After hearing Marcus’ comments I worry again about this year. I don’t see how the pieces fit together any better than they did last year, and you’ll have Jaylen (the one guy who did figure it out) going into a contract year and wanting to show he can create, while Jayson wants to be an all-star and his clearest path is by scoring a lot. Both of them will be playing next to Kemba (all-NBA scorer) and Hayward (former 20+ ppg all-star with something to prove). Even if Enes is content getting his points in the pick and roll and converting offensive rebounds (is he?), I’m not sure how it works out better than last year. And did I mention we drafted a score-first wing with our late-lottery pick?
This is why I really would prefer to see Marcus Smart starting at SG, with either Brown or Hayward coming off the bench as a super 6th man - Ginobilli style.
I worry that with Brown, Hayward and Tatum all starting (along with Kemba and Kanter) there are just too many guys needing touches at the same time.
Smart is a guy who can make a big impact on the game without the ball in his hands. In fact I think he's at his best when he doesn't have the ball in his hands a lot.
Kanter is also a guy who can still get points off offensive boards and at the foul line, even if plays aren't run for him.
If those two guys are starting then I think it'll to have the offensive load split primarily between three guys (Kemba, Tatum and either Hayward or Brown). But trying to split the office between four guys is, IMHO, going to be problematic.
And i do agree with a few comments here - I two names I bring to the front of the line here are Brad Stevens and Al Horford.
Brad is supposed to be a great coach, and while he's a master of X's and O's a great coach also needs to be good at managing egos and putting his guys where they need to be to best benefit the team.
One of Horford's biggest "intangibles" that made him worthy of a max contract was supposed to be his steady veteran leadership. I've seriously struggled to see that. When the Celtics made their run to the ECF the previous year they were terrible in all of their road games, and I would think Horford would be the guy who would have taken them under his wing an helped them go through the necessary preparations. Likewise this past year I would have thought he'd be the steady vet who would stand up and help all the young guys work out their roles and what they need to do to help the team. But I didn't see any of that.