Who plays PG if Kemba is traded? (split)

[CFAN38]

If the Celtics could pull off a 2 or 3 team trade that netted the Celtics (Aaron Gordon or Harrison Barnes) and (Evan Fournier or Terrance Ross) then I would be confident starting Smart and PG and backing him up with PP.

I am much more interested in advantage creation then I am a traditional point guard. Smart and Tatum should be able to bring the ball up the court and dictate the pace of the game.

If Kemba and Thompson are replaced in the rotation by Fournier and Aaron Gordon the difference on a per 36min basis the team would be an increase in assists by 2.8 per game and its turnovers 1.8 per (Ross instead of Fournier makes it almost an even assist swap). We would also eliminate Kemba as a target for opposing offenses in the playoffs.


I could see the following working if the Magic really are interested in adding Kemba.

Cetlics get A Gordon, Ross, and Baynes

Magic get Walker, G Williams, 2nd from Toronto*, and a protected 1st from Cs**?

Toronto gets T Thomspon

* I'm not sure how much of a asset pay it will be for Toronto to upgrade from Baynes to Thompson (2) 2nds? Protected 1st? Prospect to magic?
** I'm not sure how much draft compensation (if any) the Cs would need to include

[Vermont Green]

Plus I can't imagine that Kemba is good enough for Chicago to trade Porter and Markkanen for.  How many draft picks are being included in that trade.

I don't know how much Chicago values Markkanen.  They could have extended him but didn't for whatever reason.  They only do this if they don't want to pay Markkanen (which apparently they didn't want to or weren't able to extend him) and are worried they will lose him for nothing.  Kind of the same situation as Atlanta with Collins, nice player but seems he isn't the player they want to pay.  And I would add a future protected pick to get Markkanen if that would make the difference.

Young bigs like this tend to get overpaid.  Collins probably will too.  If we want a good big, we are likely going to need to overpay some, either in a trade or a signing.  We could try to wait for the off season and get him via sign and trade but why not just go for it now.  The season is slipping away for us.  If we did the trade, we would have him as a RFA and all we would need to do is match and we have our tall young PF who can shoot.

[LilRip]

If we could get out of Kemba’s contract with a decent trade, I’d welcome it. I don’t think you’re going to get an allstar back but I’d be willing to pick up a couple of high level role players for him (Barnes and Hield?) and maybe a low-end prospect who could turn out to be a surprise (or bust lol)

With Kemba gone, suddenly a trade like JB-for-Beal actually makes more sense.

Smart-Beal-JT-Barnes-TL
Bench: Pritchard, Hield, TT, Semi? (Or buyout/TPE candidate?)

That’s a lot of ball handling and shooting. The reason I bring up JB/Beal is because Beal is more of a natural playmaker, which the team will need (because it’s not like Smart or PP are elite playmaking PG’s).

[Vermont Green]

All interesting possibilities but I prefer Markkanen to Barnes. I am with Danny in that our need is a true big who can shoot.  Durability is a concern but otherwise, Markkanen is the right age, right size, the right role, the right skill.  Pair him with RWilliams who provide the more Center role of rim protection and all that and we have a pretty good core team for the future.

Ideally, I prefer to trade Kemba in the off season if you are going to trade him but in this case, it would have to be at the deadline or before.  Trading Kemba this season pretty much puts the kibosh on it but I would be OK to do it for Markkanen and Porter.  Both can help us this season and at least Markkanen could be a key building block for the future.

Danny actually said we need ''shooting with size'', not ''a true big who can shoot''. Barnes fits the bill, as does Markkanen.

I'm not a big fan of Markkanen's game. Is he a PF or a C? He ain't mobile enough to defend swings on the perimeter. He ain't long/strong enough to defend Centers either. The Celtics are built around 2 switchable (s)wings in Tatum and Brown. I guess we'd use him at Center(?).

If Danny believes we can re-sign Markkanen on the cheap during the offseason, then sure why not? If not, I'd rather have Barnes.

OK, I guess you can read into that whatever you want.  To me, "size" means a big and I don't consider Barnes a big.

You say sign Markkanen "on the cheap".  What does that mean exactly.  I doubt he comes cheap.  And if for the same money as Barnes, I still rather have Markkanen.  He is 23 (24 in May).  The next 4-5 years are his peak.  Barnes just bores me.  Decent but no upside.  Consistently good but not great.

