There are many lessons to learn from last season:
1) The NBA is changing. Heat, Bulls, Thunder, Grizzlies even the Hawks are all improving. The Spurs, Lakers, Celtics and the Mavericks are slowly but surely losing the battle against time. Although Dallas won, it's easy to forget that Dallas had the third highest payroll behind only the Lakers and the Magic. They were so stacked they became champions without Caron Butler and Roddy Beaubois. However, whatever defense Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry played on James, Wade, Durant and Westbrook will be much less effective next year as the young develop and the old age.
2) The Celtics starting five of Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Garnett and J. O'Neal, can still be dominant for 25-28 min. We made Miami work even with injuries, lack of chemistry and overworking our starters. However we need to make some serious changes to transition from the Big 3 Era of an 8 man rotation to one where we are playing 10-11 people.
3) We need a second unit that is young but experienced enough to play when it matters, athletic, can shoot, has continuity (chemistry) and has no liabilities on either end of the floor. We also have almost no cap space to make this happen so we can forget about signing Jamal Crawford, Kris Humphries and Nene.
This sounds ominous, perhaps even impossible, but I think that this can be managed and we can compete for the title once more while maintaining our cap flexibility, and developing players for the inevitable post Big 3 era.
1) Delonte West must be resigned. He is a quality player who is undervalued by the league due to his "misunderstanding" with the law and his bi-polar disorder and injury history. He hits every point on the checklist. He's cheap, in the prime of his career, he can play either guard position, he's very athletic, he can shoot well, he's a tough and intelligent defender, and he has good chemistry and continuity with the Celtics. Even if he plays only half the games he's worth his salary.
2) Sasha Pavlovic should be signed for the vet min. Another player who hits all points on the checklist. He will be in the prime of his career, he can play either the shooting guard or the small forward position, he's got great size and is very athletic, he's a good spot up shooter, he has played with Delonte in Cleveland and he's familiar with our system, he has excellent IQ on both ends of the floor and he's tough as nails. According to his agent, Danny expressed a lot of desire in bringing him back next season.
3) Jeff Green must be kept. He's got excellent size for the small forward position. He's very young and is simply one of the most athletic players in the league. He has been absolutely abusing the rim in the pro-am events he has played in. Although there's not much defense being played he's becoming more aggressive and finding his game. He's a solid shooter, but he's a a good slasher, excellent finisher and a monster in the transition. He has great size and quickness, with an increase in strength and familiarity with the system he can become a tremendous defender in the NBA. He's also a high IQ player who is familiar with our system and has had an entire off season go over the plays, study film etc.
4) Glen Davis must be resigned but we have to change his role as to best utilize his strengths and cover his weaknesses. Glen Davis struggles more covering power forwards than he does centers. His most glaring weakness is that taller power-forwards shoot over him. Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Pau Gasol, Serge Ibaka etc.
He's better suited to defend centers for multiple reasons. His tremendous strength allows him to fight for position with the bigger stronger centers to keep them away from the basket where they are less effective. The centers in the NBA shoot much worse than the power forwards. I would rather Joel Anthony, Ronny Turiaf, Kendrick Perkins, Andrew Bynum, Joakim Noah, Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler etc. (not to mention back up centers) shoot over Davis than the aforementioned power forwards.
Davis' biggest strength on defense is his ability to move his feet quickly and draw a charge. Guarding a center allows him to be near the circle where he can cut off slashers and draw the charge rather than running around the perimeter trying to guard longer stretch fours.
Finally, Davis really benefits on the offensive end where his shooting, surprising quickness and smaller size actually helps draw opposing centers away from the paint which opens up driving lanes for slashers like Jeff Green, Pavlovic and Bradley. He can even take the bigger, slower centers off the dribble, and use his excellent spin move and good finishing ability around the basket without running the risk of having his shot blocked by the more agile forwards. Dejuan Blair and Chuck Hayes are centers with similar build as Davis who do a great job in the Center position.
5) We need to take a chance on a cheap, young, long and athletic power forward to play with Davis. If we had the MLE (and it was enough) to spend on a guy like Kris Humphries that would be ideal, there are some other options. Obviously there will be risks but with limited cap space that can't be avoided.
a) Josh McRoberts hits quite a few checklists. He's young, he's super athletic, he has good size and he can be had for relatively cheap. He has range out to the 3-point line and can knock down free-throws. His defense is questionable, but he's tough and he's young. Kevin Garnett and Jermaine O'Neal should be able to teach him something about defense.
b) Yi Jianlian is very similar to McRoberts. He has tremendous size and athleticism. He also has range out to the three point line, and he is a good free-throw shooter. He can be had for cheap but we have to gamble that he will step up his defense and rebounding in the right system.
c) Alexis Ajinca is almost identical to Yi Jianlian.
d) Chris Wilcox is more experienced but has much less upside than McRoberts or Yi. He's a poor free-throw shooter and does not have a lot of range. However, he can rebound the ball better and is a much more potent threat on the inside. He would be the solid choice to shore up our rebounding and provide our second unit with an inside threat. He's also known for not putting up a lot of effort on defense but that might change playing with Doc, KG, and JO.
