Manage The Minutes & Focus On Health

[liam]

Tatum is actively campaigning to be in the mvp race which is why he’s playing longer unnecessary minutes when the game is in hand and he’s still padding his stats.
Love him and he’s generally a great player but this is clearly happening even though he’s not gonna win mvp and id have him about 6th in the race.

You say some odd things sometimes, and this is definitely up there.  Tatum wants to be in the MVP race because he’s the best player on the best team and has the self-confidence to believe he should be in the discussion.  But he’s playing fewer minutes than last year and the same as two years ago and the same as three years ago when he was recovering from Covid all season and using an inhaler.  This is how many minutes he plays, because he’s a well-conditioned athlete who keeps up his condition in part by playing 36 minutes a night.  His minutes have nothing to do with his desire to be considered amongst the best in the game.

Yeah, I don't understand the "padding his stats" argument.  If anything, Tatum has been more deferential to JB and KP lately, letting them get into the flow of the offense.  I don't see him out there hunting stats.

Taum is playing some great team ball. He's not stat padding. The kid could get 30-40 points a night. He's playing like winning the championship is his main goal. I think the MVP should be between Tatum and SGA.

[Vermont Green]

If you want to look at total minutes, Tatum is 12th in the league at 1,973 total minutes.  Right in there with SGA, Edwards, Jokic, and Brunson.  Per game, he is 10th at 35.9 min/gm.  I am not concerned at this point.

The season we were in the finals vs. GSW, Tatum had played in the summer with the Olympic team.  I think that was a bigger issue than the number of minutes through the season, although both can be an issue.  They will probably rest him some towards the end of the season, the last 5-10 games or so.

We have tiers of players when you consider minutes.  Tatum, Brown, Holiday, and White are all 1,750 to 1,972 min.  The next tier is Porzingis, Horford, Hauser, and Pritchard all at about 1,200 minutes.  Then it drops significantly for the rest of the players.

[Phantom255x]

Why is Tatum playing 42 mins??

I would sit him one of the next two since it’s a B2B. He needs a breather and probably a “reset”. Hasn’t looked as great the last 3 games now

[Celtics2021]

Why is Tatum playing 42 mins??

I would sit him one of the next two since it’s a B2B. He needs a breather and probably a “reset”. Hasn’t looked as great the last 3 games now

Because we wanted to win the game?  Also, he played his best basketball in the 4th, so it’s not like he faded at the end.

[ozgod]

Why is Tatum playing 42 mins??

I would sit him one of the next two since it’s a B2B. He needs a breather and probably a “reset”. Hasn’t looked as great the last 3 games now

On the flipside, some players actually like playing more when they’re not playing well, so they can get themselves back in rhythm …without knowing JT personally hard to tell which one he is.

[tenn_smoothie]

Whatever minutes anyone else in the league is playing, I believe Tatum needs to be rested to play well in the playoffs, but Joe seems oblivious to this fact. I get that he had played on the Olympic team before the finals season, but he still appears to me to be vulnerable to fatigue. Plus that was two seasons and will be (hopefully) another two long playoff runs ago - Look what it did to the '87 team and those guys laid low in the off-season back then.

[celticsclay]

Wrong thread

[Vermont Green]

Why is Tatum playing 42 mins??

I would sit him one of the next two since it’s a B2B. He needs a breather and probably a “reset”. Hasn’t looked as great the last 3 games now

On the flipside, some players actually like playing more when they’re not playing well, so they can get themselves back in rhythm …without knowing JT personally hard to tell which one he is.

It is a tough call.  Is it really going to make any difference in the playoffs if Tatum plays 42 min vs. 36 in a random regular season game?  42 min does seem high but Tatum has not looked fatigued or anything like that to me.  I hope there are not too many 42 min games between now and the end of the season, rather see it 36 min or less.  And then the last week or so of the season, you can kind of taper him down (plus he gets to rest about a week while they play the play in games).  Of course if there is any ankle tweak or anything like that, then rest him.

[Moranis]

Why is Tatum playing 42 mins??

I would sit him one of the next two since it’s a B2B. He needs a breather and probably a “reset”. Hasn’t looked as great the last 3 games now

On the flipside, some players actually like playing more when they’re not playing well, so they can get themselves back in rhythm …without knowing JT personally hard to tell which one he is.

It is a tough call.  Is it really going to make any difference in the playoffs if Tatum plays 42 min vs. 36 in a random regular season game?  42 min does seem high but Tatum has not looked fatigued or anything like that to me.  I hope there are not too many 42 min games between now and the end of the season, rather see it 36 min or less.  And then the last week or so of the season, you can kind of taper him down (plus he gets to rest about a week while they play the play in games).  Of course if there is any ankle tweak or anything like that, then rest him.

I'd rather taper up. Get the body used to playing more minutes.

[celticinorlando]

Rust vs rest. If guys can play....they should play. Spot sit some of them at times.