[Celtics2021]

If we could get out of Kemba’s contract with a decent trade, I’d welcome it. I don’t think you’re going to get an allstar back but I’d be willing to pick up a couple of high level role players for him (Barnes and Hield?) and maybe a low-end prospect who could turn out to be a surprise (or bust lol)

With Kemba gone, suddenly a trade like JB-for-Beal actually makes more sense.

Smart-Beal-JT-Barnes-TL
Bench: Pritchard, Hield, TT, Semi? (Or buyout/TPE candidate?)

That’s a lot of ball handling and shooting. The reason I bring up JB/Beal is because Beal is more of a natural playmaker, which the team will need (because it’s not like Smart or PP are elite playmaking PG’s).

I disagree that it makes more sense.  A true title contending team would need Tatum, Brown, and Beal, given the consistent trend towards star consolidation that the NBA seems powerless to prevent.   Beal is not enough of an upgrade to Brown (it is arguable as to whether he'd even be an upgrade at all over the full 3 years left on Brown's deal). 

[cltc5]

Who cares.  Any of our current pg when combined  can give us what Kemba gives us on the nights he’s available.  His good games are now the outlier.

[td450]

All interesting possibilities but I prefer Markkanen to Barnes. I am with Danny in that our need is a true big who can shoot.  Durability is a concern but otherwise, Markkanen is the right age, right size, the right role, the right skill.  Pair him with RWilliams who provide the more Center role of rim protection and all that and we have a pretty good core team for the future.

Ideally, I prefer to trade Kemba in the off season if you are going to trade him but in this case, it would have to be at the deadline or before.  Trading Kemba this season pretty much puts the kibosh on it but I would be OK to do it for Markkanen and Porter.  Both can help us this season and at least Markkanen could be a key building block for the future.

Danny actually said we need ''shooting with size'', not ''a true big who can shoot''. Barnes fits the bill, as does Markkanen.

I'm not a big fan of Markkanen's game. Is he a PF or a C? He ain't mobile enough to defend swings on the perimeter. He ain't long/strong enough to defend Centers either. The Celtics are built around 2 switchable (s)wings in Tatum and Brown. I guess we'd use him at Center(?).

If Danny believes we can re-sign Markkanen on the cheap during the offseason, then sure why not? If not, I'd rather have Barnes.

OK, I guess you can read into that whatever you want.  To me, "size" means a big and I don't consider Barnes a big.

You say sign Markkanen "on the cheap".  What does that mean exactly.  I doubt he comes cheap.  And if for the same money as Barnes, I still rather have Markkanen.  He is 23 (24 in May).  The next 4-5 years are his peak.  Barnes just bores me.  Decent but no upside.  Consistently good but not great.

I don't understand this. If you watched any of last night, you'd agree we desperately need some guys who can be consistently good.

Is it so bad to replace Semi Ojeleye with someone who can play the same level of defense but provide an extra 12 points a game? That other teams might have to cover? I think that might help some.

[Jvalin]

All interesting possibilities but I prefer Markkanen to Barnes. I am with Danny in that our need is a true big who can shoot.  Durability is a concern but otherwise, Markkanen is the right age, right size, the right role, the right skill.  Pair him with RWilliams who provide the more Center role of rim protection and all that and we have a pretty good core team for the future.

Ideally, I prefer to trade Kemba in the off season if you are going to trade him but in this case, it would have to be at the deadline or before.  Trading Kemba this season pretty much puts the kibosh on it but I would be OK to do it for Markkanen and Porter.  Both can help us this season and at least Markkanen could be a key building block for the future.

Danny actually said we need ''shooting with size'', not ''a true big who can shoot''. Barnes fits the bill, as does Markkanen.

I'm not a big fan of Markkanen's game. Is he a PF or a C? He ain't mobile enough to defend swings on the perimeter. He ain't long/strong enough to defend Centers either. The Celtics are built around 2 switchable (s)wings in Tatum and Brown. I guess we'd use him at Center(?).

If Danny believes we can re-sign Markkanen on the cheap during the offseason, then sure why not? If not, I'd rather have Barnes.

