For me, this team needs three players to start winning titles - a playmaking point guard, a tough power forward who has an inside scoring game and a knock-down shooter. We need more than one addition. Those three coming off the bench to replace the current group that gets minimum minutes are what we need.
As far as the "playmaking point guard" goes, it looks as though Brad Stevens has gone decisively in another direction. This team is now built around a decentralized team ball-movement concept, rather than relying on a single player with ball skills to generate offense for the team.
We are too dependent on the first 8 and Ime is playing the starters into the ground.
I would at least agree that Tatum is getting too many minutes.
We'd see Nesmith more, but he's been hurt; I would suggest that one reason Romeo was traded was to open a pathway for Aaron. He's got developing off-the-dribble skills; I guess I'd say that what the team needs is a third wing who can shoot with range, get into the paint off the dribble and finish (again, Aaron has shown real promise with lane scoring, going both ways with his dribble and finishing hand), and making a play (the area that Aaron is most behind in).
Pritchard could develop into the shooter, but he is not at the level of prime Kyle Korver or JJ Reddick.
His size is an issue going forward; but he's way ahead of Redick and Korver in his play-making skills and ahead of both in his ability to get a shot off the dribble.
Horford is our current power forward, but is aging and does not bring the physicality we need to add inside.
I'd agree with one of these three assertions: he's aging. Fortunately, his game does not rely on speed, and Coach Udoka has made a priority of managing his minutes. Fingers crossed, he's avoided injury, always a heightened risk at his age.
To the extent that it's relevant to even say the team has a "power forward", it is not Al. If we're going to use the old-fashioned designations, Horford mostly plays center.
As for lacking physicality - that's not what I see. Leave it at that.
A playmaking point guard is a desperate need and could be a starter.
I think that there's more than one way to build a contender; but as I was saying earlier: in any case, Boston has gone away from that model. They replaced Schroeder with Derrick White, as clear a signal as you could get. They want Tatum and Brown creating for teammates as well as for themselves; as the season has progressed, their assist%s have slowly climbed.
Personally, I love the direction the offense is going; just love to see the ball move the way it has been. But no doubt if Boston had gotten Chris Paul at some point things could be just as awesome. As I say, there's more than one way to get there.
Marcus Smart has 6th Man of the Year written all over him - if he was willing to accept the role.
Okay interesting. Certainly when Brad was head coach Smart played a 6th-man role (though with 5th-man minutes).
The classic 6th man is a scorer who comes in when the opponent's starters go out or start to flag (Lou Williams, in recent seasons, fits the norm) - but whose defense doesn't measure up to his offense (otherwise he'd be a starter).
But of course the Celtics have been innovators in this area as in many from the early years of the league; Loscutoff and Paul Silas are good counterexamples.
Again, though, it looks like both coaching and management are projecting Smart as a starter going forward, with him in a low-usage facilitating role; and their vision of the offense is the decentralized ball-movement team we're seeing right now.
It's particularly striking that, far from looking for a better Dennis Schroeder, they got a Derrick White, whose role is not all that different from brother Marcus'.
They doubled down.
Topic: What player puts the Cs over the top (Read 13206 times)