Our offense needs to move faster.

[liam]

We need to hit Tatum and Brown on the move. Our offense needs more movement. We have at least two guys standing in the corners not moving. It makes it easier to guard. The other team knows where our players will be standing. We need more movement and a deeper rotation. We need to have the energy to run all game.

[Who]

The team is now 25th in the league in team assist percentage. Percentage of made shots assisted on. 6th lowest in the league.

Interesting to see the teams directly above us are Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Then the LA Clippers. Not bad company. Of the 5 teams below us the good teams are New York and Dallas.

I believe this is about the same range the team was in when I checked 4-6 weeks ago. So consistently here.

[Who]

The team is now 25th in the league in team assist percentage. Percentage of made shots assisted on. 6th lowest in the league.

Interesting to see the teams directly above us are Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Then the LA Clippers. Not bad company. Of the 5 teams below us the good teams are New York and Dallas.

I believe this is about the same range the team was in when I checked 4-6 weeks ago. So consistently here.

Sorry, bit of an aside.

I agree with the general point about getting guys the ball more on the move but there does seem to be a structural issue here as well (which I think the stats allude to).

The lack of high post passing from Porzingis. The ball-handling inclinations of Tatum & Jaylen. Passing not really being a primary thought of any of these three players. Then two combo guards who are known for being well-rounded two way guys rather than playmaking guards.

[Who]

I am looking at a couple of other team stats for offense. The game threat was talking about the Mavs and Celtics being high three point taking teams and I was thinking "yeah, cause they take lots of bad step back 3s!".

So statistic could show some of this. Unassisted vs assisted 3 point field goal attempts. So Dallas ranks 3rd highest in the league in unassisted 3s (thanks largely to Luka & Kyrie I imagine) while Boston ranks one place behind 4th in the league in unassisted 3s.

I am not sure this is necessarily a good or bad stat because most top teams now want that step back 3 as an option when you have offensive breakdowns. So having a large number of unassisted 3s means you have this desired quality.

So the team that is top in the league in unassisted 3s is the LA Clippers. James Harden leading the way there. Also some PG13 and Kawhi. Atlanta with Trae Young is #2 in the league. The GS Warriors are in 6th place. Philly 8th. Milwaukee at 11th.

So Milwaukee take about 16% of their 3s as unassisted while Dallas is up at 24% so that is a huge difference in volume. Golden State (6th) is at 19% despite having Steph, Klay and others firing up 3s. The top 3 are all 24-25%. Boston is 22%. Houston 21% (VanVleet and Jalen Green). Then Golden State down to MIL.

There seems to be a middle range of Phoenix in 23rd place at 13% to Golden State in 6th at 19% where most of the teams reside. Then outliers in terms of high volume or low volume of which Boston reside in the high volume.

[Who]

Another interesting team stat was points in the paint. Boston ranks 2nd last in the league in points in paint. Only 38% of our points come in the paint. Actually tied last with Golden State. Not just 2nd last. Tied last.

The teams in this range are not bad teams. Just above us are Dallas, Milwaukee (surprising with Giannis), Phoenix and Miami.

Denver shows up well here in 4th place. Most of the top teams in point in paint scoring are (1) bad teams or (2) solid teams but bad offensive teams (Orlando). They score a lot there because they suck at shooting sort of thing. But Denver being a good shooting team but still getting a lot of points in the paint stands out as an outlier.

I would say largely thanks to Jokic's passing even more so than his scoring. Philly, by the way, is 18th despite Embiid's inside scoring. And Giannis & MIL was around bottom 5. So yes, I think Jokic's passing is a bigger separator here than his interior scoring in generating added points in the paint for his team.

Denver are the only high level team in the top 10. The rest are mostly bad teams. You have two solid teams in Orlando (bad offense) and Indiana (three point heavy) as well as the Lakers. The rest are all below average.

[Who]

Celtics top in the league in percentage of team points off of three pointers at 40.4%.

Dallas is 2nd at 38.3%.

[Roy H.]

Talk to the coach.  "No adjustments" "Shoot more threes"

[86MaxwellSmart]

Well, Tatum needs to STOP dribbling the ball for 15-20 seconds every trip up and we'll be fine.

[celticinorlando]

Been saying this for 3 seasons. We play so slow.

[blink]

yeah so many of us have wanted better player movement and more tempo in our 1/2 court sets.   the start of the year we were doing a little better with player movement and keeping the ball moving (at least from the eye test)  but it seems to have gotten worse in the last few weeks.   at times we don't seem to have enough variety in our offensive sets, and that makes us easier to defend as well.  we rarely run any plays that involve more than 2 or 3 players, obviously that is by design.

[Who]

yeah so many of us have wanted better player movement and more tempo in our 1/2 court sets.   the start of the year we were doing a little better with player movement and keeping the ball moving (at least from the eye test)  but it seems to have gotten worse in the last few weeks.   at times we don't seem to have enough variety in our offensive sets, and that makes us easier to defend as well.  we rarely run any plays that involve more than 2 or 3 players, obviously that is by design.