OK, I guess you can read into that whatever you want.  To me, "size" means a big and I don't consider Barnes a big.

You say sign Markkanen "on the cheap".  What does that mean exactly.  I doubt he comes cheap.  And if for the same money as Barnes, I still rather have Markkanen.  He is 23 (24 in May).  The next 4-5 years are his peak.  Barnes just bores me.  Decent but no upside.  Consistently good but not great.

I don't think he'll come cheap either. Plenty of teams will have cap space during the offseason. At the same time, most high-profile free agents have already re-signed with their teams (for instance, Giannis, Gobert, Tatum, Bam, even guys like Anunoby, Isaac or Kuzma). If you ask me, Markkanen is about to become overpaid. All it takes is one desperate team to make one desperate offer. This is why I'd rather have Barnes.

Being 23 doesn't mean a thing unless he's good enough and he fits our style of play. In a vacuum, imo Markkanen > Barnes. That said, I believe Barnes would be an ideal fit in our system. Can't say the same thing about Markkanen because of his defense.

Not sure what would be fair value for Markkanen. Let's just say I'd rather have Barnes at $20 million over Markkanen at $20 million.

Btw, I love boring players. They are usually team-first players. That's exactly what we need.

[Vermont Green]

All interesting possibilities but I prefer Markkanen to Barnes. I am with Danny in that our need is a true big who can shoot.  Durability is a concern but otherwise, Markkanen is the right age, right size, the right role, the right skill.  Pair him with RWilliams who provide the more Center role of rim protection and all that and we have a pretty good core team for the future.

Ideally, I prefer to trade Kemba in the off season if you are going to trade him but in this case, it would have to be at the deadline or before.  Trading Kemba this season pretty much puts the kibosh on it but I would be OK to do it for Markkanen and Porter.  Both can help us this season and at least Markkanen could be a key building block for the future.

Danny actually said we need ''shooting with size'', not ''a true big who can shoot''. Barnes fits the bill, as does Markkanen.

I'm not a big fan of Markkanen's game. Is he a PF or a C? He ain't mobile enough to defend swings on the perimeter. He ain't long/strong enough to defend Centers either. The Celtics are built around 2 switchable (s)wings in Tatum and Brown. I guess we'd use him at Center(?).

If Danny believes we can re-sign Markkanen on the cheap during the offseason, then sure why not? If not, I'd rather have Barnes.

OK, I guess you can read into that whatever you want.  To me, "size" means a big and I don't consider Barnes a big.

You say sign Markkanen "on the cheap".  What does that mean exactly.  I doubt he comes cheap.  And if for the same money as Barnes, I still rather have Markkanen.  He is 23 (24 in May).  The next 4-5 years are his peak.  Barnes just bores me.  Decent but no upside.  Consistently good but not great.

I don't understand this. If you watched any of last night, you'd agree we desperately need some guys who can be consistently good.

Is it so bad to replace Semi Ojeleye with someone who can play the same level of defense but provide an extra 12 points a game? That other teams might have to cover? I think that might help some.

I am saying replace Semi with Markkanen.  This season, Markkanen is scoring more points than Barnes in less minutes, has a better FG% and 3P% than Barnes and is bigger and younger.  I don't expect Markkanen to suddenly become all NBA.  I just like him better than Barnes for this team at this point in time.  I prefer a Wing-PF combo of Tatum-Markkanen to Barnes-Tatum.  This has nothing to do with Semi Ojeleye.

We end up with a young core of:

Pritchard - Brown - Tatum - Markkanen - RWilliams

With Smart, Langford, Nesmith, and say Theis plus maybe a drafted PF.

I am just not that excited about Barnes.

[BruceBanner18]

^^ That's a huge risk to take... You'd need all 3 of those new starters to hit their top end potential for that team to be competitive. It's just not likely.

[gouki88]

I don't see this hole at PG if Kemba leaves. Pritchard is ready to start now. Right now. He will be a top 20 if not top 15 PG in the league as soon as next season.

We already have our replacement at PG.

I love Pritchard's game. His steadiness, his decision making, his shooting chops. Useful enough on defense. Just a solid all-round PG with excellent outside shooting.

