Habits Brad should coach out of the Celtics

[Hoopvortex]

First, can we agree these aren't plays but just actions taken on the court. You may as well say you want these plays coached out of the Celtics

1. The Grant Williams moving pick

2. The Jaylen Brown defensive brain farts

These aren't plays, just actions.

Second, I have no problem with any of these.

Smart is trying to develop an in the paint, going to the basket shot. He has to try it in game, besides just developing it in practice. Smart is still young and I think he is going to be a Celtic for a very long time. Let him try develop some shots. Hopefully it pays off.

Jayson's dribble drive isos have gotten better and better as the season progresses. His handle is tightening up some and he is finishing world's better than he was. Notice also, if he can't drive, he has gotten rid of the step inside the three point line, outside 2 point 22' shot and developed a side step three pointer instead. Let him keep doing this because, at some point, he is going to start seeing his teammates open up and he will start racking up assists.

Kanter has used the under the basket reverse layup to great effect for much of the season. He might have gotten it blocked or missed it a couple times recently, but don't let recency bias fool you. Kanter goes under and wards off shot blockers behind him by using the basket as a shield for the reverse layup very well overall. For a guy without great hops, you need that move in your arsenal.

Semi's three point shot is quite acceptable as a bench defensive specialist. 35% for the year. Slumping recently, or coming back to the mean, but for two months he was at nearly 40%. 35% is average for this league. I mean, Smart shoots at 35% as well, and he takes 6 3s a game. Semi is only taking 1 or 2 a game and keeps defenses honest because he can hit those threes at an at least average rate.

Couldn’t have said any of this better, including the bit about plays vs. actions.

[Atzar]

I think Kemba, Tatum, and Brown all like to go one-on-everybody more often than they should.  Scoring in isolation is one thing.  Drawing the attention of the entire defense and STILL forcing a shot is another.

I don’t mind Smart’s floater, but I can do without a lot of the showtime passes that he’s attempting this year.  Some of them make sense.  Others serve no purpose except for giving the ball to the other team in style.  And nobody else should try them at all.

I think that, as a team, we collapse a step too far off of weakside shooters.  Ball-handlers who can consistently make cross-court passes can cut up our defense.  Clogging the paint is good, but we still need to be able to recover to these corner threes.  It especially irritates me when guys cheat into the paint before the ball-handler has even started his drive.  Any competent point guard will either make that pass or will swing it to a teammate who has a better angle. 

These are a few things that come to mind that haven’t been mentioned yet.

[Somebody]

I actually want Smart to keep on attempting those passes - the ones that he manages to thread the needle with are high value passes that only elite passers can do consistently, and his offensive value would skyrocket if he manages to get his TOs from such attempts down.

[trickybilly]

Smart is now only 3 places below James Harden on the 3pt% list, and is in front of:

Porzingis, Covington, LeBron, Jamal Murray, Eric Gordon, Horford, Brogdan, Doncic, Beal.

[Celtics4ever]

One habit I wish Brad would stop is to not try to save guys when they are heating up.   You ride a hot player out, and don't kill their momentum by taking them out.  He is a little too quick in this regard.

[gouki88]

One habit I wish Brad would stop is to not try to save guys when they are heating up.   You ride a hot player out, and don't kill their momentum by taking them out.  He is a little too quick in this regard.

Yeah, this kills me. That being said, I think he’s doing better in this respect compared to last year

[RockinRyA]

One habit I wish Brad would stop is to not try to save guys when they are heating up.   You ride a hot player out, and don't kill their momentum by taking them out.  He is a little too quick in this regard.

Yeah, this kills me. That being said, I think he’s doing better in this respect compared to last year

Thing is, Tatum got hot as he was about to have his rest. I mean we aren't the only team doing it. Last time Harden sat down after waxing hot, and then Westbrook took his turn.

[slamtheking]

One habit I wish Brad would stop is to not try to save guys when they are heating up.   You ride a hot player out, and don't kill their momentum by taking them out.  He is a little too quick in this regard.

Yeah, this kills me. That being said, I think he’s doing better in this respect compared to last year

Yeah, I'd go along with this as far as a coaching issue.  as for the OP's issues, don't agree with them at all except the Tatum one where he drives into a crowd but that would apply to everyone on the team.

The other coaching things that I think need improvement:
1. holding Timeouts until the end of the game instead of using them to disrupt runs the other teams are having.  Other coaches do it to the C's with a pretty consistent effect and it's been done for decades in the league as a proven method for breaking runs most of the time.  Makes no sense to have 4 timeouts in the last 5 minutes of the game if you've let it get away from you and you're in a double-digit hole that you might have prevented by calling a TO or two sooner to stop runs.

2. the live-or-die-by-3's offense.  hate it with a passion.  we're not as bad this year as we've been the past few years but this team gets 3-happy and on a cold shooting night they're digging a hole so fast it's head spinning.  need to develop smarter offensive strategy of driving, cutting, passing for easier baskets than 3's.  Team needs to learn a made 2 pointer is more points than a missed 3 pointer.  getting a couple made baskets under your belt when struggling from deep can help get a shooter on track.  might also increase foul calls in close to get to the line for easier points and help loosen up opposing defenses that are in foul trouble.

as for player habits, I'd fine every player dumb enough to not have enough court awareness to know where they're standing and thus step out of bounds when catching a pass or taking the first step on a drive.  I swear we have to be the biggest offenders in the league on that. 

[Fafnir]

C's don't live and die by threes this year. They're middle of the pack per 100 possessions in 3s attempted and in the upper half of drives per 100 possessions.

[fairweatherfan]

Feels weird to do this after such a nice win but some of mine:

#1. Marcus Smart heat checks. It's great that he's so aggressive and unafraid of big shots but whenever he makes a couple you're guaranteed 3-4 more bad shots later on, often with little ball movement and early in the clock.

#2. Iso play by anyone other than Tatum or Kemba.  Once in a while it's fine for Hayward or Jaylen to do this but when our offense stagnates it's almost always a bunch of guys trying to beat their man one-on-one.

#3. Kanter post-ups. Don't force-feed him the ball to pound shoulders with somebody for 4-5 seconds, his shots are always awkward even when they go in and disrupt the offensive flow. Feed him by driving and dishing and the rest should be cleaning up offensive boards.

#4. Kanter never kicking out offensive boards. If there's an easy bucket there go get it but he seems to feel entitled to the shot after the o-board even when surrounded by defenders. Feed some of them out to our perimeter guys.

#5. Kemba chucking the instant he feels contact. He had a 3/4 court heave against Houston because of this. Don't assume the ref's giving the call, especially when the shot you put up isn't going to be a good one.

[nickagneta]

Regarding the OP's dislike of Marcus' floater, has anyone noticed he's made a few since this thread went up? Players need to try new moves in game and will miss some but overall, if the player gets good enough, the move can become a weapon. You can't discourage that stuff as a coach, especially if you see the player practicing the move in shootarounds and practices.

[Somebody]

Regarding the OP's dislike of Marcus' floater, has anyone noticed he's made a few since this thread went up? Players need to try new moves in game and will miss some but overall, if the player gets good enough, the move can become a weapon. You can't discourage that stuff as a coach, especially if you see the player practicing the move in shootarounds and practices.

I've noticed it and I agree. I love Smart's improved offence the past couple of seasons, the shooting and scoring has gone up while his passing has jumped to a really high level.