Ime's tactical approach

[Jvalin]

Generally speaking, I'm sceptical of defensive coordinators being promoted to head coaches. More often than not, they have no workable offensive plan other than ''move the ball'' and ''be aggressive''. I mean, it's easier to teach defense compared to offense. Not to mention, hiring a rookie head coach is always a massive risk. Obviously, we are way too early into the season. No need to overreact over 6 games. With this in mind, here are a few thoughts on how we've played thus far.

Defense

The way our PnR defense worked under Brad, Theis/Horford met the opposing ball handler at the level of dribble hand off and denied penetration. When Timelord was on the court, he usually dropped back to protect the rim.

The way our PnR defense works under Ime, Timelord/Horford switch pretty much everything. Timelord is a terrific rim protector, but he ain't got the lateral quickness to stay in front of explosive ball handlers on the perimeter. Horford is 35 years old. The Wizards were constantly attacking him on the perimeter last night. Can someone explain me why Horford was guarding Beal and Dinwiddie on the perimeter? If you ask me, it was a terrible tactical decision by Ime. The way I see it, both Timelord and Horford should be used in a drop scheme on defense. Horford did a terrific job close to the basket.

Rebounding

We usually start two bigs in Timelord and Horford, yet we rank 23rd in the league in RB%. Why? Cause we switch everything, hence they aren't necessarily under the basket to grab the rebounds (not to mention, they get exposed on the perimeter). Again, terrible tactical decision by Ime.

Offense

Brad was running a PnR-heavy offense. Tatum is an elite PnR ball handler for his size. If a team has the right players, PnR is quite possibly the most unstoppable team move in today's NBA.

Not sure what the plan is under Ime. Too much iso. Not enough team basketball. Yes, we shot poorly from 3pt range last night, but plenty of these 3s were bad shots. No wonder we were missing them. Terrible out of bounds plays as well. Brad was an amazing X's and O's coach. Here are some alarming numbers:

2021/22: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 21.7%
Schroder: 17.2%
Brown 9.1%

2020/21: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 18.6%
Brown: 7.1%
Kemba: 5.5%


2021/22: PnR ball handler frequency
Schroder: 30.3%
Tatum: 16.1%
Brown: 14.4%

2020/21: PnR ball handler frequency
Kemba: 47.2%
Tatum: 27.8%
Brown: 15.2%

Man management
Don't like the fact that Ime has been calling out his players in the media. Seems like everyone is OK with it for now, but it can easily backfire in the future.

All in all, I'm very discouraged by what I've seen thus far. It's not that we've lost 4 winnable games. It's how we play that bothers me a lot. Again, we are way too early into the season. Plenty of time to work things out. Hopefully, Ime is just experimenting with his roster.

[knuckleballer]

Excellent analysis.  TP.  The distribution of playing time is poor as well. He’s playing the key guys too many minutes. 

[Somebody]

Our Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is here!

[Celtics2021]

I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but I watched that game and the overwhelming majority of the threes we attempted were good looks from players who can hit threes.  Most were off the catch or when the defense went under a screen. They just didn’t go in.  The team also recognized it wasn’t their night for shooting, and after going 0-15 in the first, attempted only 11 more in the second half and two overtimes.

The shooting stunk last night, but the looks weren’t bad and they didn’t try to force the issue.  If anything, they should have tried a few more, because by the end of the game they were passing up open looks from outside, the most noteworthy being Schröder when they were down three with about 8 seconds to go in double OT.

[hpantazo]

Before the season started, all we heard repeatedly from Ime was he wanted a team built on defense, toughness and ball-movement, and even took some friendly shots at Brad about the ball-movement of the team last season.

That all sounded great, but so far he hasn't implemented any of those points. If anything, as you pointed out from your analysis, he's made things worse.

[Roy H.]

I’m not giving up on Ime.  I do wonder why we didn’t hire an experienced head coach to join his staff, though.  After Doc and Brad, watching some of Ime’s play calling out of timeouts has been a little rough.

[pokeKingCurtis]

He's kind of Doc-esque just based on this small sample.

Ironic. We traded Doc for a first, which (if I'm not mistaken) was unceremoniously used on RJ Hunter. Now we hired a younger version of Doc basically.