Me neither, but mostly because I'm very high on Smart. I believe Pritchard is a solid role player (at least for now). He's a terrific shooter + ball handler. He's an OK passer. He ain't explosive/tall enough to consistently create his own shot. He scores most of his points as an off-ball shooter. Nice back-up option, that's for sure. He may become a decent starter down the road. Nothing special though.

Similar descriptions could be made of players like Derek Fisher.

Being a strong team offensive weapon is a major asset for a role player when placed next to star players. That is what Pritchard brings to the table. They are very few role player PGs who can handle the ball, make strong decisions, setup the team and hit outside shots at the levels that Pritchard can.

Pritchard doesn't need to be a star to be a long term fixture at starting PG.

Don't get me wrong, he's certainly a useful player to have. I just think we can easily replace what he brings to the table. Most PGs are reliable ball handlers and decent shooters. Pritchard is pretty good at both these things, but we can easily find someone else who provides a similar package (with better defense as well).

Can we find another Marcus Smart? Nope, I don't think so. Smart is a unique player. Pritchard is just a useful one. At least this is how I see it.

I have to disagree with this.  if this was so easy to replace, we'd have someone better than Teague backing up Kemba.  Smart doesn't provide what Pritchard provides in terms of shooting, ball handling and passing.   Add Edwards and Waters in the mix on this for not being able to provide what Pritchard provides. 

Pritchard's no all-star but he's bringing abilities to this team that the other PGs are not.

Just because we don't have a similar player right now on the roster, it doesn't mean that it would be difficult to find one. You want an example? Tomas Satoransky. He can do everything Pritchard does, plus he's 6 inches taller, hence he's a way more versatile defender.

If you ask me, I believe Smart is a way better passer than Pritchard. I would argue he's the best passer on our team.

I completely agree with this.  Smart has terrific court awareness and is deceptively good at misdirection to create space for passes.  He doesn't have Pritchard's handle, but he would absolutely be a superior starting option to Pritchard.  Peyton has been a very pleasant surprise, and is fine value on a rookie scale deal for the role he provides, but he's replaceable.

prior to this year, I would have agreed but this year Smart's passing has been haphazard and off the mark more often than not.  trying to hard to make the flashy pass rather than the basic fundamental pass that will get the job done with a lot less risk of being off target or turned over.

While there's no way to truly analyze this, I would say that this is unlikely to actually be true.  What I can do is point to this wonderful data from the nba stats page:
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612738&sort=PASSES_MADE&dir=1&PerMode=Totals

Smart has made an identical number of passes this season as Pritchard -- 946, in roughly 70 fewer minutes.  Smart's passes have led to assists 11.5% of the time, compared to 7.9% for Pritchard, or roughly 50% more frequently.  Further, only two Celtics have a higher percentage, Jaylen and Tremont Waters.  Jaylen passes 20 fewer times per game than Smart, so he's not throwing passes at the same frequency, and Waters' numbers are obviously not comparable given what type of minutes they're getting.  So this year, it's probable that Smart is the best passer.  Further, last year he earned assists on 11.3% of his passes, so slightly below this season (but he also led the team), and turned the ball over the same 2.6 times per 100 possessions, so there's nothing that says he's obviously making worse passes.

Smart has been very consistent in this passing for the last 5 seasons, posting marks between 10.7-11.5 percent, and has led the team amongst regulars three of those 5 seasons (behind Jaylen this year and Kyrie two years ago).  He's been the Celtics most reliable passer over the last 5 years.  (As a side note, Jaylen's 13.3% rate was bested only by Rondo for the C's since the advent of this stat, and nearly double last year's 7.4%.  I've felt that his step forward in being a facilitator this year has been often undercounted on this board, but upon seeing this rate I feel even I have been guilty of that.)

That's pretty eye opening about Jaylen, wow! Had no idea he'd been getting that many assists of so few passes actually thrown.

I wonder if that means he needs to pass it more, or if he doesn't have the ball enough...

I've been very vocal about Jaylen's qualitative improvements this season and yeah his passing has become quite good - he flubs some deliveries but the way he plays is just so conducive to creating good looks for teammates: quick and decisive attacks combined with excellent physical tools makes a player so good at taking advantage of defences by forcing defenders to ping pong all over the court to make life difficult for a Jaylen-led offensive possession. As I said it's baffling how Stevens isn't utilising Brown as a 1B option to Tatum's 1A at the very least.