Tatum has been calling for too many isos for himself of late. Resorting to bad contested two point jump-shots. Kobe-esque type offense. Melo-esque offense. 

Tatum seems to be in cruise control and not playing diligently on offense for the last few weeks. A lack of focus. A lack of effort and intention made to create an easier shot. Settling for lower quality shots.

Each time he does the offense grinds to a half. All movement stops. It is a Tatum iso. Let him do his thing. Everyone get out of the way. Tatum is operating. Ball movement stops. Off ball player movement stops. Bad shot follows.

[Roy H.]

yeah so many of us have wanted better player movement and more tempo in our 1/2 court sets.   the start of the year we were doing a little better with player movement and keeping the ball moving (at least from the eye test)  but it seems to have gotten worse in the last few weeks.   at times we don't seem to have enough variety in our offensive sets, and that makes us easier to defend as well.  we rarely run any plays that involve more than 2 or 3 players, obviously that is by design.

Which is wild, when you think about it.  We have the perfect personnel to run a pass-heavy, movement based offense. 

If you were creating the perfect offensive basketball team, I think having two unselfish combo guards who can both handle, penetrate and pass would be the first step.  Then add in a superstar level forward who can score and create.  Then give us a 7'3" skilled scorer that very few teams can stop down low.  The cherry on top?  Jaylen Brown, an All-NBA wing.

That offense screams versatility, with the ability to beat any defense it sees.  It should have no weaknesses.

Instead, we run a fairly uncomplicated "bombs away" offense that low level college teams run when they don't have enough traditional talent to compete.

[Celtics2021]

Celtics full-season offensive rating: 120.1, 3rd in NBA (Indiana #1 at 121.2).

Celtics ORating by month:

October: 117.7
November: 116.7
December: 125.9
January: 118.0

I’m just not sure I get the complaints.  They had a really good December, that would have shattered all records if it lasted for a season, but that’s generally not how the NBA works.  Overall the offense has been very good, and January has been the 2nd-best month.

Also, it’s not like the Celtics are playing a vacuum.  Teams know our strengths and weaknesses, and try to shift us from strength to weakness, as they do with every team.  Despite those attempts, we still score very efficiently, while also keeping personnel on the court who can defend well at the other end, leading to the #2 defense and #1 net rating.  Players only have so much energy night in and night out, and flying all over the court on offense takes away some of that defensive energy (just ask the Pacers).

[RodyTur10]

Could this be a combined Tatum-and-Brown-alpha-problem?

Remember the aftermath of the 2018 Playoff run? The next summer Irving and Hayward returned from injuries, but huge chemistry problems arose. The young guys (Rozier, Brown and Tatum) didn't want to go back to their previous status. Although it must be said Brown dealt really professional with his bench role.

In crunch time they didn't necessarily seek Irving for the final shot. We all know how badly Irving reacted to these changes, but he had a valid point that he should still be the number one option to create a shot. Even LeBron deferred to Irving in Cleveland.

Now we have a situation where Tatum and Brown have come of their best scoring seasons. The Celtics add Porzingis and Holiday, while White showed he could muster a bigger production. Instead of thinking how much easier these additions would make it for Tatum and Brown to have a good offense they may think it as a challenge how to push the new guys in roles that don't interfere too much on how they're leading the team as superstar scorers.

With a more passing orientated style it's a risk that capable guys (basically every possible starter) will find reasonable opportunities to take more shots which would naturally go at the cost of the very high volume guys. In the most extreme case like the San Antonio Spurs you'd have the team as winners first, while their stars (Duncan later on, Ginobili, Parker, Leonard) were almost an afterthought.

That may be an idea too tough to swallow for both Tatum and Brown, as they idolized Kobe Bryant. They want to be known in the headlines as "Tatum with Brown as co-star lead the Celtics to a Championship". NOT: "The Celtics win the Championship with Tatum, Brown and Porzingis, White, Holiday".

[Larry for 3]

yeah so many of us have wanted better player movement and more tempo in our 1/2 court sets.   the start of the year we were doing a little better with player movement and keeping the ball moving (at least from the eye test)  but it seems to have gotten worse in the last few weeks.   at times we don't seem to have enough variety in our offensive sets, and that makes us easier to defend as well.  we rarely run any plays that involve more than 2 or 3 players, obviously that is by design.

Which is wild, when you think about it.  We have the perfect personnel to run a pass-heavy, movement based offense. 

If you were creating the perfect offensive basketball team, I think having two unselfish combo guards who can both handle, penetrate and pass would be the first step.  Then add in a superstar level forward who can score and create.  Then give us a 7'3" skilled scorer that very few teams can stop down low.  The cherry on top?  Jaylen Brown, an All-NBA wing.

That offense screams versatility, with the ability to beat any defense it sees.  It should have no weaknesses.

Instead, we run a fairly uncomplicated "bombs away" offense that low level college teams run when they don't have enough traditional talent to compete.

Change the coach Roy