Author Topic: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye  (Read 4087 times)

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Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« on: October 20, 2017, 12:40:58 PM »

Offline Eddie20

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http://thesportsdaily.com/reds-army/shaky-semih-the-perils-of-a-rookies-baptism-by-fire/

This is by John Karalis of the Locked on C's podcast (good listen btw). This is exactly the reason that I'm opposed to having so many inexperience players, especially those with low ceilings, on a team that's goal is to win now. These constant mental breakdowns, thus giving up seemingly inconsequential baskets or not knowing where to be on offense, is usually the difference between winning and losing. It's why I prefer to sign Matt Barnes with the vacant roster spot, a player who not a star by any means, but will provide gritty play and know where to be on both ends of the court.

Also take note that these breakdowns all occurred in the 4Q of a close game.





In this play, Ojeleye and Rozier both make mistakes. Semi, though, lacked a general awareness of his teammates on defense.Dellavedova gets past Rozier and Semi comes over to help. Bayes, though, was in position to slow Delly down, so all Semi needed to do was hedge over to take away the mid-range jumper while still protecting the lanes. Instead, he kept sliding all the way down, forcing Rozier to overreact in helping with Semi’s man. Giannis and Delly recognize this, Giannis cuts, draws everyone’s attention, and dumps it off for a dunk.





Semi tried to “show”… which, in a pick-and roll, is when the screener’s defender pops out to slow down the ballhandler. You “show him your numbers”… which mean you are up in his face and you prevent him from making a play long enough for his defender to get back into the mix. The show did nothing. Delly dribbled around it. Semi and Rozier get mixed up and Giannis is doing a chin up on the rim.




Things didn’t get much better for Ojeleye on offense. Watch Kyrie Irving bring the ball up and wave Semi out to where he’s supposed to be. Semi’s confused about where he’s supposed to be. His point guard is waving him out of the spot. Then, he runs to the opposite corner, where Jaylen Brown is already standing. You don’t need to be a basketball expert to know two teammates standing in the same corner is bad. Luckily a foul on Giannis stopped the play.




Here, Semi tries to read what’s happening and cut. He does it twice… both times thinking “my defender has turned his head, time to cut to the basket.” The ball is dumped into Smart in the post, Baynes sets the pick, and Kyrie was curling off that. The goal, it seemed was to have Jaylen Brown occupying a defender in the corner, Ojeleye on the high-opposite wing, and then see if Smart could find Kyrie curling around the pick and down the lane. When Ojeleye cut, though, it pulled Jaylen’s man into the lane. When Kyrie came around the pick, all five Bucks are suddenly in the lane. Amazingly, skinny Marcus split a lazy double team and drew a foul. Otherwise, the spacing turned into a horrible mess.




Here, Semi did it again…Coaches like to say “once you see the back of your defender’s head, you cut.” However, players have to see the whole play. Yes, Giannis turned his head and wasn’t looking, but was your point guard aware of this? No, he wasn’t. He was running a pick and roll with Baynes, who rolled to the basket at the same time. Now, two Celtics and three Bucks are in a very confined space. Semi has to pop back out to the corner just so Kyrie can reset the play. Kyrie ended up getting blocked out of bounds but the cut took away options for the Celtics as they tried to hold onto a lead.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2017, 12:52:24 PM by Eddie20 »

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2017, 12:55:58 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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http://thesportsdaily.com/reds-army/shaky-semih-the-perils-of-a-rookies-baptism-by-fire/

This is by John Karalis of the Locked on C's podcast (good listen btw). This is exactly the reason that I'm opposed to having so many inexperience players, especially those with low ceilings, on a team that's goal is to win now. These constant mental breakdowns, thus giving up seemingly inconsequential baskets or not knowing where to be on offense, is usually the difference between winning and losing. It's why I prefer to sign Matt Barnes with the vacant roster spot, a player who not a star by any means, but will provide gritty play and know where to be on both ends of the court.





In this play, Ojeleye and Rozier both make mistakes. Semi, though, lacked a general awareness of his teammates on defense.Dellavedova gets past Rozier and Semi comes over to help. Bayes, though, was in position to slow Delly down, so all Semi needed to do was hedge over to take away the mid-range jumper while still protecting the lanes. Instead, he kept sliding all the way down, forcing Rozier to overreact in helping with Semi’s man. Giannis and Delly recognize this, Giannis cuts, draws everyone’s attention, and dumps it off for a dunk.





