Celtics Regular Season News

[gouki88]

Mark Murphy: Enes Kanter intimated in a tweet that his lack of playing time is connected to his ongoing China protest. Not so, says Ime Udoka: “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him.”  – via Twitter Murf56

Switching everything on defence is so obviously natural for Jabari Parker though...

lol…..I already posted this. Easy to see that he is on a China ban. The NBA has spoken. Udoka can prove this theory wrong by playing him today even if it is only for 1 second.

I think I agree. Either that or Ime is just useless.

Kanter was an 11/11 guy last season and an 8/7 guy the season prior. Was generally positive for his team when he was on the court in both of those seasons.

[Kiorrik]

Mark Murphy: Enes Kanter intimated in a tweet that his lack of playing time is connected to his ongoing China protest. Not so, says Ime Udoka: “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him.”  – via Twitter Murf56

Switching everything on defence is so obviously natural for Jabari Parker though...

lol…..I already posted this. Easy to see that he is on a China ban. The NBA has spoken. Udoka can prove this theory wrong by playing him today even if it is only for 1 second.

I think I agree. Either that or Ime is just useless.

Kanter was an 11/11 guy last season and an 8/7 guy the season prior. Was generally positive for his team when he was on the court in both of those seasons.

You don't believe he's so turrible on defence that Ime doesn't wanna give it a go until he's gotten better?

[gouki88]

Mark Murphy: Enes Kanter intimated in a tweet that his lack of playing time is connected to his ongoing China protest. Not so, says Ime Udoka: “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him.”  – via Twitter Murf56

Switching everything on defence is so obviously natural for Jabari Parker though...

lol…..I already posted this. Easy to see that he is on a China ban. The NBA has spoken. Udoka can prove this theory wrong by playing him today even if it is only for 1 second.

I think I agree. Either that or Ime is just useless.

Kanter was an 11/11 guy last season and an 8/7 guy the season prior. Was generally positive for his team when he was on the court in both of those seasons.

You don't believe he's so turrible on defence that Ime doesn't wanna give it a go until he's gotten better?

Not if he's playing Jabari Parker, who is worse than Kanter at everything

[Kiorrik]

Mark Murphy: Enes Kanter intimated in a tweet that his lack of playing time is connected to his ongoing China protest. Not so, says Ime Udoka: “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him.”  – via Twitter Murf56

Switching everything on defence is so obviously natural for Jabari Parker though...

lol…..I already posted this. Easy to see that he is on a China ban. The NBA has spoken. Udoka can prove this theory wrong by playing him today even if it is only for 1 second.

I think I agree. Either that or Ime is just useless.

Kanter was an 11/11 guy last season and an 8/7 guy the season prior. Was generally positive for his team when he was on the court in both of those seasons.

You don't believe he's so turrible on defence that Ime doesn't wanna give it a go until he's gotten better?

Not if he's playing Jabari Parker, who is worse than Kanter at everything

10/10 response - I'm currently eating my shoe.

[Goldstar88]

Think the C’s need to start giving Kanter 8-10mins a game. Take some of the load off of Horford and Timelord.

Chris Forsberg: Celtics say Robert Williams is questionable vs Hawks. Seems like an encouraging sign after knee soreness in Atlanta.  – via Twitter ChrisForsberg_

[footey]

Think the C’s need to start giving Kanter 8-10mins a game. Take some of the load off of Horford and Timelord.

Chris Forsberg: Celtics say Robert Williams is questionable vs Hawks. Seems like an encouraging sign after knee soreness in Atlanta.  – via Twitter ChrisForsberg_

Really hope so. We need him badly. He was just starting to dominate.

[Neurotic Guy]

Think the C’s need to start giving Kanter 8-10mins a game. Take some of the load off of Horford and Timelord.

I’ve always felt Kanter can provide some good minutes - get a few rebounds, score inside. I’ve assumed that not playing him means Ime knows better than me.   If he’s the same Kanter as last year you’d think he could carry some of the load. Would benefit both Al and Rob.

[tenn_smoothie]

Mark Murphy: Enes Kanter intimated in a tweet that his lack of playing time is connected to his ongoing China protest. Not so, says Ime Udoka: “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him.”  – via Twitter Murf56

Switching everything on defence is so obviously natural for Jabari Parker though...

lol…..I already posted this. Easy to see that he is on a China ban. The NBA has spoken. Udoka can prove this theory wrong by playing him today even if it is only for 1 second.

I think I agree. Either that or Ime is just useless.

Kanter was an 11/11 guy last season and an 8/7 guy the season prior. Was generally positive for his team when he was on the court in both of those seasons.

