Scalabrine on The Lowe Post

[Big333223]

Lowe had Scal on his podcast this week. It's worth a listen just for the great Garnett story he tells at the end.

He also diagnoses Boston's biggest problem as being a terrible passing team. He notes that they are dead last in the league in hockey assists, the pass that leads to the assist.

I think he's right and I think this points to youth. As Tatum and Brown have focused more on playmaking, they're now trying to turn every pass into an assists. Basically, they're trying to hit a home run every time when they should be looking for more singles and doubles. They need to make the right pass that might not directly lead to an assist but will get things moving to get someone else an open shot or might even cycle back to them for an easy score.

It's not just a Tatum/Brown thing, obviously. The whole team needs to get better at moving the ball and, just as importantly, moving off the ball to create easier opportunities.

[Tr1boy]

Lowe had Scal on his podcast this week. It's worth a listen just for the great Garnett story he tells at the end.

He also diagnoses Boston's biggest problem as being a terrible passing team. He notes that they are dead last in the league in hockey assists, the pass that leads to the assist.

I think he's right and I think this points to youth. As Tatum and Brown have focused more on playmaking, they're now trying to turn every pass into an assists. Basically, they're trying to hit a home run every time when they should be looking for more singles and doubles. They need to make the right pass that might not directly lead to an assist but will get things moving to get someone else an open shot or might even cycle back to them for an easy score.

It's not just a Tatum/Brown thing, obviously. The whole team needs to get better at moving the ball and, just as importantly, moving off the ball to create easier opportunities.

thanks

and the hockey assist were there last night. Tatum had a handful + a couple of direct beauty ones like no look to Pritchard

If the team keeps playing the way they did yesterday plus Tatum and Brown are more efficient in scoring. Celts will be more difficult to play

[RJ87]

I just can't stand Scal. Why couldn't Lowe have Gorman on or literally anyone else.

[wdleehi]

The problem with hockey assists is everyone has to be looking for the right pass and the right pass quickly.   How many of the Celtics players have both the experience and the vision for that?

[gouki88]

I just can't stand Scal. Why couldn't Lowe have Gorman on or literally anyone else.

Agree wholeheartedly. He ruins broadcasts for me

[gift]

I just can't stand Scal. Why couldn't Lowe have Gorman on or literally anyone else.

Well Scal is much more knowledgeable about the game. Compare his well reasoned analysis of the Celtics problems backed with evidence and examples with Gorman’s emotional rant on the radio.

[footey]

Thought Scal made some valid points.

[Big333223]

Thought Scal made some valid points.

Yeah, whatever your opinion is of him as a broadcaster, I thought he was spot on with what he said on the podcast.

EDIT: Lowe also made a good point about there being too much East-West movement and not enough North-South movement and that that lack of attacking the basket is something that has always been a problem under Brad, which I thought was true, too.

More attacking the basket and more ball movement. You know, the basics.

[timpiker]

In the Indy game it was apparent to me that most of the team passes the ball and Brown and Tatum like to go 1 on 1 way too much.  And Kemba was hitting his shots.  And Theis is a treasure that we don't appreciate enough.  And Timelord needs more minutes and Thompson a lot less. 

[td450]

Lowe had Scal on his podcast this week. It's worth a listen just for the great Garnett story he tells at the end.

He also diagnoses Boston's biggest problem as being a terrible passing team. He notes that they are dead last in the league in hockey assists, the pass that leads to the assist.

I think he's right and I think this points to youth. As Tatum and Brown have focused more on playmaking, they're now trying to turn every pass into an assists. Basically, they're trying to hit a home run every time when they should be looking for more singles and doubles. They need to make the right pass that might not directly lead to an assist but will get things moving to get someone else an open shot or might even cycle back to them for an easy score.

It's not just a Tatum/Brown thing, obviously. The whole team needs to get better at moving the ball and, just as importantly, moving off the ball to create easier opportunities.

I don't see Tatum and Brown trying to constantly hit home runs. For younger wings forced to take primary responsibility for the offense, their turnovers are not out of line at all.

Passing is really a label for a set of activities that also includes attacking to create lanes, forcing the defense to choose, and the guys on the receiving end moving and adjusting to make better targets.

You can throw a pass and accomplish nothing except transferring responsibility to do something to someone else. You can also throw a pass that forces the defense to compromise itself.

The problem with the Celtics is that bodies don't move all that much. Tatum and Brown are increasing their passing quality and regularly breaking defenses. It's up to the coaches and the other players to use that. When Tatum or Brown attack, defenses are moving, and that changes the angles. The other players need to be moving to take advantage. Right now, that only involves the centers that are setting the high picks. No one else moves.

[gift]

Lowe had Scal on his podcast this week. It's worth a listen just for the great Garnett story he tells at the end.

He also diagnoses Boston's biggest problem as being a terrible passing team. He notes that they are dead last in the league in hockey assists, the pass that leads to the assist.

I think he's right and I think this points to youth. As Tatum and Brown have focused more on playmaking, they're now trying to turn every pass into an assists. Basically, they're trying to hit a home run every time when they should be looking for more singles and doubles. They need to make the right pass that might not directly lead to an assist but will get things moving to get someone else an open shot or might even cycle back to them for an easy score.

