Celtics (13-13) vs Suns (20-4) Game #27 12/10/21

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Does any other team in the NBA start more non-shooters than the Celtics? I would love to see Grant Williams and Romeo move into the starting lineup.

Schroder
Romeo
Tatum
Grant
Horford

Does any other team in the NBA have more non-shooters, period, than the Celtics?

I looked into this during the game, supposedly there are 8 teams that shoot worse than us from 3.



And it gets worse when you look at wide open threes...we're 26th in the league when it comes to making wide open 3s.

Well there you go (and TP for the info). Boston is keeping company with a bunch of teams that are among the league's worst and that have almost no chance of making the playoffs. Awesome!

[ozgod]

And here's the 3FG% of players shooting wide open 3s. Unfortunately some of them just aren't very good 

[cltc5]

Soft from management on down

[pokeKingCurtis]

Does any other team in the NBA start more non-shooters than the Celtics? I would love to see Grant Williams and Romeo move into the starting lineup.

Schroder
Romeo
Tatum
Grant
Horford

Unfortunately Ime has said he isn't big into changing up lineups

Would love Romy and Grant to play all the minutes

[Somebody]

Watching Post Game Live, Mannix made the point we were all making about how dismal the Celtics offense is, how little off ball movement there is...and Scal trying to defend Udoka by saying "every time at halftime the coaches say to not iso but they still do, so the players are going rogue". My question is, if they are not following the game plan then why are they still on the court??Udoka needs to put his foot down if they aren't following instructions because it's ultimately his responsibility to make sure things happen.

Here is the video of the exchange. It's cellphone video so my apologies, I did the best I could 

https://youtu.be/CTNOpCMU37Y

My question would be if they are not following the instructions of the coach, then why is the coach still here? Last time I checked, the main reason why he was hired was his ability to communicate with his players.

Another good question would be how bad the schemes that the coach wants his players to follow are if the very same players who've been under one of the 'softer' coaches in the league for years are refusing to listen to him.

Well that was the other half of the question...it's ultimately Ime's job to get the best out of the players, and the inconsistency suggests he isn't. He has command responsibility at the end of the day. And having your players "go rogue" (like Man U did when they were trying to get Mourinho fired) definitely doesn't bode well for Ime. Maybe the players are trying to get him fired.

I know that you dislike Mourinho, but Udoka would dream to have Mourinho's tactical nous: you can reasonably argue that the players were lost causes at Man United (which a lot of them turned out to be!), but any club worth their salt shouldn't be doing that for Udoka.

Here's Udoka's CV after leaving San Antonio where he could vibe and yell at the lads to run around and press:

Udoka in
2019-2020 76ers rDRTG: -1.6
2020-2021 Nets rDRTG: +1.5

Udoka out
2020-2021 76ers rDRTG: -4.7 (3 point improvement!)
2021-2022 Nets rDRTG: -2.0 (3.5 point improvement!)

[Somebody]

And here's the 3FG% of players shooting wide open 3s. Unfortunately some of them just aren't very good 

The more glaring issue to me is how Horford, Smart and Schroeder are still in positions to shoot so many wide open threes. There are obvious ways to go around this - for example, Horford is money as a C&S midrange shooter (very small sample from your picture, but I think that he can shoot 45% on these really open short midrange shots off the PnP, which is more than acceptable for the average halfcourt possession), you can have Schroeder operate on the ball where he's better at shooting off the dribble and can drive into space if defences sag off of him too much while Smart has real potential as a Draymond Green-esque player who does damage in transition and the short roll (he obviously also has the ability to drive). Just really unimaginative coaching from the vibe man.

[Phantom255x]

I don't even think a coach like Greg Popovich, Spoelstra or Monty Williams could fix this team tbh. The main problem is roster construction, but make no mistake it's also the players. They seem to pick and choose when to show up, and it's clear whether it's Brad or Ime, at times they seem to deviate from the gameplan and only play for themselves.

I'm kind of leaning towards breaking it up. Not saying you have to trade either of Brown/Tatum, but everyone else including Smart needs to be considered. Or maybe this offseason, if a deal makes sense involving Brown, you have to consider it.

This team is frustratingly mediocre, and almost every time they go up against an elite team they look it.

The current ceiling for this team feels like a 6 seed at best but that's about it. More likely, play-in and get wacked in the first round by BKN or MIL