How many players on the roster do you trust?

[PhoSita]

See thread title.

I'm curious to gauge the trust level people have with this roster. 

The poll starts at 3 because I think we ought to be able to agree on Tatum, Brown, and Smart or Theis.  I don't think it's reasonable to answer less than three.  Especially if Kemba is healthy.

But beyond that?  Oof.


For me, I trust:

Tatum
Brown
Smart
Theis
Thompson

... 5.


Kemba is a question mark due to his knee. 

Rob Williams feels like he's a few years of growing pains away from being a really good player.  I suspect he'll be really good for another team, by then.

Grant just doesn't threaten the opposing defense at all right now.  I know he'll make smart decisions and be in the right place on defense.  I can't trust him to help the team when the offense is struggling, which I expect to be relatively often.


Teague may end up joining the list of reliables, but it's an open question how much he has left.


Pritchard, Nesmith ... rookies.  Who knows?

Javonte Green ... he hustles and makes athletic plays.  He's a little like Tony Allen without the amazing defense.  Could become a reliable part of the rotation or fall out of it completely.  I don't know.

Semi ... similar to Grant, I don't think he brings enough offensively.  Trending toward out of the league in a year, IMO.

Carsen, Waters, Tacko .... I don't think these guys are really NBA caliber players.




Short answer is that this was already a thin roster in the playoffs last year, and due to Kemba's lingering knee issues, that only got worse. 

[Moranis]

 Tatum, Brown, Walker

[Roy H.]

Trust to play reasonably well most of the time?

Seven.  The regular starters and the two free agents.

Williams, Williams and the rookies will hopefully prove trustworthy in their roles.

Semi, Edwards and Green:  we can trust them to consistently suck.

I forgot someone.  Oh:  Romeo.  Zero trust that he’ll see the court.

[PAOBoston]

Trust: Tatum/Brown/Theis/TT/Smart/Kemba

That’s it.

[PhoSita]

I completely forgot that Romeo existed in the original post. That kinda tells you where I'm at on him.

[GreenWarrior]

I don't really "trust" anybody on this team at this point. Last season our 2 best players - brown and tatum went through stretches where they didn't get it... Esp. in the ECF.

Preseason doesn't matter but it does. When your team looks like they picked up where they left off it matters.

But the lack of trust from me stems from the philosophy of the coach, he's set the team up for failure by giving everyone the green light to shoot whenever which has led to a lack of discipline and seeking out better shots.

[RodyTur10]

I don't really "trust" anybody on this team at this point. Last season our 2 best players - brown and tatum went through stretches where they didn't get it... Esp. in the ECF.

Preseason doesn't matter but it does. When your team looks like they picked up where they left off it matters.

But the lack of trust from me stems from the philosophy of the coach, he's set the team up for failure by giving everyone the green light to shoot whenever which has led to a lack of discipline and seeking out better shots.

Yeah, my main problem is that I don't trust the offense. I don't trust we'll make the right play, and when we do, with the majority of our guys I don't trust them to make the shot.

However the players and coach do need to trust each other. I don't know why we went away from the ball moving offense but we should go back to that. Losing Hayward doesn't help in that regard. I think that the offensive system that the Celtics play nowadays is one of the reasons Hayward wanted to leave (he was used to play a ball moving and dynamic offense in Utah).

We need to abandon pick-and-roll and iso-plays as our only core offense while adding post play and post playmaking and off-ball movement via cuts and screens. While the roster lacks severely in offensive quality players there are a couple of guys who just need to get the structure to make team plays.

Going to let Tatum and Brown carry the offensive burden as if they were Harden and Westbrook is NOT the way forward. Stevens just needs to find ways to get some offensive flow via other guys.

Last year the only guy I trusted to make the right decision every time was Gordon Hayward.

[slamtheking]

"trust outside of crunch time"?  8 when everyone's healthy.

Kemba, Jaylen, Jayson, Smart, Theis, Thompson, Teague and Gwill.


in crunch time?  got to say after last season, I'm not sure I can put anyone as reliable night in and night out to produce.

[blink]

I mean this is a kind of vague question.  I really only trust 4 guys on the whole roster.
Kemba, Smart, Jaylen and Tatum.

[PhoSita]

I mean this is a kind of vague question.  I really only trust 4 guys on the whole roster.
Kemba, Smart, Jaylen and Tatum.

How many guys do you trust to consistently give the team positive contributions outside of crunch time?


In crunch time I'm assuming we'll be relying on Tatum, brown, smart, kemba (when healthy), and one of the bigs.

But this team is going to need to fill a lot of other minutes with players deeper in the rotation, and right now that seems pretty fraught.

[RockinRyA]

I don't really "trust" anybody on this team at this point. Last season our 2 best players - brown and tatum went through stretches where they didn't get it... Esp. in the ECF.

Preseason doesn't matter but it does. When your team looks like they picked up where they left off it matters.

But the lack of trust from me stems from the philosophy of the coach, he's set the team up for failure by giving everyone the green light to shoot whenever which has led to a lack of discipline and seeking out better shots.

Pteseason matters but not in the way you guys are saying.its not an indicator of how things are gonna be. The Celtics pretty much have been sucking in preseason. Some guys like edwards dionte christmas has shone brightly in prrseason but has actually sucked when things start to count. So no, no smart man will use preseason as a gauge.

[Somebody]

I mean this is a kind of vague question.  I really only trust 4 guys on the whole roster.
Kemba, Smart, Jaylen and Tatum.

How many guys do you trust to consistently give the team positive contributions outside of crunch time?

In crunch time I'm assuming we'll be relying on Tatum, brown, smart, kemba (when healthy), and one of the bigs.

But this team is going to need to fill a lot of other minutes with players deeper in the rotation, and right now that seems pretty fraught.

Guards: Kemba, Teague, FastPP
Wings: Smart, Brown, Tatum
Bigs: Theis, TT, Grant

[boscel33]

Trust is the key word here.

My number might be zero.  Who are the LeBron/KD/Jordan/Bird types where you have full trust?

Tatum seems to have a hard time with the layups, Brown looks awesome one night, like a rookie another.  Kemba?  Nope.  Smart, really?  haven't we seen enough of his threes at the absolute wrong time.  Throw in in hideous flopping and his game is like Browns, up and down.

Trust, 0.

If I have to pick, my guys that I have faith and hope in, 3; Kemba, Brown, Tatum.

But isn't that what this league has come to, the Big 3?

[Csfan1984]

2

[CFAN38]

For me this goes back to the Bill Simmons who are your 8 guys in the playoffs question.

If healthy I trust 7 guys to be playable in the playoffs

Tatum
Brown
Smart
Theis
Thomspon
Walker
Teague

The problem I have is with those 7 Thompson and Theis basically represent one rotational player in that they have relatively redundant skills sets and can not play along side one another. I also have very little faith that Teague and Walker can defend well enough to ever be on the court together in a playoff game. This pushes the Cs to really need 9 playoff ready guys. If we assume Grant and a healthy Langford can fill those 8th and 9th roles the roster looks to be really lacking in creation.

If those 9 guys are the playoff rotation I suspect we see a shift in the Cs rotation with Teague coming in early for Walker allowing  Walker more time as the primary option with the second unit.