[tenn_smoothie]

Tonite vs Portland is an excellent example of Joe letting his backups rot on the bench instead of giving them some quality time in the middle of the game - Tillman never saw the floor, Queta and Springer played the final meaningless 2 minutes. Has Joe not noticed that when he has finally been forced to give some bench guys consistent minutes, they tend to develop, Hauser, Pritchard, even Kornet and also a guy like Banton when he was traded to another team. Hell no, he has not noticed, Joe is too busy counting 3-point attempts to make sure we take enough to suit him. Both Tatum and White are playing tired right now, first thing to go with tired legs is the jump shot and then defensive reaction time.

[GreenEnvy]

I’m not exactly sure what we are playing for right now anyway. We’ve got a huge lead in the East. Comfortably ahead of everyone out West. The differential is nice, but we aren’t breaking any records.

Let’s get some guys rest now this way they can ramp up for the title push in April. I want to see White, Brown, and Tatum all sit a few games over the next few weeks. Giving a guy 2 games off in a row (which could work out to nearly a week off) can really pay dividends imo.

Our Litmus tests post ASB were Golden State, Denver, Milwaukee (x2)
, and OKC. Blowing a 22-point 4Q lead really doesn’t mean much to me. How they handle the teams that bother them does.

[ozgod]

I’m not exactly sure what we are playing for right now anyway. We’ve got a huge lead in the East. Comfortably ahead of everyone out West. The differential is nice, but we aren’t breaking any records.

Let’s get some guys rest now this way they can ramp up for the title push in April. I want to see White, Brown, and Tatum all sit a few games over the next few weeks. Giving a guy 2 games off in a row (which could work out to nearly a week off) can really pay dividends imo.

Our Litmus tests post ASB were Golden State, Denver, Milwaukee (x2)
, and OKC. Blowing a 22-point 4Q lead really doesn’t mean much to me. How they handle the teams that bother them does.

I think what they are playing for is to build good habits so that come playoff time they can fall back on those. Also, its about being exposed to difficult situations, like when Cleveland made that 4th quarter run, or pressure situations that they faced against Denver. This team has made it look easy beating lower caliber opposition that it's not yet clear to me how they will respond when they are put under sustained pressure. And that goes not just for the role players, but the main guys. Sure they have a huge lead in terms of seedings but I don't think the regular season is just for seedings, the Heat and other teams have shown that seedings are less relevant than playing your best basketball and having the right habits inigrained in your when the playoffs come and you need to win 4 of 7 each series. I'm still not convinced that those habits are ingrained.

I get the whole resting players thing, looking at numbers on a spreadsheet and saying "this guy played too many minutes he should only be playing x". If someone gets injured it's easy to say "well if we had wrapped them up in cotton wool they wouldn't have got injured". I would have to believe that Brad and Joe, given how statistically nerdy they are, have a team of people that will figure that out. It really comes down to how much we trust them - some people don't trust Joe at all so it's cold comfort what he does 

I think it's a balance - you want to continue to build towards the playoffs, keep players continuing to build good habits, continue to build chemistry, hope that some of the teams that you play will put you under pressure. Sucks for those of us following on the game threads because an easy win is always better for our own hearts but it will do this team good to be put under the gun and have those sphincter tightening moments where they mess up and have to recover, that's really the only way we, and they, will know if they have what it takes, and to see where their deficiencies are so that they can be fixed. But at the same time you don't want to wear people out unnecessarily.

Now the thing with Joe, I've observed that just like Ime he seems to not be the type of coach who will dole out 5 min here 10 min there and have a rotation of 12 players, because he wants to keep JT under 35 so he plays Brissett for 7...I think what he prefers to do is to stick to his 8 or 9 man rotation but have the subs playing a bigger role and sit one of the main guys. Obviously he has to not run foul of the load management rules but he would rather play Al + Luke rather than Al and then split minutes between Luke and Tillman. Then tomorrow where we have a SEGABABA Al and Luke might sit the whole game and he might play KP and Tillman, with Tillman playing 20 min. Less in game permutations to deal with.

[Surferdad]

Tonite vs Portland is an excellent example of Joe letting his backups rot on the bench instead of giving them some quality time in the middle of the game - Tillman never saw the floor, Queta and Springer played the final meaningless 2 minutes. Has Joe not noticed that when he has finally been forced to give some bench guys consistent minutes, they tend to develop, Hauser, Pritchard, even Kornet and also a guy like Banton when he was traded to another team. Hell no, he has not noticed, Joe is too busy counting 3-point attempts to make sure we take enough to suit him. Both Tatum and White are playing tired right now, first thing to go with tired legs is the jump shot and then defensive reaction time.

Hauser, Kornet, Pritchard and Brissett all played meaningful minutes. Add in the resting starters and Joe will be using a 9-man playoff rotation. I too would like to see more Tillman but along with Springer and Queta, it looks like he won't get much playoff run.

[celticinorlando]

Guys want to play and stay in rhythm. When they lose that, it can be very hard to get back.

Regular season job isn't done yet. You get past this stretch in March and then look to rest guys down the stretch when they clinch the top seed.

I think they have done a good job with KP and Al and honestly those 2 are the only ones to really worry about. Both have been able to sit quite a bit.

I would interchange JT and JB if you want to rest them some.

As for the playoffs, you basically have your rotation..
JT
JB
Jrue
White
Al
KP
Hauser
PP
Kornet