Did the Malcolm Brogdon experiment Fail?

[lbgreen33]

I will start with, Yes, 6th man of the year. But, He came off the bench all season and when we needed him most, He was Hurt I mean yes he played great off the bench and I Love his game!! But, man when we needed him most he was hurt. What is the big knock on Malcolm Brogdon? He get's Hurt too Much!!
So, the Celtics plan was? Bring him off the bench and he will stay healthy, only,   he didn't.
So did he impact whether or not we would make the Play-Offs? I don't think so.
Did he come in and bail us out against Miami? No, He was what??? oh ya, he was Hurt!!
To me, that is a fail.

[Goldstar88]

Well, he’s under contract for two more seasons so I guess we’ll have an answer in a few years.

[lbgreen33]

Well, he’s under contract for two more seasons so I guess we’ll have an answer in a few years.

Under Contract means easy to trade.

[celticsclay]

If we are being realistic about this stuff it feels 25% of rotation players were banged up in the playoffs. I mean Tatum getting hurt game 7 was more significant  and he was banged up in finals last year too

[Muzzy66]

This feels like a bit of an overreaction to me, to be honest.

Brogdon played 67 games for us this year, which is quite reasonable.  By comparison Jaylen Brown hasn't played more then 67 games since the 2018/19 season, which was 5 years ago.

I think it's absolutely imperative that this team has a clear #3 scoring option that opposing teams have to respect and factor in to their game plans.  This makes it harder for teams to just throw everything they have defensively at Tatum and Brown and it gives those guys the room they need to operate.

In the first half of the season Brogdon was healthy and he was playing at a consistently high level.  It felt like he was giving us 15-20 points almost every night, which exactly what we needed from that third guy to take pressure off the Jays.  And sure enough, during that stretch we were playing at an elite level, and with pretty good consistency.

Then in the second half of the season and in the playoffs Brogdon missed some games, and it seemed clear that when he wasn't out there playing at a high level the team suffered in a huge way.  But I don't think this is an indication that the Brogdon experiment failed, if anything I think it proved the contrary - that when he's healthy and playing at a high level, Brogdon is exactly the type of difference maker this team needs to be a consistent threat as a contender.

If we get rid of Brogdon, then our team basically becomes what we were in the second half of the season...but permanently.  Nobody wants that.

So what this tells me is that we need one of two things:

a) We do what we can to keep Brogdon healthy so he can keep being this key impact guy or

b) If we do give up on Brogdon and trade him, then we need to find a way to bring in another player who can give us that same type of consistent 15-17 PPG scoring threat that he gave us - and that may not be easy with our cap situation. 

I know there is Derrick White as well, and he was a game changer in the playoffs at times...but we had him last season as well, and he was not able to provide the same type of offensive impact that Brogdon did with the same type of consistency.  Neither could Smart, or Grant Williams.  Horford can't either at this point in his career. 

Brogdon's ability to provide a high level of offense CONSISTENTLY was one of the key things that catapulted the Celtics into the clear best team in the league over the first half of the season.  Unfortunatey injuries happen, and there's no way to protect yourself against that entirely.  I think at this point Tatum, Brown and Brogdon are the key players on this Roster.  As long as those three guys are healthy and playing at their best, this team will be inredibly hard to beat.  As soon as one of those guy sis out, we suddenly look very beatable.

[Who]

It didn't fail. It worked. But it was a 6/10 type success rather than a 10/10 success.

This is why I believe it is worth looking into and considering if there are than any moves out there involving Brogdon that can give us more than a 6/10 success. That can give us an 8/10 or 9/10.

Maybe there are, maybe there isn't.

[cman88]

I sense recency bias with this post..and it's kinda ridiculous

He was healthy 90% of the year and playoffs and won 6moty so clearly the league views him as valuable. He shot like 44% from 3 in the regular season

But  because he tore a tendon in his shooting arm game 1 of the ECF. Now he was a failure?

A better question would be (and brad mentioned this) had we not screwed around vs Atlanta and Philly (and Miami) extending series we shouldn't have and having an abysmal record at home maybe guys would be more rested and not he a walking wounded by game 7 of the ECF.

I understand brogdon or Tatum's injuries could've happened any game really. But the wear and tear when you consistently play 6 and 7 game series has to add up.

[scaryjerry]

It was a success in the regular season when defense doesn’t matter like it does in the playoff.  fail once the playoffs started and he couldn’t defend a chair and ended up hurt as he always does and started telling the media we lost our defensive identity and are an offensive team. Ironic.

[scaryjerry]

This feels like a bit of an overreaction to me, to be honest.

Brogdon played 67 games for us this year, which is quite reasonable.  By comparison Jaylen Brown hasn't played more then 67 games since the 2018/19 season, which was 5 years ago.