It's not just a Tatum/Brown thing, obviously. The whole team needs to get better at moving the ball and, just as importantly, moving off the ball to create easier opportunities.

I don't see Tatum and Brown trying to constantly hit home runs. For younger wings forced to take primary responsibility for the offense, their turnovers are not out of line at all.

Passing is really a label for a set of activities that also includes attacking to create lanes and the guys on the receiving end moving and adjusting to make better targets.

You can throw a pass and accomplish nothing except transferring responsibility to do something to someone else. You can also throw a pass that forces the defense to compromise itself.

The problem with the Celtics is that bodies don't move all that much. Tatum and Brown are increasing their passing quality and regularly breaking defenses. It's up to the coaches and the other players to use that. When Tatum or Brown attack, defenses are moving, and that changes the angles. The other players need to be moving to take advantage. Right now, that only involves the centers that are setting the high picks. No one else moves.

Scal also pointed out a great example during (I think) the Indy game where Pritchard needed to move into the line of sight on Jaylen’s drive to the basket. Little things like that, the whole team needs to improve.

[colincb]

Passing is not the biggest problem, but it's a narrative that allows the BOS media to point fingers for click-bait. The biggest problems with the Celtics are health and lack of mid-tier, consistent players in the rotation.

TT and Kemba struggled early (both have made progress recently with Kemba doubling his NBA efficiency [the original NBA advanced stat and the basis for Hollinger's PER and Game Score stats] in his last 7 games and TT increasing his by 40% since January.

Tatum alone is a huge problem. Pre-Covid, his NBA efficiency per game was 21.1 in 10 games. Post-COVID it dropped to 17.5 in 18 games , but in the last 8 games, it's 12.8.  For the same 3 periods, Tatum's shooting has gone from 47% to 41% to 36% from the field and his 3FG% has gone from 44% to  33% to 27%.

Lastly, Smart has missed as many games as Kemba now. Indeed of our projected 5 starters JB, JT, KW, MS and either TT or DT, we've lost 41 games in a 33 game season.

I'm not going to delve deep into the bench issues, but it's young and inexperienced and it shows. My hope is that Danny splits the TPE in two and gets 2 mid-tier players rather than risk it all on one player he may not be able to find.

The NBA starting the season earlier than expected and its scheduling hasn't helped either with the health and inexperience issues.

[GreenEnvy]

Passing is not the biggest problem, but it's a narrative that allows the BOS media to point fingers for click-bait. The biggest problems with the Celtics are health and lack of mid-tier, consistent players in the rotation.

TT and Kemba struggled early (both have made progress recently with Kemba doubling his NBA efficiency [the original NBA advanced stat and the basis for Hollinger's PER and Game Score stats] in his last 7 games and TT increasing his by 40% since January.

Tatum alone is a huge problem. Pre-Covid, his NBA efficiency per game was 21.1 in 10 games. Post-COVID it dropped to 17.5 in 18 games , but in the last 8 games, it's 12.8.  For the same 3 periods, Tatum's shooting has gone from 47% to 41% to 36% from the field and his 3FG% has gone from 44% to  33% to 27%.

Lastly, Smart has missed as many games as Kemba now. Indeed of our projected 5 starters JB, JT, KW, MS and either TT or DT, we've lost 41 games in a 33 game season.

I'm not going to delve deep into the bench issues, but it's young and inexperienced and it shows. My hope is that Danny splits the TPE in two and gets 2 mid-tier players rather than risk it all on one player he may not be able to find.

The NBA starting the season earlier than expected and its scheduling hasn't helped either with the health and inexperience issues.

Are two mid-tier players really going to move the needle towards true contender?

You are either going to get stuck with guys on sizable contracts ($10-20MM) that don’t impact games or they will come and go after this season without a championship. And of course, eliminating any shot at nabbing a star with the full TPE.

I’d rather have the option and not use it than need it and not have it. Use Kanter’s TPE for a bench guy and see if everyone can be firing on all cylinders come May.

[Bobshot]

I don't know whether you folks have seen the 2nd half schedule. It's overloaded with 4 game weeks. A couple of teams have only 4 game weeks. And now the Toronto/Chicago  game today is cancelled due to a covid test.

I don't know if they can get through the schedule. They might have to stretch the season. Better to do that than cram games into existing weeks.

[ozgod]

Lowe had Scal on his podcast this week. It's worth a listen just for the great Garnett story he tells at the end.

He also diagnoses Boston's biggest problem as being a terrible passing team. He notes that they are dead last in the league in hockey assists, the pass that leads to the assist.

I think he's right and I think this points to youth. As Tatum and Brown have focused more on playmaking, they're now trying to turn every pass into an assists. Basically, they're trying to hit a home run every time when they should be looking for more singles and doubles. They need to make the right pass that might not directly lead to an assist but will get things moving to get someone else an open shot or might even cycle back to them for an easy score.

It's not just a Tatum/Brown thing, obviously. The whole team needs to get better at moving the ball and, just as importantly, moving off the ball to create easier opportunities.

For the record, I agree with him on the passing, but it was funny to hear him on the telecast tonight complaining that they were passing too much against the Wizards.