ESPN Seth Greenberg Noteworthy Celtics Playoff Stats

[Who]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r23i1rBxvxE

This doesn't really need it's own thread but I didn't know where to put it so here it is.

Some stats comparing Celtics team in the playoffs this season versus last season - per 100 possessions

(1) 10% fewer passes
(2) 25% fewer screens off the ball
(3) 50% fewer hand-offs

Seth Greenberg said "that is not Brad Stevens basketball" because the "ball gets stuck". He said it was due to Kyrie Irving because that is how you have to play when you have Kyrie Irving.

Also said that Stevens didn't do a good job this year as in past years because the "personality of the team did not fit his personality or vision of how he wants to play" because with Kyrie Irving you have to change everything about the way you play.

Interesting stats to make note of.

[tstorey_97]

I don't know.

I am not the biggest Irving fan, but, that is how he plays. They adjusted to it in Cleveland, but, James was the dictator on the court and he made it work.

Irving was never a fit for this team or Stevens as the philosophy has to adjust to his shooting volume....I guess.

Regardless, the Celtics took on the biggest and best front court in the NBA (Bucks) and a smallish point guard who needs to shoot a lot ends up...being just that.

I also suggest the following.

The Bucks are really good and that Freak beat the spit out of the Celtics and lead his team to victory. Ball movement on offense got smashed up, didn't it?

I suppose we can blame our players and coach, but the Bucks are a better team.

[Silky]

Everyone ignores that the team tore up the league last year with a 670 win percentage with irving and no hayward.

[cman88]

Everyone ignores that the team tore up the league last year with a 670 win percentage with irving and no hayward.

Yeah, pretty much this. Only thing that changed was we put Hayward in the starting lineup when he really wasnt ready which screwed up Brown. and Guys like Tatum/Rozier stopped playing the team ball that they did the year previously.

[PhoSita]

This is consistent with my feeling that the Celts basically weren't running an offense anymore by the end of the season.

I used to enjoy watching the Celtics play on offense; the issue was simply that they didn't have enough firepower.


This year it didn't feel like the issue was firepower, but rather that the team just didn't know how to generate good looks consistently.


The way that I saw it articulated in one of the articles I was reading today (or maybe it was just somebody on Twitter), was basically that this Celtics team always wanted to fall back on playing isolation basketball, even though they were never really very good at it. We don't really need a more complicated description than that:

This Celtics team wanted to play a style of basketball that they simply were not very good at executing.

I agree that this year's team didn't fit with the vision of basketball we've seen from Stevens in years past. 

Some of the  blame falls on Stevens for not being able to get the main offensive players on the team to buy into his offensive vision.  Some of the blame falls on Danny Ainge for putting together a group of players whose instincts, tendencies, habits etc were not very compatible with his head coach. 

I would also say that the team as a whole seems to have completely failed to anticipate that putting together so many iso-prone players would result in major problems, including issues in the locker room, because the Celts just had too many guys who wanted to have a steady diet of opportunities to hunt for offense with the ball in their hands.

[The Oracle]

Offensive rating regular and post season.

              reg.         post
18-19    111.2       101.1
17-18    106.7       107.0

The C's shot 28.4% from 3 during the last 4 games against Milwaukee.  If the C's had shot 36.5% (regular season average) they would have made a dozen more 3's spanning those 4 games and the series would have been close based on this alone.   If the C's had simply shot better.....

[tazzmaniac]

The best coaches adjust their schemes to fit with the abilities of the players that they have.  You win championships by getting the best talent you can and building around it not by getting players that fit your scheme.  Getting AD won't help nearly as much as it should if Stevens doesn't adjust his approach. 

[CelticSooner]

The best coaches adjust their schemes to fit with the abilities of the players that they have.  You win championships by getting the best talent you can and building around it not by getting players that fit your scheme.  Getting AD won't help nearly as much as it should if Stevens doesn't adjust his approach.

I say see the threads now: Where's AD's post game? Why is he chucking threes?