I think it's absolutely imperative that this team has a clear #3 scoring option that opposing teams have to respect and factor in to their game plans.  This makes it harder for teams to just throw everything they have defensively at Tatum and Brown and it gives those guys the room they need to operate.

In the first half of the season Brogdon was healthy and he was playing at a consistently high level.  It felt like he was giving us 15-20 points almost every night, which exactly what we needed from that third guy to take pressure off the Jays.  And sure enough, during that stretch we were playing at an elite level, and with pretty good consistency.

Then in the second half of the season and in the playoffs Brogdon missed some games, and it seemed clear that when he wasn't out there playing at a high level the team suffered in a huge way.  But I don't think this is an indication that the Brogdon experiment failed, if anything I think it proved the contrary - that when he's healthy and playing at a high level, Brogdon is exactly the type of difference maker this team needs to be a consistent threat as a contender.

If we get rid of Brogdon, then our team basically becomes what we were in the second half of the season...but permanently.  Nobody wants that.

So what this tells me is that we need one of two things:

a) We do what we can to keep Brogdon healthy so he can keep being this key impact guy or

b) If we do give up on Brogdon and trade him, then we need to find a way to bring in another player who can give us that same type of consistent 15-17 PPG scoring threat that he gave us - and that may not be easy with our cap situation. 

I know there is Derrick White as well, and he was a game changer in the playoffs at times...but we had him last season as well, and he was not able to provide the same type of offensive impact that Brogdon did with the same type of consistency.  Neither could Smart, or Grant Williams.  Horford can't either at this point in his career. 

Brogdon's ability to provide a high level of offense CONSISTENTLY was one of the key things that catapulted the Celtics into the clear best team in the league over the first half of the season.  Unfortunatey injuries happen, and there's no way to protect yourself against that entirely.  I think at this point Tatum, Brown and Brogdon are the key players on this Roster.  As long as those three guys are healthy and playing at their best, this team will be inredibly hard to beat.  As soon as one of those guy sis out, we suddenly look very beatable.

If brogdon and his scoring is the 3rd most important player on this team then we will never make the finals again. Rob Williams and his defense should be the 3rd or even 2nd most important piece to this team.

[cman88]

Obviously Rob williams defense is very important. and getting back to top defense is very important. Adding brogdon wasn't why our defense degraded. It went down across the board and alot of that is on coaching.

But you can't deny that having a 3rd offensive piece that can get their own shot behind Tatum/Brown is VERY important to this team. Its partially why we lost against golden state.  And a big reason why we lost in the ECF. We didn't have anyone after Tatum/brown who could get their own shot. so teams just keyed in on stopping Tatum/Brown. and Brown is a poor ball handler, so it was important for Stevens to bring in Brogdon/Gallo.

now, just because Gallo tore his knee and brogdon got hurt at the most inopportune time doesn't mean both were failures and aren't necessary pieces.

If you get rid of a 15-20ppg guard where is that other offense coming from? do we pay Pritchard? are Tatum/Brown expected to carry even more of the load?

Its all recency bias...imagine calling  adding a player who ended up being your 3rd scorer and won 6moty a failure because they tore a tendon in the ECF.

[CelticsWhat35]

Brogdon was a great addition to the team.  Obviously there were risks considering his injury history, but the injury that impacted him in the playoffs was a fluke injury.  It wasn’t as if he just broke down from wear and tear

[wdleehi]

Brogdon experiment was not a failure.   Injuries gave it a setback and the new CBA may cut it short.


The injuries issues is more then just his injury at the end.   The Rob injury in the beginning of the year hurt those two every getting any chemistry.   When healthy, Brogdon almost never seeing the Rob option on drives was maddening.   


The new CBA means it is likely one of the three PGs are going to be traded with little money coming back.   While Brogdon is the best scorer of the bunch, he also seems to be the one that has the hardest time integrating with Tatum and Brown.   

[Roy H.]

Brogdon was fantastic.  That trade was a home run, regardless of his elbow injury.

And, I hope the team doesn't try to move Brogdon under the guise of CBA restrictions.  For next year, those restrictions don't really impact us.  Going forward, we need to be careful about how much money we throw at marginal rotation players (Grant Williams), but not guys who win 6MOY.

[Celtics4ever]

I agree,  he was six man of the year and although we did not win a title, I don't see how anyone can say this was a failure.   He was great to anchor the second unit, it is not his fault that the rest of the second unit faltered at times.

Far better than anyone we could have got in the draft

[PAOBoston]

Not a failure but think he’s the most logical option to trade to upgrade the team. Biggest salary out of the combo guard group and could net you a couple of solid players to add to the bench like a 3 and D wing and maybe a bench big. Stinks because I have always liked this player but last year was his healthiest year ever games played wise and he still couldn’t end the season healthy between the sore Achilles and the elbow thing in the playoffs. What are the odds he plays that much again next year?