Impact at the Rim

[Roy H.]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why we lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

[Neurotic Guy]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why were lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

It improves a bit with JT replacing JB. Other improvement
 has to come from existing player improvement or refocus. I think Q may provide some. Some from PP and DW.

And then, the less likely but yet unknown - will we see any of Baylor, Hugo, Walsh, or RHJ attack the rim with success consistently?

[slamtheking]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why were lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

It improves a bit with JT replacing JB. Other improvement
 has to come from existing player improvement or refocus. I think Q may provide some. Some from PP and DW.

And then, the less likely but yet unknown - will we see any of Baylor, Hugo, Walsh, or RHJ attack the rim with success consistently?

having JT instead of JB does not improve it.  JB is the one more likely to drive even if it results in a mid-range shot or an occasional TO.  JT is more likely to launch an iso 3 after pounding the ball into the floor for 10-12 seconds of the possession

[Goldstar88]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why were lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

It improves a bit with JT replacing JB. Other improvement
 has to come from existing player improvement or refocus. I think Q may provide some. Some from PP and DW.

And then, the less likely but yet unknown - will we see any of Baylor, Hugo, Walsh, or RHJ attack the rim with success consistently?

having JT instead of JB does not improve it.  JB is the one more likely to drive even if it results in a mid-range shot or an occasional TO.  JT is more likely to launch an iso 3 after pounding the ball into the floor for 10-12 seconds of the possession

JT is more than capable of attacking. He averaged over 8 FT attempts per game a few seasons ago. JB has never done that.

[Goldstar88]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why were lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

It improves a bit with JT replacing JB. Other improvement
 has to come from existing player improvement or refocus. I think Q may provide some. Some from PP and DW.

And then, the less likely but yet unknown - will we see any of Baylor, Hugo, Walsh, or RHJ attack the rim with success consistently?

having JT instead of JB does not improve it.  JB is the one more likely to drive even if it results in a mid-range shot or an occasional TO.  JT is more likely to launch an iso 3 after pounding the ball into the floor for 10-12 seconds of the possession

JT is more than capable of attacking. He averaged over 8 FT attempts per game a few seasons ago. JB has never done that.

[SparzWizard]

Or maybe, demand from the coach that the players need to attack the rim more (maybe 75% of the time) and stop settling for 3s 24/7.

[Roy H.]

At the end of our playoff exit, everyone was giving assessments of why were lost.  Brad Stevens had his own thoughts:

We had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. We?ve got to figure out a way to do better with that. One of the things we?ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that.?

This season we've downgraded our "rim impact" by trading JB for George.  The Mitchell Robinson signing should help, but he only takes roughly 3.5 shots per game.

So, where does the impact at the rim come from?  If it was a source of concern the last two playoff runs according to Brad, how do we improve it?

It improves a bit with JT replacing JB. Other improvement
 has to come from existing player improvement or refocus. I think Q may provide some. Some from PP and DW.

And then, the less likely but yet unknown - will we see any of Baylor, Hugo, Walsh, or RHJ attack the rim with success consistently?

I alluded to it, but did not quote that Brad mentioned it was a concern in the past two playoff series losses. So, that includes when we had both Tatum and Brown. He seemed to want something in addition to those two, and now we only have one with no replacement for the skill set that he thinks is essential.

It puzzles me, and just makes it seem even more clear that the team really didn't have a plan coming into the off-season. Or, the quote was in regard to Giannis, and he really thought we were going to get him. Because, not only did we not really improve our impact at the rim, we got quite a bit worse at it.

Note:  Brad was talking about offensive impact. I don't think there's any real question that that were rim defense and rebounding should be improved.

[Goldstar88]

JT is more than capable of attacking. He averaged 8.5 FT attempts per game one season. That is more than JB has ever done.

[slamtheking]

JT is more than capable of attacking. He averaged 8.5 FT attempts per game one season. That is more than JB has ever done.

JT's definitely more than capable of doing it.  he just doesn't do it nearly enough.

JB, as everyone who watches the games has seen, does not get a fair whistle from the refs so that's part of the reason his FT rate isn't higher.  if he got an equitable whistle to what other all-stars get, he'd easily get 2 more trips to the line for 4 more FT attempts and that's being conservative.

[slamtheking]

Or maybe, demand from the coach that the players need to attack the rim more (maybe 75% of the time) and stop settling for 3s 24/7.

a change in coaching philosophy (or better yet, a change in the coach) should have been the approach this offseason before giving away our second best player

[smicker16]

It did feel like this was setting the stage for a Giannis trade and trying to get the fanbase to understand why they wanted to trade JB for him. When that fell through they had no plan B clearly.

I think our offense will be the same but maybe with some more rim running from Robinson and Queta. More offensive boards but think that may lead to more 3s actually.

[Neurotic Guy]

It did feel like this was setting the stage for a Giannis trade and trying to get the fanbase to understand why they wanted to trade JB for him. When that fell through they had no plan B clearly.

I think our offense will be the same but maybe with some more rim running from Robinson and Queta. More offensive boards but think that may lead to more 3s actually.

It did seem for a moment in time that the Celtics were going to get Giannis and that we'd be starting this season with 2 top 5 (top 7) NBA players in the starting lineup.  Of course there'd be naysayers claiming that our team's future is reliant on an injury prone Giannis. But other chips probably would have fallen in our favor had they got Giannis and we'd undoubtedly be one of the top three favorites to win it all.   

If it is true, something I neither fully believe or dismiss, that Brad could have had GA by sending Hugo or Baylor (or both) - then that was either a colossal mistake, or Brad has some seriously high expectations for these two - or one of them.

[Indocelts]

JT is more than capable of attacking. He averaged 8.5 FT attempts per game one season. That is more than JB has ever done.

JT's definitely more than capable of doing it.  he just doesn't do it nearly enough.

JB, as everyone who watches the games has seen, does not get a fair whistle from the refs so that's part of the reason his FT rate isn't higher.  if he got an equitable whistle to what other all-stars get, he'd easily get 2 more trips to the line for 4 more FT attempts and that's being conservative.

JT took 10 3PTAs per game. If he can convert 5 of those shots into driving to the rim I would be a happy Celtics fans.

[Indocelts]

Or maybe, demand from the coach that the players need to attack the rim more (maybe 75% of the time) and stop settling for 3s 24/7.

a change in coaching philosophy (or better yet, a change in the coach) should have been the approach this offseason before giving away our second best player

Any player should be playing to his strength, not to his weakness. Joe sometimes did the opposite with his rigid 3pt heavy system. This was sheer stupidity.

[byennie]

Or maybe, demand from the coach that the players need to attack the rim more (maybe 75% of the time) and stop settling for 3s 24/7.

a change in coaching philosophy (or better yet, a change in the coach) should have been the approach this offseason before giving away our second best player

Any player should be playing to his strength, not to his weakness. Joe sometimes did the opposite with his rigid 3pt heavy system. This was sheer stupidity.

I think it's fine for the team to shoot a lot of 3s - that's the modern NBA. But to this point, having certain guys break down the defense is what GETS you good looks. And there will be certain times where you need that ability to keep the defense honest, or exploit a matchup.

My wish would be to see JT and Pritchard going to the rim more. JT completely collapses the defense when he does, and with Queta / Robinson a lot of his misses will get cleaned up. Meanwhile I don't mind White, Hauser, Hugo or Baylor spotting up from 3 for open looks. Pritchard is an excellent finisher, he can't live at the rim due to his size but he can get there consistently and plays well above his size finishing the play.