Why is Nesmith glued to the bench?

[footey]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

[RJ87]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

I like Nesmith a lot. There was a ton of hype around him after the draft that was unfair (people thought he could be a starter) given his layoff due to injury and the shortened preseason. He absolutely can still be an NBA player, his hustle is legit and he competes whenever he's on the floor. I believe he'll be much better next season, health allowing.

I'm not sure though how much we can force feed him now. In his current form he's not helping us win, so can we afford to keep him on the floor?

[gouki88]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

I like Nesmith a lot. There was a ton of hype around him after the draft that was unfair (people thought he could be a starter) given his layoff due to injury and the shortened preseason. He absolutely can still be an NBA player, his hustle is legit and he competes whenever he's on the floor. I believe he'll be much better next season, health allowing.

I'm not sure though how much we can force feed him now. In his current form he's not helping us win, so can we afford to keep him on the floor?

Yeah, it really sucks that there's no developmental league for him to play in properly. Giving him the ability to let it fly in the G-League would have been super handy.

[nickagneta]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

I like Nesmith a lot. There was a ton of hype around him after the draft that was unfair (people thought he could be a starter) given his layoff due to injury and the shortened preseason. He absolutely can still be an NBA player, his hustle is legit and he competes whenever he's on the floor. I believe he'll be much better next season, health allowing.

I'm not sure though how much we can force feed him now. In his current form he's not helping us win, so can we afford to keep him on the floor?

Yeah, it really sucks that there's no developmental league for him to play in properly. Giving him the ability to let it fly in the G-League would have been super handy.

With Covid, this whole last year, and rest of this year, will be terrible for the young players that need to grow and develop. Nesmith isn't the only one affected, though maybe he is the most obvious example for this team.

I assume the Celtics may have had Tacko on a three year plan to see if he would pay off. Effectively, he will have lost an entire year of development. Will that mean they look at him as an even longer term project or maybe give up early?

Waters is no different than Tacko. Sitting on the bench all year with no practice, no playing time and no G League means only a tiny amount of development should be expected.

Ditto, Edwards. One year of guaranteed money wasted because he will see nothing but garbage or emergency minutes. That's not going to help.

I feel bad for all the young guys across the league. Wonder if this whole situation is going to cause some players money they will never get back because their development curve was thrown off kilter. That would suck, but honestly, everything about Covid sucks.

[Phantom255x]

Regardless how you feel about him and the stats, Nesmith actually seems to show effort and hustle out there. Something you can't say about a handful of others on the team.

I also think it's a bit unfair to judge his career already, because even the elite players in the game today actually had to earn minutes early on in their careers and learn from mistakes. Nesmith really hasn't gotten the opportunity at all. He plays some games, doesn't play others and there's no consistency.

[ozgod]

Regardless how you feel about him and the stats, Nesmith actually seems to show effort and hustle out there. Something you can't say about a handful of others on the team.

I also think it's a bit unfair to judge his career already, because even the elite players in the game today actually had to earn minutes early on in their careers and learn from mistakes. Nesmith really hasn't gotten the opportunity at all. He plays some games, doesn't play others and there's no consistency.

Anyone who is judging his career on the basis of a few games after having a Covid-interrupted college season and offseason should ask themselves if they want their own boss to judge themselves on the basis if a few days or weeks worth of performances. But as we all know, with fans you're only as good as your last game, so Nesmith will be judged, fairly or unfairly.

To answer the question from the OP, I think it's because Brad and the powers that be have deemed a) he's not as good as the fans thought he would be at this point in his career; and as a result b) he's not ready to contribute yet. It could also be c) with no offseason and training camp Brad is using these first months of the season to work out his combinations and who he can/can't rely on. Maybe he cares less about seedings than we do, given that the Heat made the finals as the fifth seed. Maybe he thinks he would rather lose games now and know who he can rely on for the business end of the season, than have a high seed but not know his best and worst combinations. Just my hypothesis.

[boscel33]

Because, once again, Danny outsmarted himself.  Should have gone Bey, actually, when he was sitting there, I thought it was for sure Bey.  I still had hoped for Hampton, but Nesmith?  Lot of people said it was a really good pick, but [dang].....

[Ed Monix]

I don’t think people should overreact, Nesmith is a project especially defensively.

Pop is seen as one of the all time great development coaches, and he has routinely not used rookies that eventually were major pieces. Lonnie Walker is just now getting into the rotation of the Spurs after 2 years, Murray was mostly in the G-League his first season and even Kawhi spend considerable time there too.

I understand why everyone wants Nesmith in more, as theoretically he helps our scoring issues but Stevens would be doing Nesmith a major disservice by throwing him in the deep end when he isn’t read. Teams like the Kings, Timerwolves and Magic are known for throwing in underdeveloped youth and they ruin the players confidence/careers as a result.

[ozgod]

There's also a guy named Terry Rozier who averaged 1.8 ppg and spent half his rookie season in the G-League. He seems to have done ok.

[GreenShooter]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

I like Nesmith a lot. There was a ton of hype around him after the draft that was unfair (people thought he could be a starter) given his layoff due to injury and the shortened preseason. He absolutely can still be an NBA player, his hustle is legit and he competes whenever he's on the floor. I believe he'll be much better next season, health allowing.