I've always like Kanter a lot. Total team guy who plays hard all the time. These little Celtics can always use an upgrade in the rebounding department and offensive rebounding ,(Kanter's strength), would be a big plus. His defensive weakness has nothing to do with a lack of effort and he is a decent defender down low (another area of need for this team). The guy just has lateral clumsiness - can't we scheme our defense somewhat to mitigate that shortcoming - we scheme defensively for other weak areas. Kanter simply brings some things this team is short on - toughness, offensive rebounding, consistent intensity and attitude.

If, at the league's behest, Ime is playing politics on behalf of NBA dollars, I would be beyond disgusted.
Surely, that is not what is going on here.

[tenn_smoothie]

Mark Murphy: Ime Udoka has decided against captains: “That’s probably in the rear view at this point.” Said the combo of Tatum/Brown/Horford/Smart all lead in their own ways. – via Twitter

No Captain and no idea - zero leadership on this team.

Captaincy of the Boston Celtics should be an honor that players aspire to. Disappointing to see Brad Stevens' namby pamby approach being continued.

Of all those players Horford is the only one really deserving but if he doesn't care enough to put his hand up and say he wants to be captain then he isn't really captaincy material.

I'm not saying simply picking a player and putting a (C) next to their name will solve the glaring leadership issues on this team - you have to actually have a player worthy of captaincy. Sadly, this team doesn't.

Man this is the NBA it's not high school. I cannot for the life of me understand Celtics fan's obsession with this captain role. This label is powerless. Marcus Smart isn't going to suddenly have a transformation because Captain Jayson Tatum talked with him.

Ime started the whole "Captain" thing by saying he was going to announce captains and Smart came out and said he didn't care and then it didn't happen. Now it doesn't matter to Ime. It should've never been brought up in the first place.

First time head coach. Probs just finding his way.

He's still a bit weird in interviews.

Mike Gorman mentioned this too; Ime's different as soon as the camera turns off. But he's kinda getting there. Slowly.

Different how ??

Gorman has got to write an insider's-view book on the Celtics when he retires the mic.
That man has seen a lot that we don't know about and could make sense out of some of our frustrations thru the years.

[radiohead]

Mark Murphy: Ime Udoka has decided against captains: “That’s probably in the rear view at this point.” Said the combo of Tatum/Brown/Horford/Smart all lead in their own ways. – via Twitter

No Captain and no idea - zero leadership on this team.

Captaincy of the Boston Celtics should be an honor that players aspire to. Disappointing to see Brad Stevens' namby pamby approach being continued.

Of all those players Horford is the only one really deserving but if he doesn't care enough to put his hand up and say he wants to be captain then he isn't really captaincy material.

I'm not saying simply picking a player and putting a (C) next to their name will solve the glaring leadership issues on this team - you have to actually have a player worthy of captaincy. Sadly, this team doesn't.

Man this is the NBA it's not high school. I cannot for the life of me understand Celtics fan's obsession with this captain role. This label is powerless. Marcus Smart isn't going to suddenly have a transformation because Captain Jayson Tatum talked with him.

Ime started the whole "Captain" thing by saying he was going to announce captains and Smart came out and said he didn't care and then it didn't happen. Now it doesn't matter to Ime. It should've never been brought up in the first place.

First time head coach. Probs just finding his way.

He's still a bit weird in interviews.

Mike Gorman mentioned this too; Ime's different as soon as the camera turns off. But he's kinda getting there. Slowly.

Different how ??

I think Gorman meant that during interviews, Ime still seems nervous and uncomfortable, but when the cameras are off, he’s a totally different person. I saw that exchange between Mike and Scal and that’s how i understood it, that Ime is getting more comfortable during interviews.

[nickagneta]

I not sure how others are encouraged by what they saw from Kanter last game. His defense was atrocious and on a few occasions he didn't even attempt to cover his guy out on the perimeter and left others to leave their man to attempt a close out. He didn't even try to get out there....just sat in the paint 12-15 feet away from his man.

Unless Udoka tries to input a zone where Kanter can be in the middle or a just one big drop down always defensive set, Kanter will always be bacon defense, because in this defensive scheme, he is pretty useless.

[Kiorrik]

Mark Murphy: Ime Udoka has decided against captains: “That’s probably in the rear view at this point.” Said the combo of Tatum/Brown/Horford/Smart all lead in their own ways. – via Twitter

No Captain and no idea - zero leadership on this team.

Captaincy of the Boston Celtics should be an honor that players aspire to. Disappointing to see Brad Stevens' namby pamby approach being continued.