Semi tried to “show”… which, in a pick-and roll, is when the screener’s defender pops out to slow down the ballhandler. You “show him your numbers”… which mean you are up in his face and you prevent him from making a play long enough for his defender to get back into the mix. The show did nothing. Delly dribbled around it. Semi and Rozier get mixed up and Giannis is doing a chin up on the rim.




Things didn’t get much better for Ojeleye on offense. Watch Kyrie Irving bring the ball up and wave Semi out to where he’s supposed to be. Semi’s confused about where he’s supposed to be. His point guard is waving him out of the spot. Then, he runs to the opposite corner, where Jaylen Brown is already standing. You don’t need to be a basketball expert to know two teammates standing in the same corner is bad. Luckily a foul on Giannis stopped the play.




Here, Semi tries to read what’s happening and cut. He does it twice… both times thinking “my defender has turned his head, time to cut to the basket.” The ball is dumped into Smart in the post, Baynes sets the pick, and Kyrie was curling off that. The goal, it seemed was to have Jaylen Brown occupying a defender in the corner, Ojeleye on the high-opposite wing, and then see if Smart could find Kyrie curling around the pick and down the lane. When Ojeleye cut, though, it pulled Jaylen’s man into the lane. When Kyrie came around the pick, all five Bucks are suddenly in the lane. Amazingly, skinny Marcus split a lazy double team and drew a foul. Otherwise, the spacing turned into a horrible mess.




Here, Semi did it again…Coaches like to say “once you see the back of your defender’s head, you cut.” However, players have to see the whole play. Yes, Giannis turned his head and wasn’t looking, but was your point guard aware of this? No, he wasn’t. He was running a pick and roll with Baynes, who rolled to the basket at the same time. Now, two Celtics and three Bucks are in a very confined space. Semi has to pop back out to the corner just so Kyrie can reset the play. Kyrie ended up getting blocked out of bounds but the cut took away options for the Celtics as they tried to hold onto a lead.



I don't think the goal of the team was to "win now," at least not entirely.

Prior to the Hayward injury, I think the goal of the team was to be as competitive as possible in the near term -- ideally competing closely with Cleveland if knocking them off -- while also trying to develop players to be even better (and contend for a title) in the future.

I think the moves this summer were made with the idea that the team should try to put together a contending core group in the near term, but also recognize that beating the Warriors this season was not going to be possible.


All of that is why I think it's understandable that the back end of the roster is a bunch of younger, unproven players.


With that said, I kind of agree with you that we have a lot of youth in guys like Rozier, Brown, and Tatum.  The fact that there are hardly any established vets at the back end of the roster to step in and play simple, clearly defined roles in the event of injury or young guys struggling is a problem.  We see that now that there was a major injury to one of the top guys on the team -- there's just not very much experienced depth behind them.  That's a big problem for the team because now they have to give significant minutes to players with no track record of success at the NBA level.

However, the team isn't going anywhere this year regardless, now that Hayward is out, so it's not that big a deal.  They'll win fewer games than they would if they had several vet minimum guys to play back-end roles, but they may develop a couple future contributors, like they did with Rozier his first couple years in the league.
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Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2017, 01:02:07 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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A detailed breakdown of Ojele --> prime indicator that our season took a drastic turn for the worse.

Rozier looks like a dog chasing cars quite a bit here and elsewhere.  He's just so frieken long and athletic that he can often get away with it, and even make plays on the ball.
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So-called "breakdown" of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2017, 05:44:21 PM »

Offline ThePaintedArea

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http://thesportsdaily.com/reds-army/shaky-semih-the-perils-of-a-rookies-baptism-by-fire/

This is by John Karalis of the Locked on C's podcast (good listen btw). This is exactly the reason that I'm opposed to having so many inexperience players, especially those with low ceilings, on a team that's goal is to win now. These constant mental breakdowns, thus giving up seemingly inconsequential baskets or not knowing where to be on offense, is usually the difference between winning and losing. It's why I prefer to sign Matt Barnes with the vacant roster spot, a player who not a star by any means, but will provide gritty play and know where to be on both ends of the court.

Also take note that these breakdowns all occurred in the 4Q of a close game.