I'm a hella optimist for the Celtics, so I think there's a chance this could be good. Phil Jackson-esque or Doc-esque coach, where they don't really do any hands on coaching but just inspire their players. And maybe there's some form of genius with Ime that hasn't come out yet coaching-wise. Looks real ugly now though.

[Celtics4ever]

He presents very well, talks very good and the like.    I think he is learning on the job and it is going to take time.   I think they are still installing packages into  the system and the like.

I too, wonder why we did not have a more experienced coach on the bench to help him but I guess we have CBS as GM

ATOs have been very poor.    There were almost no adjustments when the Bulls came back last night.

I think our roster still has some holes to fill and quality depth is still a problem, though it is better than last year.

We literally are the same old team, with the same flaws, which indicates to me it is  player things not a coach thing.

[hwangjini_1]

this is from SoSH, but interesting enough to post here. I am NOT advocating Udoka is not a good coach. such a statement is borderline idiotic given the miniscule time he has had as head coach.

but a number of us did notice that this season the after time out plays were not going well.

this post seems to support that view. Still early, let's see how the numbers run as the season moves along.
--------------
Post by Cellar-door, he wrote:

4th quarter and OT in competitive games (w/in 10):
CHI- 2 ATOs, 0 points
WAS- 5 ATOs, 0 points
WAS- 1 ATO, 0 points
CHA- 4 ATOs, 0 points
HOU- 0 ATOs (1 up 14, no points)
TOR- 0 ATOs
NYK- 6 ATOs, 3 PTs

So across 7 games, the Celtics have taken TO before a possession with the game within 10 points, 18 times... those set possessions have yielded 3 points.

[liam]

this is from SoSH, but interesting enough to post here. I am NOT advocating Udoka is not a good coach. such a statement is borderline idiotic given the miniscule time he has had as head coach.

but a number of us did notice that this season the after time out plays were not going well.

this post seems to support that view. Still early, let's see how the numbers run as the season moves along.
--------------
Post by Cellar-door, he wrote:

4th quarter and OT in competitive games (w/in 10):
CHI- 2 ATOs, 0 points
WAS- 5 ATOs, 0 points
WAS- 1 ATO, 0 points
CHA- 4 ATOs, 0 points
HOU- 0 ATOs (1 up 14, no points)
TOR- 0 ATOs
NYK- 6 ATOs, 3 PTs

So across 7 games, the Celtics have taken TO before a possession with the game within 10 points, 18 times... those set possessions have yielded 3 points.

That's wretched. You'd think with no coach it'd be better than that.

[Celtics4ever]

It is definitely an area he can improve on, and he has a great resource in the building if he swallows his pride to tap into it.

[nickagneta]

Records of some NBA championship winning coaches after 8 games of their 1st seasons as head coaches:

Mike Budenholzer 4-4
Frank Vogel 4-4
Gregg Popovich 2-6
Eric Spoelstra 4-4
Phil Jackson 5-3
Doc Rivers 4-4
Pat Riley 4-4
Larry Brown 5-3
Chuck Daly 3-5
Billy Cunningham 4-4

Yes, some amazing title winning head coaches started their careers off with great records, mostly because they are put into perfect situations. But others, even Hall of Famers, started their careers in a similar fashion as Udoka, not great.

It takes a bit of learning and adjusting. I see small improvements and adjustments from Ime game to game.

We are seeing more drop coverage by bigs rather than all switch defenses. The defensive intensity has ratcheted up the last three games. I think the overall effort is better game by game. Last night we saw Udoka keep the Jays on the floor together more and give both a break together for a short period in each half.

There are still lots of stuff to work on, including not overplaying the starters, ATOs, having everyone crash the defensive boards, maybe working in a zone defense at some point for situational defense, getting the team to pass more with quicker passing decisions in half court sets, making sure the team isn't pointing fingers at each other after losses, keeping dirty laundry in house, etc. But....there's definitely been an improvement.

Tons of 1st time coaches struggle straight out of the gates, even amazing coaches, like listed above. So I think we have to give Ime more time before getting the pitchforks sharpened and throwing him on the hot seat. Let him get all his systems tuned up and implemented. Let him get his locker room and team culture instilled. Let him settle on his rotations and see if can develop youth.

Then if he obviously isn't getting it and sucks, we can run him out of town then.

[Vermont Green]

I agree that it is still too few games to start picking apart statistics or even team record.  But the bottom line is that this is a good team that is underachieving so far.  It is reasonable to examine the coach when you look into why the team is underachieving.