Of all those players Horford is the only one really deserving but if he doesn't care enough to put his hand up and say he wants to be captain then he isn't really captaincy material.

I'm not saying simply picking a player and putting a (C) next to their name will solve the glaring leadership issues on this team - you have to actually have a player worthy of captaincy. Sadly, this team doesn't.

Man this is the NBA it's not high school. I cannot for the life of me understand Celtics fan's obsession with this captain role. This label is powerless. Marcus Smart isn't going to suddenly have a transformation because Captain Jayson Tatum talked with him.

Ime started the whole "Captain" thing by saying he was going to announce captains and Smart came out and said he didn't care and then it didn't happen. Now it doesn't matter to Ime. It should've never been brought up in the first place.

First time head coach. Probs just finding his way.

He's still a bit weird in interviews.

Mike Gorman mentioned this too; Ime's different as soon as the camera turns off. But he's kinda getting there. Slowly.

Different how ??

I think Gorman meant that during interviews, Ime still seems nervous and uncomfortable, but when the cameras are off, he’s a totally different person. I saw that exchange between Mike and Scal and that’s how i understood it, that Ime is getting more comfortable during interviews.

That was my take too. And nerves come with sometimes saying the wrong thing. It's okay, he'll get better!

Regarding Kanter;

I think it makes sense to not play him much, if you're trying to instil some defensive rotations into a team.

Probs not smart to play the one guy that's worst at it.

I've been on board with Ime's rotations mostly actually. He's clearly had goals, and those goals have clearly changed over time.

Or at least, he's ran different rotations the last few games. It's like he was feeling out the starters first, and now is trying to get the hang of managing the bench.

Part of that includes running different line-ups, or mostly similar line-ups with 1 or 2 little changes.

In short; I'm reading into this a bit much perhaps, but I see some method to the madness.

[radiohead]

Guys, what do you think will happen to Schroder? He’s become such an integral part of the team that he’s even taking shots at crunch time. Do we just ride it out with him for the rest of the year? Is there a chance that he’s traded at the deadline knowing that we probably can’t keep him beyond this year? If he keeps playing like this I’m sure he’ll have some interest across the league. I liked the Schroder signing but I didn’t think he’d have a great impact as he’s having now.

[td450]

Guys, what do you think will happen to Schroder? He’s become such an integral part of the team that he’s even taking shots at crunch time. Do we just ride it out with him for the rest of the year? Is there a chance that he’s traded at the deadline knowing that we probably can’t keep him beyond this year? If he keeps playing like this I’m sure he’ll have some interest across the league. I liked the Schroder signing but I didn’t think he’d have a great impact as he’s having now.

Shroder is at his best as a scoring point guard, and while Jaylen is out, he's clearly taken over point duties from Marcus (as opposed to both guys sharing ball handling more) and assumed the #2 scoring slot. All that suits him well.

So what happens when Jaylen comes back? How does the team handle the point then? Can Shroder give up shots and facilitate more? Who becomes the top dog at point? If Shroder can show he's a quality point when both J's are playing, and if he can improve the 4th quarter decision making, I think he stays. We'll see if he can do it or not.

[Goldstar88]

Article from Boston.com on Udoka. Thought it was worth sharing.

Celtics fans should be encouraged by Ime Udoka after 14 games
Ime Udoka's first 14 games have been a mixed bag, but real positive signs are emerging.

On Monday — after the Celtics outlasted the Cavaliers in a battle that answered the question “Who wants to eke out an unsatisfying win more?” — Jayson Tatum was asked for a progress report on new coach Ime Udoka.
Tatum opened with his go-to line regarding Udoka, noting how difficult it must be to be a first-year head coach. Then he touched on something new.
“It’s like we’re in a relationship,” Tatum said. “We try to help each other out to achieve the same goal.”

Tatum is both correct and also the wrong person to answer that question because he has struggled enormously to hold up his end of that equation. Tatum isn’t missing shots on purpose, of course, and this cold snap almost certainly isn’t permanent. The 23-year-old later noted — in a very candid answer about his struggles — that he has never missed this much in his career before, and he fully expects himself to figure it out. But Tatum’s struggles have thrown a wrench into every plan the Celtics made this season, and they make evaluating Udoka roughly a fifth of the way through his first season difficult.

Still, there are some genuinely positive signs poking through the concrete.
Celtics media and fans have raised a lot of concerns about Udoka — some fair, some less so. We will get to them.
But before we look at the concerns, let’s examine the positives.

