I see you Brad Stevens

[KG Living Legend]

 Brad is bringing the dogs home. The Wolfpack is back in Beantown.  First the big dog to land was  Al Horford, reliable as a German Shepherd. 

 Then Josh Richardson the border Collie all around fantastic athletes with great defense.  Next is the sneaky move of Kris Dunn, a Doberman pincher in the backcourt. 

 Bruno the Cane Corso,  and Schroder the chihuahua  with rabies.  Also Marcus is the pit bull.

 Anyway dog analogies aside. Look at the list of players from a defensive perspective and tell me Brad stevens  has not made this a MUCH tougher defensive squad than last years team.

Smart
Schroder
Dunn
Richardson
Brown
Tatum
Timelord

That's seven really good NBA Defenders

Horford
Nesmith
Prichard
Langford
Bruno

[colincb]

Horford has never had a negative defensive RAPTOR rating in 8 seasons. He's an excellent defender.

[Erik]

I’m liking this approach. We’re loading up on good players that can be used in a package for Beal but also provide wins now, and we have Payton and Timelord that can continue growing into starters if/when we move on from Smart & Horford. I could see us getting into ECF.

[Jiri Welsch]

woof woof

[#1P4P]

TP for the enthusiasm! Before the Schroder signing, I watched Dunn and Richardson’s defensive highlights, and understood Brad’s vision. He punted on trying to match firepower with the Nets and went all-in on a roster of lockdown defenders to terrorize NBA offenses.

He’s spent the past four years scheming to help and recover to cover for below average defenders taxing our other players in the process. Except for Kanter (who was acquired for specific matchups only and is an above average post defender), there’s no mismatches, no scrambling to recover, no missed assignments, etc.

People are expecting for another shoe to drop… there is no other shoe. He immediately traded Kemba for Horford, lowballed Fournier to add Richardson, Dunn, Fernando, and Schröder. Brad wanted to assemble his ideal roster: an elite defense of tenacious defenders. Mission accomplished.

[Ogaju]

Brad planned for Shroeder to be left without any good options? If he is that clairvoyant the Cs will win the next four nba championships.

[makaveli]

Brad is bringing the dogs home. The Wolfpack is back in Beantown.  First the big dog to land was  Al Horford, reliable as a German Shepherd. 

 Then Josh Richardson the border Collie all around fantastic athletes with great defense.  Next is the sneaky move of Kris Dunn, a Doberman pincher in the backcourt. 

 Bruno the Cane Corso,  and Schroder the chihuahua  with rabies.  Also Marcus is the pit bull.

 Anyway dog analogies aside. Look at the list of players from a defensive perspective and tell me Brad stevens  has not made this a MUCH tougher defensive squad than last years team.

Smart
Schroder
Dunn
Richardson
Brown
Tatum
Timelord

That's seven really good NBA Defenders

Horford
Nesmith
Prichard
Langford
Bruno

Tatum is not even an average defender. He tends to fall asleep off the ball, overhelps a lot. The same can be said about Brown. Both are good on ball defenders, with Brown being the better of the two, but their off ball and team defense is below average.

[Androslav]

I think we are going back to being a top 5 defense.
We have lots of lengthy guys that move well laterally, many bulldogs, young legs.
I also believe that HC Udoka will try to emphasize that in his 1st year, being a defender is why he stayed in this league for almost a decade.

It makes me very happy. 

[Muzzy66]

Brad planned for Shroeder to be left without any good options? If he is that clairvoyant the Cs will win the next four nba championships.

Pretty much lol

Brad played all his hands horribly and lost pretty much all the chips he had, then on the very last play when he was forced all-in the basketball gods bailed him out with a royal flush on the river. 

And now people are giving him credit not for winning the game, but merely for avoiding a horribly embarrassing defeat.

[colincb]

Brad planned for Shroeder to be left without any good options? If he is that clairvoyant the Cs will win the next four nba championships.

Pretty much lol

Brad played all his hands horribly and lost pretty much all the chips he had, then on the very last play when he was forced all-in the basketball gods bailed him out with a royal flush on the river. 

And now people are giving him credit not for winning the game, but merely for avoiding a horribly embarrassing defeat.

What bad deal did he make?

[Csfan1984]

Kanter=Poodle

[gift]

Brad planned for Shroeder to be left without any good options? If he is that clairvoyant the Cs will win the next four nba championships.

Pretty much lol

Brad played all his hands horribly and lost pretty much all the chips he had, then on the very last play when he was forced all-in the basketball gods bailed him out with a royal flush on the river. 

And now people are giving him credit not for winning the game, but merely for avoiding a horribly embarrassing defeat.

I'm finally convinced Ainge was cursed after trading IT. So now we are due for some dumb luck in order to progress toward the karma mean under Brad.

[Sophomore]

Brad planned for Shroeder to be left without any good options? If he is that clairvoyant the Cs will win the next four nba championships.

Pretty much lol

Brad played all his hands horribly and lost pretty much all the chips he had, then on the very last play when he was forced all-in the basketball gods bailed him out with a royal flush on the river. 

And now people are giving him credit not for winning the game, but merely for avoiding a horribly embarrassing defeat.

He got us financial flexibility to go after a max third star next year while adding some good rotation player vets, and he also may have drafted a kid who’ll become a solid rotation player at 45. What exactly did you want from him?

[Walker Wiggle]

I like what you're getting at here, but this roster kind of gives me feelings of the Sixers two years ago, when they had that big, defense-first starting lineup with Richardson and Horford. People were impressed by how capable they were defensively, but questioned whether or not they'd have enough shooting, and they were right.

I like the Schroeder addition (hard not to), but playing him along with Smart in the backcourt will be tough given the lack of shooting. Same goes with Richardson and Dunn, unfortunately. Those four guys are all great defenders, but are all suspect from deep.

Pritchard is going to get more time than people think this year, not just because he's showing out in Summer League, but because his shooting from deep is something this team desperately needs. Put him a lineup with one or two of those dogged defenders above, plus the Jays and whoever you want at center, and you've got something that can work.

It would be nice to move Dunn for a big wing or a traditional power forward that can play alongside Horford or R Williams. I'm sure the front office is thinking the same thing.

[Celtics2021]

I like what you're getting at here, but this roster kind of gives me feelings of the Sixers two years ago, when they had that big, defense-first starting lineup with Richardson and Horford. People were impressed by how capable they were defensively, but questioned whether or not they'd have enough shooting, and they were right.

I like the Schroeder addition (hard not to), but playing him along with Smart in the backcourt will be tough given the lack of shooting. Same goes with Richardson and Dunn, unfortunately. Those four guys are all great defenders, but are all suspect from deep.

Pritchard is going to get more time than people think this year, not just because he's showing out in Summer League, but because his shooting from deep is something this team desperately needs. Put him a lineup with one or two of those dogged defenders above, plus the Jays and whoever you want at center, and you've got something that can work.

It would be nice to move Dunn for a big wing or a traditional power forward that can play alongside Horford or R Williams. I'm sure the front office is thinking the same thing.

Of course, the difference with the Sixers is that their highest usage players were Embiid, Simmons, and Tobias Harris, with Harris being the best shooter at only 36.7% from 3 (both that year and his career average).  The Celtics highest usage players will be Tatum and Brown, who are both far better shooters than Harris, not to mention Embiid and Simmons.  That said, it would be helpful if Richardson got back up to his Miami shooting level than what we've seen since he left.

I do agree with you though that Pritchard's shooting will get him minutes.  I expect him in more of a shooting guard role than a PG role this year -- it makes a lot more sense for him to be off-ball next to Smart or Schroder than the other way around.