Team's biggest weakness

[droopdog7]

Obviously the C an PF positions are not so great right now. 

But this team is still going to have shooting issues.  We still have too many guys that are not specialist that are more effective off the dribble than in catch and shoot situations.  Not having Rozier and Morris will help, but as I clamored for all last year, would love to have some snipers/specialists.

[drooldaddy]

Completely agree. We need a PF type . I don’t see any of our centers playing well together on the floor. So a mobile big rebounding PF type would be sweet.  Hopefully it’s Grant W.

And a JJ Redick type shooter would be second on the wish list.

[Walker Wiggle]

This is an astute observation and I agree that the team's shooting isn't getting enough attention (as opposed to its bigs).

By the way, Philly has an even bigger question mark when it comes to shooting. They retained Harris, but the loss of Reddick is going to be a bigger deal than people realize.

As for the Celtics, I think the solution needs to come in-house. That is, you hope that Smart, Tatum, and Brown continue to improve from the perimeter, that Hayward finds his stroke again, that Theis can hit the 3 now and again, that Grant Williams can extend his range, etc.

[Celts Fan 508]

I think the lack of a positive veteran presence at the end of the bench to mentor all of the young talent is a problem again.  Last year it hurt this team, I hope it doesn’t hurt us again.

Get rid of Yabu and bring in Vince Carter or someone like that to help Tatum, Brown, Smart become what they are capable.  Someone to run things by. 

[headcase]

that Grant Williams can extend his range, etc.

For what it is worth...practice, summer league, ECT...there is a recent video of Grant hitting 6 corner 3s in a row during a summer league practice....he maybe capable.

[__ramonezy__]

I think the lack of a positive veteran presence at the end of the bench to mentor all of the young talent is a problem again.  Last year it hurt this team, I hope it doesn’t hurt us again.

Get rid of Yabu and bring in Vince Carter or someone like that to help Tatum, Brown, Smart become what they are capable.  Someone to run things by.

Agreed. I like Yabu but I feel he's expendable this year.

[Sophomore]

that Grant Williams can extend his range, etc.

For what it is worth...practice, summer league, ECT...there is a recent video of Grant hitting 6 corner 3s in a row during a summer league practice....he maybe capable.

I feel like he's a huge x-factor for us. He might be able to extend to the three point line; seems to have the stroke and a reasonably quick release and given his ability to shoot in the midrange I'm not sure why he won't be able to catch on from 3 - start as a corner sniper and extend from there.

I am hoping we can get even more from him. I can see him becoming a real plus passer operating out of the post or even at the top of the key - a role kind of like Draymond plays on offense for the Warriors. Not right away but in time, if he's as savvy as they say. Also interested to see if they try to get him the ball with his back to the basket; he had good success operating out of the low post, mid-post, high post against taller, athletic, players in blue-chip programs. That's something we have almost never seen from a CBS team, and maybe GW won't be able to make those moves work against the pros. But he just might...

[Csfan1984]

I think we see Edwards play some SG to add shooting there. Smart for Lou Williams might be a option depending on how things shape up cap wise after all the sign and trades go down.

[TheSundanceKid]

Weak side help defence, when it's not Marcus it's noone

[hwangjini_1]

this is a bit of a highjack, so forgive me.

over at SoSH they are having a really fascinating discussion on  positions in today's nba. how "positionless" basketball means basically there is a ball handler (traditional 1) a big guy (5) and always 3 wings.

we know this, but his goes far deeper and shows how even the ball handler (1) is today really about bringing the ball up the court and little more, or, defended quick guys who bring the ball up the court. once the ball is past the mid court line the team morphs into basically 4 wings and a big.

and even THEN the big has new role, and, how today teams cant afford to have two bigs on the floor at the same time. unless one of them is like horford and can play quasi-well at being a wing. it is really intelligently argued and well done. i think a number of folks here might enjoy the read.

https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/positions-or-lack-thereof-in-todays-nba.27668/

[dreamgreen]

I think 1-3 we have as much talent as any team in the league with great depth. Our bigs are most likely on the end of the spectrum. It's frustrating with all our picks over the years we have no young up and coming big. I'm trying to hold on to some hope for Time Lord but that is yet to be seen!

Shooting isn't our strength put I don't think it's a weakness either. I would say our depth of shooters is the weakness you're speaking of?

I do think our rebounding will be better so second chance points could be a little bit of a boost to the team.

I still say our front court defense right now seems like the weakest point of the team.

[td450]

We have Walker, Brown, Tatum and Hayward. They must take a majority of the team's shots. If we aren't a good enough shooting team, we can't add it in a substantial way. We have to ride that core, and if it doesn't work, deal with it when it works for the team to trade one of those guys. The worst possible thing we can do is mess up our wings by taking away shots.

BTW, that is a pretty good group of shooters.

[Birdman]

The Bench..sorry folks but to me its probably worst in NBA..no scoring..

[hwangjini_1]

The Bench..sorry folks but to me its probably worst in NBA..no scoring..

CBS usually keeps a starter or two in the game. the bench is almost never in there by itself, so there will be some sort of scorer on the floor.

[alt]

Plenty of weaknesses:

Off-the-ball action skills/cutters/passers

Defense

Shooting

Also suspect depth/bench. Not necessarily bad but lots of uncertainty. Rookies (Edwards, Langford, Williams, Poirier) + Yabusele + Ojeleye + Robert Williams + Wannamaker = more than half the roster composed of players who've never had the experience of being NBA rotational players. Plus Theis.

Hard to say which is the biggest weakness. They're all correlated: lack of movemennt -> worse shots -> bad shooting -> bad defense (less settled) -> more stagnant offense (opp defense more settled) -> bad shooting, etc

Some of the players in this team have had very good career years in terms of shooting, but what if they have years more or less similar to the last one?

Tatum - .373
Smart - .364
Kemba - .356
Brown - .344
Hayward -.333

Yikes.

Any of the rookies making a (positive) difference shooting wise strikes me as wild wishful thinking. None of them was even that great in college.