In this play, Ojeleye and Rozier both make mistakes. Semi, though, lacked a general awareness of his teammates on defense.Dellavedova gets past Rozier and Semi comes over to help. Bayes, though, was in position to slow Delly down, so all Semi needed to do was hedge over to take away the mid-range jumper while still protecting the lanes. Instead, he kept sliding all the way down, forcing Rozier to overreact in helping with Semi’s man. Giannis and Delly recognize this, Giannis cuts, draws everyone’s attention, and dumps it off for a dunk.


Mr. Karalis' analysis (!) is flawed on its face. His claim that Baynes (or "Bayes", whatever) "was in position to slow Delly down" is ludicrous, since he's protecting the rim and would have to leave both his man and the paint open from the top. In any case, if Baynes has got it covered, it's his job to say so, since he's behind Semi. Instead Ojeleye paces Dellavedova down to the low block and keeps him from turning the corner, doing a nifty job of protecting the paint. Bad things happen when bigs have to leave their man, and Semi kept that from happening.

Rozier gets beat badly; his job is to switch, cutting off the paint. Instead he chases Delly from behind, leaving Freak wide open for the pass and penetration.  When he finally does rotate, he overcommits once again, letting Giannis dribble around him.  You can see at the end of the clip that Terry knows how badly he screwed up - he looks up at the ceiling.

Your adding the spurious "constant mental breakdowns" doesn't square with Brad Stevens' post-game praise in particular for Semi's defense.

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2017, 06:11:48 PM »

Offline chilidawg

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He's played what, 10 freaking minutes so far? 

This So-Called "Breakdown" of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2017, 06:23:44 PM »

Offline ThePaintedArea

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He's played what, 10 freaking minutes so far?

More, but your point is well taken. Brad has given him a spot in the rotation, and praised his defense after the Milwaukee game.  More importantly, Karalis' analysis is simply mistaken, though; Semi does exactly what he should do in this circumstance.

Re: This So-Called "Breakdown" of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2017, 06:30:03 PM »

Offline gouki88

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He's played what, 10 freaking minutes so far?

More, but your point is well taken. Brad has given him a spot in the rotation, and praised his defense after the Milwaukee game.  More importantly, Karalis' analysis is simply mistaken, though; Semi does exactly what he should do in this circumstance.
Agreed. The analysis is flawed
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Re: So-called "breakdown" of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2017, 06:59:52 PM »

Offline Eddie20

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http://thesportsdaily.com/reds-army/shaky-semih-the-perils-of-a-rookies-baptism-by-fire/

This is by John Karalis of the Locked on C's podcast (good listen btw). This is exactly the reason that I'm opposed to having so many inexperience players, especially those with low ceilings, on a team that's goal is to win now. These constant mental breakdowns, thus giving up seemingly inconsequential baskets or not knowing where to be on offense, is usually the difference between winning and losing. It's why I prefer to sign Matt Barnes with the vacant roster spot, a player who not a star by any means, but will provide gritty play and know where to be on both ends of the court.

Also take note that these breakdowns all occurred in the 4Q of a close game.





In this play, Ojeleye and Rozier both make mistakes. Semi, though, lacked a general awareness of his teammates on defense.Dellavedova gets past Rozier and Semi comes over to help. Bayes, though, was in position to slow Delly down, so all Semi needed to do was hedge over to take away the mid-range jumper while still protecting the lanes. Instead, he kept sliding all the way down, forcing Rozier to overreact in helping with Semi’s man. Giannis and Delly recognize this, Giannis cuts, draws everyone’s attention, and dumps it off for a dunk.


Mr. Karalis' analysis (!) is flawed on its face. His claim that Baynes (or "Bayes", whatever) "was in position to slow Delly down" is ludicrous, since he's protecting the rim and would have to leave both his man and the paint open from the top. In any case, if Baynes has got it covered, it's his job to say so, since he's behind Semi. Instead Ojeleye paces Dellavedova down to the low block and keeps him from turning the corner, doing a nifty job of protecting the paint. Bad things happen when bigs have to leave their man, and Semi kept that from happening.

Rozier gets beat badly; his job is to switch, cutting off the paint. Instead he chases Delly from behind, leaving Freak wide open for the pass and penetration.  When he finally does rotate, he overcommits once again, letting Giannis dribble around him.  You can see at the end of the clip that Terry knows how badly he screwed up - he looks up at the ceiling.

Your adding the spurious "constant mental breakdowns" doesn't square with Brad Stevens' post-game praise in particular for Semi's defense.