There are other advantages to going after a power forward instead of a center this summer. Miami, New York, LA, Chicago, Oklahoma, Dallas and Memphis all have players who dominate that position. Free-agents seeking playing time with contenders would find Boston a more friendly option than these other teams. Miami and New York would probably both be more attractive option for free-agent Centers. Also the affordable centers in this free-agency are pretty abysmal. I don't see Kwame Brown or Kurt Thomas being more effective than Glen Davis.
6) We keep young pieces hoping they will develop into pieces that can help us Post big 3. We have two young combo guards in E'Twaun Moore and Avery Bradley. E'twaun Moore might actually be the better point guard prospect because he's handled the ball quite often in Purdue and has an excellent assist to turn-over ratio. He also has great size for a point guard but lacks elite athleticism.
If the Bradley point guard experiment doesn't pan out, he'll still be an athletic guard who can score the rock. He's still very young though and has a lot of upside.
We sign Gilbert Brown, he's cheap, extremely athletic, excellent defender and is a solid long term prospect at 2/3 wing. From everything I've seen he's a longer, less turnover prone, Tony Allen. Of course Tony has elite toughness and intensity that is very, very rare in this league.
Jajuan Johnson is another prospect. He's incredibly athletic, very long, can play on both ends of the floor, and has improved consistently every year he's played basketball. He can also shoot the ball incredible well for a guy his size. He's not at all weak, he can bench 330 pounds and had 15 reps of 185 lbs at the combine. He has 38 inch vertical which shows he has strong legs as well. He's just so incredibly skinny looking that you're constantly worried that he's going to snap like a twig at any moment. However he's avoided injuries and hasn't missed a game in 4 years of college. He also stated he see's himself as a 3/4 combo forward in the future. He has to develop his ball handling, range and quickness significantly to play the 3 in the NBA. He has a lot of potential to become a very good player in this league.
With our last spot, we should get the best available experienced and injury-free center we can find. Maybe that's Kwame Brown, maybe Joel Pryzbilla is healthy, maybe Kurt Thomas who was durable for the Bulls last season. Although the thought of signing another old center makes me nauseous, we need someone experienced enough to play minutes in game 7 of the NBA finals. We hope and pray JO will be healthy but we have to prepare for the possibility he will be out. We can't have rookies playing in the playoffs no matter how they do in the regular season. Look at Landry Fields, Gary Neal etc. They are simply not ready for the pressure and the atmosphere and will collapse.
Even with a tougher CBA, we should at least be able to bring back our own free-agents and fill out our roster with vet min deals. We should split the MLE if it's still around for a young, athletic, long power forward and a serviceable Center. Here is what our Roster would look like if we do these things (from Wikipedia):
Veteran Starting Unit (25-30 min with the exception of Rondo)
PG = Rajon Rondo Age: 25 Height: 6'1 Weight: 171
SG = Ray Allen Age: 36 Height: 6'5 Weight: 205
SF = Paul Pierce Age: 33 Height: 6'7 Weight: 235
PF = Kevin Garnett Age: 35 Height: 6'11 Weight: 253
C = Jermaine O'Neal Age: 32 Height: 6'11 Weight: 255
Young, athletic second unit to (18-23 min)
PG = Delonte West Age: 28 Height: 6'3 Weight: 180
SG = Sasha Pavlovic Age: 27 Height: 6'7 Weight: 235
SF = Jeff Green Age: 25 Height: 6'9 Weight: 235
PF = Josh McRoberts: Age: 24 Height: 6'10 Weight: 240(Yi Jianlian/Chris Wilcox etc.)
C = Glen Davis Age: 25 Height: 6'9 Weight: 289
Diamond in the Rough unit:
1/2 Guard = E'Twaun Moore Age: 22 Height: 6'4 Weight: 191
1/2 Guard = Avery Bradley Age: 20 Height: 6'2 Weight: 180
2/3 Wing = Gilbert Brown Age: 24 Height: 6'6 Weight: 210
3/4 Forward = JaJuan Johnson Age: 22 Height: 6'10 Weight: 210
Center = Kwame Brown Age: 29 Height: 6'11 Weight: 270 (Joel Pryzbilla/Kurt Thomas etc.)
We'll have 10 players returning from last season of whom 9 will be part of the regular rotation. This will really help with our continuity which is very important. If we learned anything from last season it's that chemistry and continuity can't be underestimated, especially since we might have a shortened training camp, cancelled pre-season, shortened season etc.
Topic: What we can learn from last season, and how we should reload for next season. (Read 3192 times)