If you look at the record after 8 games of past top coach, it is hard to know whether it was a team that had just rebuilt, was it a team that made the playoffs the previous year?  All that matters in what you expect the team to do with the new coach.

The results are not good and the team has not looked good to me doing it.  Good offensive execution is not easy.  It is also not just on Tatum and Brown to pass more.  Once a double team is initiated, everyone on the team should be doing something, not just the guy with the ball.  And that is where coaching is important.  The coach defines the scheme and the coach teaches the scheme.

Either we don't have a scheme or the team isn't executing the scheme.  Everyone is still just standing around when Tatum or Brown have the ball, especially in crunch time, and as someone pointed out above, also even when coming out of time outs.

[footey]

I’m not giving up on Ime.  I do wonder why we didn’t hire an experienced head coach to join his staff, though.  After Doc and Brad, watching some of Ime’s play calling out of timeouts has been a little rough.

Agreed.  I was at the Wiz game in DC last weekend, sitting close to Celtic bench.  During timeouts, Ime would huddle with his key assistants for nearly the entire timeout to figure out what they should do.  It struck me as very odd and indecisive.  Only at the very end of the timeout did he return to his players to discuss a plan.  His staff is very young.

[td450]

Generally speaking, I'm sceptical of defensive coordinators being promoted to head coaches. More often than not, they have no workable offensive plan other than ''move the ball'' and ''be aggressive''. I mean, it's easier to teach defense compared to offense. Not to mention, hiring a rookie head coach is always a massive risk. Obviously, we are way too early into the season. No need to overreact over 6 games. With this in mind, here are a few thoughts on how we've played thus far.

Defense

The way our PnR defense worked under Brad, Theis/Horford met the opposing ball handler at the level of dribble hand off and denied penetration. When Timelord was on the court, he usually dropped back to protect the rim.

The way our PnR defense works under Ime, Timelord/Horford switch pretty much everything. Timelord is a terrific rim protector, but he ain't got the lateral quickness to stay in front of explosive ball handlers on the perimeter. Horford is 35 years old. The Wizards were constantly attacking him on the perimeter last night. Can someone explain me why Horford was guarding Beal and Dinwiddie on the perimeter? If you ask me, it was a terrible tactical decision by Ime. The way I see it, both Timelord and Horford should be used in a drop scheme on defense. Horford did a terrific job close to the basket.

Rebounding

We usually start two bigs in Timelord and Horford, yet we rank 23rd in the league in RB%. Why? Cause we switch everything, hence they aren't necessarily under the basket to grab the rebounds (not to mention, they get exposed on the perimeter). Again, terrible tactical decision by Ime.

Offense

Brad was running a PnR-heavy offense. Tatum is an elite PnR ball handler for his size. If a team has the right players, PnR is quite possibly the most unstoppable team move in today's NBA.

Not sure what the plan is under Ime. Too much iso. Not enough team basketball. Yes, we shot poorly from 3pt range last night, but plenty of these 3s were bad shots. No wonder we were missing them. Terrible out of bounds plays as well. Brad was an amazing X's and O's coach. Here are some alarming numbers:

2021/22: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 21.7%
Schroder: 17.2%
Brown 9.1%

2020/21: Isolation frequency
Tatum: 18.6%
Brown: 7.1%
Kemba: 5.5%


2021/22: PnR ball handler frequency
Schroder: 30.3%
Tatum: 16.1%
Brown: 14.4%

2020/21: PnR ball handler frequency
Kemba: 47.2%
Tatum: 27.8%
Brown: 15.2%

Man management
Don't like the fact that Ime has been calling out his players in the media. Seems like everyone is OK with it for now, but it can easily backfire in the future.

All in all, I'm very discouraged by what I've seen thus far. It's not that we've lost 4 winnable games. It's how we play that bothers me a lot. Again, we are way too early into the season. Plenty of time to work things out. Hopefully, Ime is just experimenting with his roster.

I just went back to the Orlando game and reviewed over 20 PnR defensive plays. They are not pretty much always switching.

Its also not true that Robert Williams doesn't have lateral quickness to defend smaller players. He's one of the quickest bigs in the NBA. Not biting on a fake is more of a skill than a quickness issue. He's learning and is improving at this. In a couple of years this won't be a problem at all.