  Ironically as the rebounding has tanked, Stevens has made more of an effort to play small.  Not sure how that would fix the defensive boards but hey everyone says he is a genius so I guess he is making the right moves.

All we have to do is look at the players who have really beat up on this team over the past few weeks and caused losses:  Mirotic/Portis, Jerebko, Olynyk, Beasley, Oubre/Porter...see the theme here?  All bigs or wings.

Teams are taking advantage of the small lineups Brad is using, just like they always have.

[KGBirdBias]

We're starting a second-year player and a rookie... what did everyone expect. The unloading of IT was a step towards the future, unfortunately, Hayward got seriously injured.

Now we have folks pointing fingers at Kyrie because his defense is suspect? Seriously? You just unloaded one of the most useless defensive players in NBA history.

I well remember the talk about this team prior to the start of the season, everyone was in agreement, the team is young, rebounding would still be a problem, and it would take time for the true potential of this team to surface. Most of what we all predicted is now coming to true.

We all got spoiled by that winning streak.

There was nothing spoiling about it.  They were not playing great offensively and were coming back from some large deficits to win in the 4th quarter.  They were doing that because they were defending and rebounding exceptionally well.

Something changed in the past month, and one would think the coaching staff would figure out what it is.  Ironically as the rebounding has tanked, Stevens has made more of an effort to play small.  Not sure how that would fix the defensive boards but hey everyone says he is a genius so I guess he is making the right moves.

[b]All we have to do is look at the players who have really beat up on this team over the past few weeks and caused losses:  Mirotic/Portis, Jerebko, Olynyk, Beasley, Oubre/Porter...see the theme here?  All bigs or wings.
[/b]
Teams are taking advantage of the small lineups Brad is using, just like they always have.

Well this would be Tatum and Horford.

[nickagneta]

Celtics recent swoon coincides with Morris' injury, rest days for Kyrie, Horford and Brown, and a heavy schedule. Not saying those are the main reasons for their last 13 game dip but it certainly played its part.

I never thought the Celtics were as good as their 18 game start and also believe the are coming back to the mean. Its nearly impossible to keep up defensive pressure the way they started off the season. That's regressing. Its nearly inpossible to rebound at the rate they were given their lack of rebounders. That's regressing. Its almost impossible to expect a horrendous offensive and inexperienced bench to perform at the level they were. That has regressed.

That said, its obvious Stevens still doesn't know what he has completely in this group. He is consistently shaking up his rotation. There's been a ton of 5 man groups playing together that have barely played together and probably have never practiced as a group together.

Thought this team was a 3 or 4 seed once Hayward went down. I don't see any reason to change that opinion. This team will struggle until they get to have some rest and practice. Then they will probably start playing better again.

[droopdog7]

The fact that the Celts have played FIVE more games than Tor is downright incredible; irresponsible even. 

Edit:  apparently we’ve played SIX more games than the raptors.  Wow.

[droopdog7]

So I just checked the standings and it looks like the celts have played 3-6 more games than every other nba team except the suns (who have played two fewer games). 

So what they heck IS going on here? 

[chilidawg]

Yeah, it's a little hard to get a read on this team given the ridiculous schedule.  It helps to keep in mind that teams like Houston have struggled as well.  We'll see how they look in another month,  then I'll start jumping to conclusions.

[SparzWizard]

The fact that the Celts have played FIVE more games than Tor is downright incredible; irresponsible even. 

Edit:  apparently we’ve played SIX more games than the raptors.  Wow.

Means we will get A LOT of rest in the second half of the season right?

[bknova]

The fact that the Celts have played FIVE more games than Tor is downright incredible; irresponsible even. 

Edit:  apparently we’ve played SIX more games than the raptors.  Wow.

Means we will get A LOT of rest in the second half of the season right?

Thats the theory. This team could use some practice time. 

[flybono]

It’s evident after Monday the bench needs help.

Need a legit scorer and a defensive minded big to clean up the paint.

[green_bballers13]

No defensive rebounds in the last 6 minutes of the game is inexcusable. Why is Stevens going small in the 2nd half? I don't understand some of the rotations and why are the wrong players getting so many shots? Kyrie's PnR defense is atrocious and it's getting other people out of position.

Now does anyone believe me when I say Tatum isn't getting enough go-to plays. He was hot and gave the team the lead but for some reason Stevens always goes away from him.

There was one time he ran 2 PnRs for Theis. I couldn't believe we were going to Theis while Tatum stands in the corner.

The Celtics don't have enough resistance and grit with this makeup of players. This is a finesse team and hopefully that changes soon.

Unfortunately, you're right.  A quick Google search will bring up a ton of complaints about Kyrie's defense, many from this summer (right before he reached heightened levels of privilege).  But... no one here seems to care about that.  If he's not getting it done offensively (like last night), he's completely useless.

That's a huge problem.  As you said, Tatum isn't a focal point nearly enough for us to rely on one inconsistent scorer.  I noticed that Tatum was pulled early last night for Smart, but in the 2nd half he came out more aggressive.  He was the only guy creating offense at that point, while others were watching. 

We'll be fine.  Not sure we had the talent to beat CLE even with Hayward, so an ECF appearance this season will be just fine, and is definitely possible.  I couldn't agree more that this is a soft team, though... and Jaylen Brown made a comment that alluded to this very early on in this season when commenting about the turnaround (he named IT, as well).  Our leader is squishy, and unfortunately the rest will fall in line behind him, esp with how young we are.

I'm going to tread lightly as I know the moderators are hawks to make sure no one gets their feelings hurt....

First off, you don't play for the Celtics. You are a fan, just like the rest of us. Your leader is not Kyrie Irving. He just so happens to play for a team that you watch on television.

You consistently spew crap about Kyrie. I get it. You don't like him. Do you think that a blog dedicated to the Celtics wants to read you rip him consistently?

I personally don't think many want to read your Kyrie related posts. I believe that you are, good sir, an internet troll.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[ThaPreacher]

Celtics recent swoon coincides with Morris' injury, rest days for Kyrie, Horford and Brown, and a heavy schedule. Not saying those are the main reasons for their last 13 game dip but it certainly played its part.

I never thought the Celtics were as good as their 18 game start and also believe the are coming back to the mean. Its nearly impossible to keep up defensive pressure the way they started off the season. That's regressing. Its nearly inpossible to rebound at the rate they were given their lack of rebounders. That's regressing. Its almost impossible to expect a horrendous offensive and inexperienced bench to perform at the level they were. That has regressed.

That said, its obvious Stevens still doesn't know what he has completely in this group. He is consistently shaking up his rotation. There's been a ton of 5 man groups playing together that have barely played together and probably have never practiced as a group together.

Thought this team was a 3 or 4 seed once Hayward went down. I don't see any reason to change that opinion. This team will struggle until they get to have some rest and practice. Then they will probably start playing better again.

Good post! Insightful points.

However, why isn't Boston upgrading its bench so that it has some legitimate scorers?
G-leaguers usually don't get it done. Send them to Maine and pick up a couple of vets.
Brown/Smart/Rozier run hot and cold.

Which one of these guys is still left?

 Monta Ellis, Dwill, Gerald Green, Thomas Robinson,
heck,Terence Jones, ::::closes eyes::::Jared Sullinger   Jordan Crawford

I would pick up a couple of these guys in a heartbeat. Rotation players who can add a spark.
Our bench is G-Leaguers.