He's battling with tendonitis. He ain't 100% healthy to be constantly attacking the basket. It's only logical that he's relying on his teammates more often than he used to. Hopefully, he'll still show an increasing willingness to pass the ball once his tendonitis goes away. He may become a better/more willing passer because of this.

Uhhh he isn't getting enough of the ball to even think about constantly attack the basket lol. We only really have a handful of games where we gave him the keys to our offence, there's no logic in saying that Jaylen can't handle a heavier offensive load when he has almost never been given the opportunity to carry that kind of load.

He was a very willing passer before tendonitis btw, I'm really not sure what you're talking about.

Check out his splits month by month this season.

(click on image to enlarge)



He was clearly scoring more points during the first couple of months (prior to the tendonitis diagnosis). He's clearly averaging more assists the last couple of months (after the diagnosis).

Never said he wasn't a willing passer prior to the diagnosis. Just that he has shown an increasing willingness to pass the ball, possibly because he ain't 100% healthy to attack the basket. Personally speaking, I love the fact that he's passing the ball more. Please stop overreacting each time someone criticizes Brown. He's a terrific player, but he ain't beyond criticism. Nobody is.

What stands out most is that 10+ % his three point shooting has dropped.

[LilRip]

If we could get out of Kemba’s contract with a decent trade, I’d welcome it. I don’t think you’re going to get an allstar back but I’d be willing to pick up a couple of high level role players for him (Barnes and Hield?) and maybe a low-end prospect who could turn out to be a surprise (or bust lol)

With Kemba gone, suddenly a trade like JB-for-Beal actually makes more sense.

Smart-Beal-JT-Barnes-TL
Bench: Pritchard, Hield, TT, Semi? (Or buyout/TPE candidate?)

That’s a lot of ball handling and shooting. The reason I bring up JB/Beal is because Beal is more of a natural playmaker, which the team will need (because it’s not like Smart or PP are elite playmaking PG’s).

I disagree that it makes more sense.  A true title contending team would need Tatum, Brown, and Beal, given the consistent trend towards star consolidation that the NBA seems powerless to prevent.   Beal is not enough of an upgrade to Brown (it is arguable as to whether he'd even be an upgrade at all over the full 3 years left on Brown's deal).

Well of course, we’d be better off keeping Brown and just outright adding Beal. But I assume you’ve based your premise that we can flip Kemba for Beal (via 3-team trade or something). I’m more pessimistic that I don’t think Kemba has (or will ever have) that much value from here on out. Can we sign Beal with cap space/TPE? Maybe but I’m also not holding my breath on it.

[Celtics2021]

If we could get out of Kemba’s contract with a decent trade, I’d welcome it. I don’t think you’re going to get an allstar back but I’d be willing to pick up a couple of high level role players for him (Barnes and Hield?) and maybe a low-end prospect who could turn out to be a surprise (or bust lol)

With Kemba gone, suddenly a trade like JB-for-Beal actually makes more sense.

Smart-Beal-JT-Barnes-TL
Bench: Pritchard, Hield, TT, Semi? (Or buyout/TPE candidate?)

That’s a lot of ball handling and shooting. The reason I bring up JB/Beal is because Beal is more of a natural playmaker, which the team will need (because it’s not like Smart or PP are elite playmaking PG’s).

I disagree that it makes more sense.  A true title contending team would need Tatum, Brown, and Beal, given the consistent trend towards star consolidation that the NBA seems powerless to prevent.   Beal is not enough of an upgrade to Brown (it is arguable as to whether he'd even be an upgrade at all over the full 3 years left on Brown's deal).

Well of course, we’d be better off keeping Brown and just outright adding Beal. But I assume you’ve based your premise that we can flip Kemba for Beal (via 3-team trade or something). I’m more pessimistic that I don’t think Kemba has (or will ever have) that much value from here on out. Can we sign Beal with cap space/TPE? Maybe but I’m also not holding my breath on it.