The positives
After a slow start — as in a bottom-10 percentile start — the Celtics have roared back to life. Per the NBA’s stats site, the Celtics have the 10th-best defensive rating — fourth-best in their last 10 games (and again, the season is just 14 games old). The Celtics have excellent defensive personnel, and Udoka is building something that seems to work.
He seems to have a process as well.
“First 10 games, we really felt like we really got to where we needed to be,” Udoka said on Monday. “Still can grow in that area, but offensively is kind of the focus now, the shift and see how we can score more than 98, because we’re holding teams under 100.”
In other words: The defense came together first, and now the offense needs to follow suit.
It’s a process.

The concerns
So what are Celtics fans most concerned with? Based on our scientific method of data discovery (tweeting a couple things about Udoka and reading the replies), the biggest concerns are three-fold: Rotations, end-of-game strategy, and usage of the young guys.
First, the rotations. Udoka has repeated over and over that players have been “in and out” of the lineup since preseason. Even still, Udoka has largely put together successful lineups. Six of eight of his most-used groupings have a positive net rating.
What’s more, some of those lineups have been excellent. The second-most used lineup this season (108 possessions) is Dennis Schröder, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Tatum, and Rob Williams, which has a net rating of 6.2, according to Cleaning the Glass. That’s equal to the Suns’ team net rating, which is the fifth-best net rating in the NBA.
The third-most used lineup — the fully healthy starters: Smart, Brown, Tatum, Brown, and Horford — have a net rating of +7.5 in 106 possessions, which slots in between Utah and Miami at second and third-best in the league.
There are clunkers, to be sure. The starting lineup without Jaylen Brown breaks even at 0.0. The 25 possessions played by Schröder, Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, Grant Williams, and Al Horford were an unmitigated small-sample-size disaster at -23.3, although you can see how a lineup like that might come together with Brown out.
In general, however, Udoka’s lineups have been fine.


So what about his end-of-game strategy?
That’s a more interesting question. Cleaning the Glass has a stat called “expected win differential.” In simple terms, it measures how many wins a team should have given its offensive and defensive ratings. Statistically, the 7-7 Celtics should be 8-6 (pessimistically) or 9-5 (optimistically).
Of course, that number could be skewed by any number of circumstances. For instance: Tatum is shooting 29.4 percent in the last three minutes of games that are within five points, and an almost-comical 12.5 percent in the final minute of close games. His usage rate is steady in the mid-30s, which puts him in the 100th percentile of all forwards.
Translation: Tatum shoots more than anyone else in the NBA at his position in crunch time, and this season, he misses almost all of his shots.
Would a better performance by Tatum fix all of the late-game issues? Maybe not, but it isn’t a major stretch to imagine improved crunch-time numbers from Tatum boosting the Celtics to 8-6 or 9-5. If the Celtics were 9-5 while Tatum struggles, the conversation might be very different.
Finally, there’s the question of the young players. Udoka — perhaps emboldened by Brad Stevens who coached the same way — prefers to play his veterans. That leaves Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmith, in particular, out in the cold. Pritchard is averaging just 10.6 minutes per game, while Nesmith plays just 9.5. Josh Richardson, meanwhile, plays 24.2 minutes per contest.


But consider the mandate Udoka received from Celtics management when he was hired. All offseason, Stevens hammered the point that everything the organization does should make life easier for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Maybe Pritchard and Nesmith would help, but Udoka is hardly alone among coaches in trusting veterans more than youth.
Another thing to consider: Presumably, Udoka is looking to make a splash. The Celtics can say what they want about making Udoka their next long-term coach, but while developing Pritchard and Nesmith might be useful from an organizational perspective, they are not the focus. Udoka’s task is primarily to turn the Celtics into a contender and — secondarily, but certainly related — to make Boston a place where Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown want to play long-term.
If Udoka (very reasonably) sees keeping Tatum and Brown happy as crucial to his job security, and if he (very reasonably) sees wins as the way to keep Tatum and Brown happy, it’s a short trip to “play veterans at all times if possible.”

So who is Udoka as a coach?
None of this is meant to be apologia — no coach is perfect, few first-year coaches are elite, and Udoka is hardly an exception. Tatum, for example, is running much more isolation offense and significantly less pick-and-roll. Presumably, there are a lot of ways Stevens and the front office would like to see Udoka improve.

But the underachieving Celtics are knocking on the door of a solid season. Udoka isn’t Gregg Popovich. He also isn’t Stevens, or Mike D’Antoni, or (thankfully) Jason Kidd, or anyone else. Udoka is himself — a new coach whose mettle in the director’s chair is yet to be fully tested.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2021/11/16/celtics-fans-ime-udoka-jayson-tatum/