Motivation and thoughts on our Offense.

[Megatron]

I think the team we are seeing right now is party because of a lack of motivation. We saw what happened last year once the playoffs came around.

Our offense right now is struggling, I think a big part of this is because we are not running enough, im watching the Laker game right now and it seems like they are scoring effortlessly because they are running the floor and taking advantage of opportunities. It seems like the Celtics take far too long to set up the offense.

Rondo dribbles for 10-15 seconds before making a move or setting someone up, this is because he is not penetrating, he is simply standing around at the top of the key and waiting for someone else to try and get themselves open, then giving them the ball and expecting them to make a move.

Green needs to take advantage of his athleticism and run the floor more but also demand the ball. Right now it seems like nobody except Krstic wants the ball on offense. I regularly see him being very active, getting into position, calling for the ball, but is ignored by the rest of the team. The ball ends up back in Rondos hand and he misses the open jumper. Rondo is hesitant to shoot and isnt very good at that to begin with. Pierce is lacking aggressiveness outside of rare moments. KG is reluctant to do anything other then shoot the 18 footer.

We need a change of offense if Rondo is slumping right now. We need to get the ball out of his hands and getting it the the player who is willing to put the ball in the basket make or miss.

The way we are running our offense right now makes even a mediocre defensive team look like gods. We rely far too much on Rondo setting everyone up. Why not play inside out with KG and Krstic? Our offensive scheme is terrible right now, its putrid and predictable. Rondo gets the ball, walks it slowly up the court and waits. Thats our offense right now.

Im sure Doc knows this and in turn will make some changes, I just think that the biggest part of our offense and in turn everyone else being terrible is that Rondo is being incredibly passive. All of the possesions are turning into Rondo standing around for 10-15 seconds, praying someone gets open, and if they dont, he shoots a jumper that either goes in or doesent.

That is terrible offense.

Right now the blame needs to go on Rondo, wether or not he is injured remains to be seen, we cant keep going into games with this game plan though.

We heard so many great things about Green and Krstic being able to bring an offensive punch to this team yet we rarely involve them in anything. Krstic is scoring off of broken plays and finishes. Green is not running the floor as much as we thought he would, Doc admitted he didnt know how to use him so I hope that will change sometime soon.

If the rest of our team are unmotivated and unwilling to put fourth the effort on the offensive end that is required to win games, why not go to the new guys who are looking to prove themselves?

[chambers]

i agree 100%
they know they've made the playoffs and they are tired.
the bench is finally coming through though and they are clearly motivated.
I think when shaq comes back some familiarity will help their esteem/stamina as far as getting the competitive juices flowing.

Good post, TP

[Bankshot]

I don't see Krstic being ignored at all.  He's had as many shots if not more than the Big 3 since he got here with the exception of last night, so not buying that.

The chemistry looked fine the other night, just Rondo not playing well and setting the table is the reason the offense looks so off, couple that with the Big 3 not shooting well.... 

[Roy H.]

TP.  I don't agree with each and every word (although I do agree with a lot of it), but major kudos for putting together a thread that contains a reasoned argument with supporting observations.  It's easy to be completely reactionary right now, so posts like this one stand out for their quality.

[toinewalka]

I'm not overly concerned about it.  I think we look really good in spurts and really bad in spurts.  Two main reasons I'm not worried: 1) Doc is more concerned at this point in the season with figuring out what the new guys can do and resting the starters than he is with Paul or Ray going 200% to get 20+ 2) Those spurts we have were with the starters and usualy lineups in there.  I think this stuff is going to work at full strength and the offense will be fine.  Especially considering we still have a top D.

[BballTim]

The way we are running our offense right now makes even a mediocre defensive team look like gods. We rely far too much on Rondo setting everyone up. Why not play inside out with KG and Krstic? Our offensive scheme is terrible right now, its putrid and predictable. Rondo gets the ball, walks it slowly up the court and waits. Thats our offense right now.