Yes, part of my premise is that moving Kemba now creates a Beal-sized TPE over the summer, whereas the current TPE is a couple hundred thousand short.  Ideally we would get something of value, but ultimately I'm sure he could be moved just by taking back salary and not giving up assets.  But my primary issue is I don't think Beal-Tatum without Brown gets us any closer to contending than Tatum-Brown, and in that case I'd rather have the player with three years left on his deal and more growth left in his game than the guy with one year left plus a player option, because the player option with a max player hasn't gone well for the Celtics recently once free agency hits.

[Somebody]

I don't see this hole at PG if Kemba leaves. Pritchard is ready to start now. Right now. He will be a top 20 if not top 15 PG in the league as soon as next season.

We already have our replacement at PG.

I love Pritchard's game. His steadiness, his decision making, his shooting chops. Useful enough on defense. Just a solid all-round PG with excellent outside shooting.

Me neither, but mostly because I'm very high on Smart. I believe Pritchard is a solid role player (at least for now). He's a terrific shooter + ball handler. He's an OK passer. He ain't explosive/tall enough to consistently create his own shot. He scores most of his points as an off-ball shooter. Nice back-up option, that's for sure. He may become a decent starter down the road. Nothing special though.

Similar descriptions could be made of players like Derek Fisher.

Being a strong team offensive weapon is a major asset for a role player when placed next to star players. That is what Pritchard brings to the table. They are very few role player PGs who can handle the ball, make strong decisions, setup the team and hit outside shots at the levels that Pritchard can.

Pritchard doesn't need to be a star to be a long term fixture at starting PG.

Don't get me wrong, he's certainly a useful player to have. I just think we can easily replace what he brings to the table. Most PGs are reliable ball handlers and decent shooters. Pritchard is pretty good at both these things, but we can easily find someone else who provides a similar package (with better defense as well).

Can we find another Marcus Smart? Nope, I don't think so. Smart is a unique player. Pritchard is just a useful one. At least this is how I see it.

I have to disagree with this.  if this was so easy to replace, we'd have someone better than Teague backing up Kemba.  Smart doesn't provide what Pritchard provides in terms of shooting, ball handling and passing.   Add Edwards and Waters in the mix on this for not being able to provide what Pritchard provides. 

Pritchard's no all-star but he's bringing abilities to this team that the other PGs are not.

Just because we don't have a similar player right now on the roster, it doesn't mean that it would be difficult to find one. You want an example? Tomas Satoransky. He can do everything Pritchard does, plus he's 6 inches taller, hence he's a way more versatile defender.

If you ask me, I believe Smart is a way better passer than Pritchard. I would argue he's the best passer on our team.

I completely agree with this.  Smart has terrific court awareness and is deceptively good at misdirection to create space for passes.  He doesn't have Pritchard's handle, but he would absolutely be a superior starting option to Pritchard.  Peyton has been a very pleasant surprise, and is fine value on a rookie scale deal for the role he provides, but he's replaceable.

prior to this year, I would have agreed but this year Smart's passing has been haphazard and off the mark more often than not.  trying to hard to make the flashy pass rather than the basic fundamental pass that will get the job done with a lot less risk of being off target or turned over.

While there's no way to truly analyze this, I would say that this is unlikely to actually be true.  What I can do is point to this wonderful data from the nba stats page:
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612738&sort=PASSES_MADE&dir=1&PerMode=Totals

Smart has made an identical number of passes this season as Pritchard -- 946, in roughly 70 fewer minutes.  Smart's passes have led to assists 11.5% of the time, compared to 7.9% for Pritchard, or roughly 50% more frequently.  Further, only two Celtics have a higher percentage, Jaylen and Tremont Waters.  Jaylen passes 20 fewer times per game than Smart, so he's not throwing passes at the same frequency, and Waters' numbers are obviously not comparable given what type of minutes they're getting.  So this year, it's probable that Smart is the best passer.  Further, last year he earned assists on 11.3% of his passes, so slightly below this season (but he also led the team), and turned the ball over the same 2.6 times per 100 possessions, so there's nothing that says he's obviously making worse passes.

Smart has been very consistent in this passing for the last 5 seasons, posting marks between 10.7-11.5 percent, and has led the team amongst regulars three of those 5 seasons (behind Jaylen this year and Kyrie two years ago).  He's been the Celtics most reliable passer over the last 5 years.  (As a side note, Jaylen's 13.3% rate was bested only by Rondo for the C's since the advent of this stat, and nearly double last year's 7.4%.  I've felt that his step forward in being a facilitator this year has been often undercounted on this board, but upon seeing this rate I feel even I have been guilty of that.)