I'm not sure though how much we can force feed him now. In his current form he's not helping us win, so can we afford to keep him on the floor?

Yeah, it really sucks that there's no developmental league for him to play in properly. Giving him the ability to let it fly in the G-League would have been super handy.

With Covid, this whole last year, and rest of this year, will be terrible for the young players that need to grow and develop. Nesmith isn't the only one affected, though maybe he is the most obvious example for this team.

I assume the Celtics may have had Tacko on a three year plan to see if he would pay off. Effectively, he will have lost an entire year of development. Will that mean they look at him as an even longer term project or maybe give up early?

Waters is no different than Tacko. Sitting on the bench all year with no practice, no playing time and no G League means only a tiny amount of development should be expected.

Ditto, Edwards. One year of guaranteed money wasted because he will see nothing but garbage or emergency minutes. That's not going to help.

I feel bad for all the young guys across the league. Wonder if this whole situation is going to cause some players money they will never get back because their development curve was thrown off kilter. That would suck, but honestly, everything about Covid sucks.

Yeah, at that age a year of development is HUGE. I remember how much better I got in a years time at that age, not having injuries or restrictions.

[GreenShooter]

The hope when we drafted Nesmith is that he’d be able to contribute right away. He had played a year and a half in college. That was an unrealistic expectation.

I think he has a good future. I’d like to accelerate that future by playing him many more minutes. He also needs to drive into the hoop more and not just hang out at the 3 point line.

I like Nesmith a lot. There was a ton of hype around him after the draft that was unfair (people thought he could be a starter) given his layoff due to injury and the shortened preseason. He absolutely can still be an NBA player, his hustle is legit and he competes whenever he's on the floor. I believe he'll be much better next season, health allowing.

I'm not sure though how much we can force feed him now. In his current form he's not helping us win, so can we afford to keep him on the floor?

Yeah, it really sucks that there's no developmental league for him to play in properly. Giving him the ability to let it fly in the G-League would have been super handy.

With Covid, this whole last year, and rest of this year, will be terrible for the young players that need to grow and develop. Nesmith isn't the only one affected, though maybe he is the most obvious example for this team.

I assume the Celtics may have had Tacko on a three year plan to see if he would pay off. Effectively, he will have lost an entire year of development. Will that mean they look at him as an even longer term project or maybe give up early?

Waters is no different than Tacko. Sitting on the bench all year with no practice, no playing time and no G League means only a tiny amount of development should be expected.

Ditto, Edwards. One year of guaranteed money wasted because he will see nothing but garbage or emergency minutes. That's not going to help.

I feel bad for all the young guys across the league. Wonder if this whole situation is going to cause some players money they will never get back because their development curve was thrown off kilter. That would suck, but honestly, everything about Covid sucks.

Yeah, at that age a year of development is HUGE. I remember how much better I got in a years time at that age, not having injuries or restrictions.

[todd_days_41]

It's just way too early to split hairs on Nesmith. Yes, it's frustrating that some guys taken after him are playing well, but most of them are older / more experienced.

Considering the Cs aren't winning a title unless they make a significant trade, I'll be concerned if he really doesn't play much for the remainder of the season.

[Csfan1984]

Well after the Wizards post game I have even less of a clue on if Nesmith gets more time or less. Based on what BS said Iit seems he wants to play guys that know what to do and how to execute but focus, effort, and playing together seems to be lacking with the preferred rotations. Nesmith gives effort but he isn't up to par on execution of plays.

.

[Spicoli]

I can confidently say that Nesmith is better than the following players right now:

Waters
Green
Teague

With that said, why are Green and Teague playing over him in ANY scenario? How can Stevens justify that?

Green is a bonehead on offense and defense and Teague gets destroyed defensively. There's no way that Nesmith is worse than either of these guys.

Langford got meaningful minutes last year because he's pretty good on defense but Langford showed NOTHING on offense. To me it's clear that Stevens absolutely values defense over offense. If that's the case i'm not sure why Ainge drafted offensive players.

[PAOBoston]

I can confidently say that Nesmith is better than the following players right now:

Waters
Green
Teague

With that said, why are Green and Teague playing over him in ANY scenario? How can Stevens justify that?

Green is a bonehead on offense and defense and Teague gets destroyed defensively. There's no way that Nesmith is worse than either of these guys.

Langford got meaningful minutes last year because he's pretty good on defense but Langford showed NOTHING on offense. To me it's clear that Stevens absolutely values defense over offense. If that's the case i'm not sure why Ainge drafted offensive players.

Waters and Teague don’t even play the same position. Those guys are guards so that is a moot point. Javonte played early on in the season but has seen pretty limited playing tome recently.

Sometimes it just takes time for rookies to find the floor. JB was basically red shirted his entire rookie season until late season/playoffs. He was a #3 pick. Just because Nesmith was a #14 pick doesn’t mean he deserves playing time. Playing time is earned and if Nesmith wasn’t able to make the sacrifices to do what he could to get on the court, then he shouldn’t have been playing. That being said, as the season progresses, I’m sure we’ll see more of him.