I thought this before the scrimmage, but seeing the team play again after a long hiatus really drives it home for me ---
This team has 8, maybe 9 playoff rotation worthy players on the roster assuming everybody is healthy.
Brad is going to have to fight against his own inclinations and keep a short rotation once these games actually matter.
Brad usually does shorten the rotation come playoffs time, so if we stay healthy (huge if), I think our nine man rotation will be fine.
Unfortunately I only have 7 reliable guys. Walker, Brown, Tatum and Hayward as the best 4 players. Smart and Theis are good rotation guys and Kanter as situational player is useful.
I'm hoping Robert Williams can be a solid back-up big, but he he's still very inexperienced and missed half a year of play. Don't like Wanamaker to play significant minutes again. Neither do I think Ojeleye or Grant Williams can be trusted with meaningful minutes.
Langford is a huge question mark. Don't believe Edwards (I'm sorry, but he's more than awful), Green or Poirier will have a future in Boston.
Let's say R.Williams will hold his own, then we could maximize minutes like this:
Walker 36, Smart 32, Brown 40, Tatum 40, Hayward 36, Theis 24, R.Williams 16, Kanter 16.
As I have said all season our bench is soo thin that only one injury derails our rotation.
I think both Ojeleye and G. Will can give us some good minutes, because they have shown the ability to do so. Brad seems to trust Ojeleye, so hopefully he can give us some good minutes. We might vitally need it.
I agree with you on that, but every shot he takes I expect him to miss (and too often it actually does). If Ojeleye could be decent from three and actually demand enough respect to be even guarded then it would change a lot.
Still believe that the Celtics with Walker, Brown, Tatum and Hayward as your top 4 guys (as players and offensive options) should be a far above average shooting team. And they're NOT. I think the offensive system and the supporting rotation is just not good enough.
Semi is shooting 37% from three this season
On a staggering 1.6 attempts per game.
Completely irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that he’s now an above average chance to hit a 3 when taken. That’s all he needs to be
I mean no, not really. If you dont think volume matters when determining how good of a shooter someone is or whether they get covered or not in the playoffs then I dont know what to tell you.
I mean he may very well be a solid contributor this post season, but its not like a given or anything.
That’s not at all what I’m saying. My response (to a poster that wasn’t yourself) was concerned with the provably wrong statement that Ojeleye is not “decent” from 3. Last two seasons, sure, but now he’s an above average 3 point shooter.
The idea that teams don’t defend him on the arc is just untrue.
He’s also at career best marks for EFG%, FT%, TS%, turnovers and fouls. He’s slowly trimming away all the rough edges around his game.
Championship teams need guys like this. Raptors had Powell (who has since blossomed without Kawhi), Cavs had Shumpert, Heat had Battier, etc etc. Guys who don’t need much of the ball, but who can hit threes and defend multiple spots