That's pretty eye opening about Jaylen, wow! Had no idea he'd been getting that many assists of so few passes actually thrown.

I wonder if that means he needs to pass it more, or if he doesn't have the ball enough...

I've been very vocal about Jaylen's qualitative improvements this season and yeah his passing has become quite good - he flubs some deliveries but the way he plays is just so conducive to creating good looks for teammates: quick and decisive attacks combined with excellent physical tools makes a player so good at taking advantage of defences by forcing defenders to ping pong all over the court to make life difficult for a Jaylen-led offensive possession. As I said it's baffling how Stevens isn't utilising Brown as a 1B option to Tatum's 1A at the very least.

He's battling with tendonitis. He ain't 100% healthy to be constantly attacking the basket. It's only logical that he's relying on his teammates more often than he used to. Hopefully, he'll still show an increasing willingness to pass the ball once his tendonitis goes away. He may become a better/more willing passer because of this.

Uhhh he isn't getting enough of the ball to even think about constantly attack the basket lol. We only really have a handful of games where we gave him the keys to our offence, there's no logic in saying that Jaylen can't handle a heavier offensive load when he has almost never been given the opportunity to carry that kind of load.

He was a very willing passer before tendonitis btw, I'm really not sure what you're talking about.

Check out his splits month by month this season.

(click on image to enlarge)



He was clearly scoring more points during the first couple of months (prior to the tendonitis diagnosis). He's clearly averaging more assists the last couple of months (after the diagnosis).

Never said he wasn't a willing passer prior to the diagnosis. Just that he has shown an increasing willingness to pass the ball, possibly because he ain't 100% healthy to attack the basket. Personally speaking, I love the fact that he's passing the ball more. Please stop overreacting each time someone criticizes Brown. He's a terrific player, but he ain't beyond criticism. Nobody is.

I don't think that his assist numbers tell us anything other than the fact that he's possibly getting a bit better as a passer as he's finally getting some run - his scoring volume and efficiency has clearly dropped because of his knee issues (three point shooting is a big part of it), but other tracking stats don't support your narrative that he's suddenly become a more willing passer. He's made 544 passes in 595 minutes from December to January and 559 in 666 minutes from February to March, if anything he's been 'a less willing passer' in that time span.

No one's overreacting to people criticising Brown, people are rightfully calling out false narratives about him, whether is it about him peaking at the ripe old age of 24 due to a relatively manageable injury like tendonitis or him suddenly changing his whole game after being diagnosed with such an injury.

[RodyTur10]

I'm a big defensive first guy. However what we've seen so far this season it shows that Smart/Brown/Tatum + 2 bigs isn't working. On paper it should be elite defensively but in reality it isn't. And on the offensive end we definitely miss dynamic and playmaking. When Walker is inserted we get the dynamic, but not the necessary playmaking.

I believe stop playing two bigs, give Robert Williams more time and add depth can fix a lot of the defensive issues and the lack of shooting. What we need to obtain is a player who can be a real difference maker as a playmaker.
Ideally that would be a proven youngish player like Fox, Morant, SGA or even LaMelo Ball or Haliburton.
I'd imagine there's no reasonable option to get one of them, even if we tried hard, which I hope we do.

In the next tier we have guys like Lonzo Ball and Garland. The issue I have with Lonzo is whether he's enough of a scoring threat to run your offense through and Garland is a bad defender, with questionable upside on that end.

I think I wouldn't mind if we went after Lonzo Ball. If we take age out as a primary factor, then a name pops up who hasn't been mentioned a lot lately, but could be a surprisingly good fit: DeMar DeRozan.

We'd need to trade Walker (possibly to Orlando or New York) as is suggested in this thread. We then can still add depth with the TPE. A starting unit of DeRozan/Brown/Fournier???/Tatum/R.Williams + Smart as 6th man looks quite interesting.

DeRozan is 31, but is quietly having a very strong season. He averages 20/5/7 on .60 TS%, 4.4 AS/TO, just 23.9 usage and .20 WS/48. That is very impressive.