I agree with the Rozier getting beat badly in his rotation to Giannis, but disagree on the Semi part. Semi really overreacted on that play. He needs to know his teammates and opponents better. What's the point in helping out Rozier on Delly that far away from the hoop? He needs to realize that Delly is not a scoring threat and Rozier has the athleticism to easily recover on the slow footed Delly, especially when Rozier literally has his left arm on Delly's right hip by the 3pt line (pay attention to that detail). There was simply no need to overreact like that to Delly when the player you're covering (Giannis) is one of the best players in the world. Again, that's where the experience of a veteran player would pay dividends. 

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2017, 07:23:34 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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He is a rookie, he has all the physical tools to be a great defender.  Strong, some length and a beast of an athlete but he has to learn how to play folks.

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2017, 01:01:08 AM »

Offline Beat LA

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I seem to recall Jaylen Brown being considerably, and consistently, worse, defensively, over the first couple of months, if not the entire first half, of his rookie year despite getting more minutes than Semi will accumulate this season (I'm guessing), but thanks to receiving consistent playing time, Brown became a much better defender as the season progressed including the postseason, which is why it's important to play your youngsters during the year so they at least have a chance to get their feet wet, out there, otherwise, they really will be deer in the headlights out there.  That's not to say that they won't make mistakes, but so do veterans, and that's no reason to not play the young guys, imo, as long as they show that commitment to defense that Semi, well, showed against the Bucks, especially against Giannis.  He didn't go for the Greek Freak's fake and stayed on the ground, and while I would have liked a better contest, given the size disparity, I'm not sure that it would have mattered, anyway, and in terms of switching, he showed that he can really slide his feet, which is great to see.

What's ridiculous is blaming a guy who played 12 whole minutes for the loss against the Bucks.  Give me a break, and I like how he cuts to the basket when his defender's head is turned - not many guys do that, anymore - but beyond that, my favorite part of this "analysis" has to be blaming Semi for what happened on this play, in particular -



Should he have stayed in the corner or come closer to Irving?  Sure, but the real problem is Kyrie's complete lack of vision, imo.  He has both Brown and Rozier wide open but instead elects to attempt to shoot over/through a double team in the lane, and the result was, unfortunately, quite predictable. *facepalm*

I'm not saying that Semi is perfect or anything, but really?  Losing our home opener was his fault, and his fault, alone ::)?  Oh well, at least we now have the answer regarding this year's whipping - well, for Eddie20, at least ::) - lol :laugh:.

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2017, 04:39:18 AM »

Offline rollie mass

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The shortened pre season,the number new players , injury to Hayward are the true culprits of the fist two games
-Eddie House has it in for semmi his earlier post have been verbally graphic to the negative 
 He enjoys smearing the rookies it is some form of bullying-
The Celts now have some time off between games and a lot can be accomplished over the next 3-4 days..
« Last Edit: October 21, 2017, 08:01:47 AM by rollie mass »

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2017, 06:30:16 AM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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I thought Bird last night showed some great defensive awareness for a rookie.

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2017, 08:05:12 AM »

Offline Eddie20

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I thought Bird last night showed some great defensive awareness for a rookie.

Agreed. I thought his energy in the 3q was what changed the complexion of the game. He brought a lot of fight last night. He reminds me of a Tony Delk type guard.

Tatum, especially for a rookie, has really impressed me on that end as well. Yesterday he had 3 blocks, should've been 4 if not for a bad call when he cleanly blocked Fultz, and continues to rebound and show a good understanding of overall team defense.

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2017, 08:31:54 AM »

Offline Birdman

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Kind remind me of Marquis Daniels
C/PF-Horford, Baynes, Noel, Theis, Morris,
SF/SG- Tatum, Brown, Hayward, Smart, Semi, Clark
PG- Irving, Rozier, Larkin

Re: Detailed breakdown of Semi Ojeleye
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2017, 10:26:53 AM »

Offline bellerephon

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I certainly agree that it's much too soon to be too critical of Semi, a couple of games does not tell us very much. On the other hand, I never understood some people's obsession with Semi, he never seemed more than a long shot to me. He is now, and always was, a long shot to even be a rotation player. I never bought that his defense was NBA ready, and we have seen that it is not. That's no surprise, he's a rookie, few if any are NBA ready right at the start. I don't think we should get too down on him for a few mishaps at the start, but I hope that those on the bandwagon will temper their expectations a bit.