Im sure Doc knows this and in turn will make some changes, I just think that the biggest part of our offense and in turn everyone else being terrible is that Rondo is being incredibly passive. All of the possesions are turning into Rondo standing around for 10-15 seconds, praying someone gets open, and if they dont, he shoots a jumper that either goes in or doesent.

That is terrible offense.

  The last time I heard Doc talk about Rondo walking the ball up his response was to point out that nobody else was running and it didn't make a ton of sense for Rondo to push the ball up court and then wait for the rest of his team to accompany him. Rondo's not playing his best right now, but we're trying to integrate 5 new players into our offense so a lack of cohesion isn't unexpected.

[thirstyboots18]

The way we are running our offense right now makes even a mediocre defensive team look like gods. We rely far too much on Rondo setting everyone up. Why not play inside out with KG and Krstic? Our offensive scheme is terrible right now, its putrid and predictable. Rondo gets the ball, walks it slowly up the court and waits. Thats our offense right now.

Im sure Doc knows this and in turn will make some changes, I just think that the biggest part of our offense and in turn everyone else being terrible is that Rondo is being incredibly passive. All of the possesions are turning into Rondo standing around for 10-15 seconds, praying someone gets open, and if they dont, he shoots a jumper that either goes in or doesent.

That is terrible offense.

  The last time I heard Doc talk about Rondo walking the ball up his response was to point out that nobody else was running and it didn't make a ton of sense for Rondo to push the ball up court and then wait for the rest of his team to accompany him. Rondo's not playing his best right now, but we're trying to integrate 5 new players into our offense so a lack of cohesion isn't unexpected.

Exactly, BballTim.  TP

[Roy H.]

The way we are running our offense right now makes even a mediocre defensive team look like gods. We rely far too much on Rondo setting everyone up. Why not play inside out with KG and Krstic? Our offensive scheme is terrible right now, its putrid and predictable. Rondo gets the ball, walks it slowly up the court and waits. Thats our offense right now.

Im sure Doc knows this and in turn will make some changes, I just think that the biggest part of our offense and in turn everyone else being terrible is that Rondo is being incredibly passive. All of the possesions are turning into Rondo standing around for 10-15 seconds, praying someone gets open, and if they dont, he shoots a jumper that either goes in or doesent.

That is terrible offense.

  The last time I heard Doc talk about Rondo walking the ball up his response was to point out that nobody else was running and it didn't make a ton of sense for Rondo to push the ball up court and then wait for the rest of his team to accompany him. Rondo's not playing his best right now, but we're trying to integrate 5 new players into our offense so a lack of cohesion isn't unexpected.

There's a difference between not pushing the ball to make something happen in transition versus just standing around and bounding the ball on offense, isn't there?

Too often lately, Rondo stands stationary beyond the three point line for several seconds, waiting for things to develop.  He's not moving the ball around the perimeter, and he's not penetrating.  He's simply waiting.

It's weird...  the last time we saw something close to this was for much of the Orlando and LA series in last year's playoffs (when it was speculated that Rondo was hurt), but even then it wasn't to this extent.  It's just a strange thing to see.

[LB3533]

4 out of our last 5 games we didn't crack 90 points (we are 2-3), but does that have a lot to do with pace and our turnovers?

In our 2 victories (both against the Bucks) we turned the ball over 17 times per game and shot 70 FGA's with about 19.5 FTA's.

17 t/o per game would be #1 worst in the league.

19.5 FTA's and 70 FGA's would be both dead last in the league.

We won those games primarily on defense. 

Our 3 losses were to LAC, PHI & NJ.

The Clippers loss was due to our poor defense, giving up 52% shooting and 45% from 3 land.

We played great defense against Sixers and Nets, but our offense wasn't good at all...shooting 41% in both games.

Before our first loss with the new guys we were averaging over 103 points per game.

So it's not like our scoring talent is lacking.