Outshoot, and not necessarily shut down, opponents?

[Jevi]

I have seen this being said of the talent we brought in. I hope this isn't true. They are banking on whatever shortcomings they may have this year defensively, will be more than made up for with a more explosive offense. Unlike last season's team, this squad doesn't have as many defensive-minded players. If this is true, nothing in their history ever proved this is how championships are won. No Tom Tibs, Clifford Ray, Tony Allen, again no Posey replacement. Lawrence Frank will head the defense better than his Nets did hopefully. Nine game former Celtic Roy Rogers will become the bigs coach. Suddenly they lost by 4, because they didn't shoot well in the 4th quarter. No this is still about defense, and injuries as I recall. KG was already less than 100%, in fact every important big has gone down to injury the last two years. Baby has been remarkably healthy in that span though. So, I for one love the depth added to the front court, but I'm with the captain, scratching my head at our wing position. Especially since Lakers and Miami have vastly improved that area.

[Fafnir]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

[BballTim]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

[Fafnir]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

[Jevi]

Paragraphs are your friend.

Wait, is that you Sr. Mary Matthews? Actually, she would've found a way to draw red ink all over this post somehow. Noted Fanir.

So a shift in philosophy is exaggerating right, no one has seen this anywhere, of DA's intentions?

[BballTim]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

  Turnover rate isn't the best but turnover differential is good.

[BballTim]

Paragraphs are your friend.

Wait, is that you Sr. Mary Matthews? Actually, she would've found a way to draw red ink all over this post somehow. Noted Fanir.

So a shift in philosophy is exaggerating right, no one has seen this anywhere, of DA's intentions?

  Which of the moves that (potentially) worsen our defense were initiated by Danny?

[Roy H.]

I don't think it's a shift in philosophy.  Rather, I think it's taking advantage of what's on the market to fill holes.

Last year, the Celtics shooting wasn't very good, and neither was their rebounding.  The Celtics have attempted to fill those holes through several of their free agent signings, including Shaq, Wafer, Delonte, and to some extent J.O.

At the same time, there wasn't a ton that Danny could do about some of the loss of defense.  Perk got injured, so the team's #1 priority immediately became to fill his hole.  They did that by signing a pretty good defensive center in J.O.  He's probably a downgrade, but that was unavoidable; there were no defensive centers better than Perk on the market.

Then, Tony left to find fame and fortune elsewhere.  Danny's immediate reaction to that was to attempt to sign Ronnie Brewer, a very good defender.  When Brewer chose Chicago, Danny re-signed Marquis (a guy whose defense Doc has raved about repeatedly) and signed Delonte, a good defender.  Again, this may end up to be a slight downgrade, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

It's likely that the defense will be a little bit worse, especially until Perk comes back.  However, the Celtics have filled enough other gaps such as shooting and rebounding, so hopefully the Celts will be a better team overall.

[Fafnir]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

  Turnover rate isn't the best but turnover differential is good.

We forced turnovers at an amazing rate this post season, I think Celticshub did a very good article on it. I don't know if we can count on that sort of stretch again.

[jdub1660]

I agree that this idea out out shooting a team isn't going to work for us, specially as a half, court offense. At the same time, I'm not convinced that Danny is done yet. Maybe he's working on a trade. I mean with all the great camp invites, and the roster already at 17 players, you have to assume that Danny's brain engine is running up something.

Here's an idea(very hopeful for something LIKE this)

Package BBD,(Gaffney+Lafayette for cap purposes) and draft pick for Corey Brewer

If there is a better player out there for the wing position then Bradley and/or Gody could be included to open up more roster spots

Say we made some sort of 3 team trade including the 5 players listed above and we landed 2 players.
That leaves 1 roster spot open to sign 1 of those camp invites(Morrison or Hassell)

Then come December 15th, Nate,Quis and Erdin become trade baits(cuts) so Sheed or whatever big joins us in February.

[Fafnir]

Paragraphs are your friend.

Wait, is that you Sr. Mary Matthews? Actually, she would've found a way to draw red ink all over this post somehow. Noted Fanir.

So a shift in philosophy is exaggerating right, no one has seen this anywhere, of DA's intentions?

Ha, its just one of my pet peeves with long posts I want to read.

[BballTim]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

  Turnover rate isn't the best but turnover differential is good.

We forced turnovers at an amazing rate this post season, I think Celticshub did a very good article on it. I don't know if we can count on that sort of stretch again.

  Our turnover differential in the last 3 playoffs were +1.4, _0.8 and +1.6. it's never been a real problem for this group.

[BballTim]

Last year, the Celtics shooting wasn't very good, and neither was their rebounding.

  They were near the top of the league in eFG% and TS%. Reboundng was, as you stated, below average.

[Fafnir]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

  Turnover rate isn't the best but turnover differential is good.

We forced turnovers at an amazing rate this post season, I think Celticshub did a very good article on it. I don't know if we can count on that sort of stretch again.

  Our turnover differential in the last 3 playoffs were +1.4, _0.8 and +1.6. it's never been a real problem for this group.

I don't like to view it that way.

Turnovers are a problem for the teams offensive efficieny, turnovers forced by the team a plus for the teams defensive efficiency. The Celtics offense could be much better than it is without the turnover issues, their defense has allowed them to be succesful and compensated for their issues on the other end.

So what you say makes sense by the fact that in the end the Celtics D gets more possessions than the Celtics O costs them. (as far as turnovers go, rebounding obviously is was a different story this past season) That doesn't mean that turnovers on offense aren't a problem!

So when we talk about offense the turnover differential doesn't come into my thinking.

[BballTim]

Paragraphs are your friend.

I don't think that's a formula the Celtics can count on, they're not a great rebounding team, and turn the ball over too much.

Continued elite defending and improved rebounding are the only path I can see for the Celtics to win it all next year. Even then I'm skeptical if we can defend the Heat well enough with Wade and LeBron on the same team....

  Turnovers are more of a regular season than postseason issue for the Celts. I'm somewhat curious as to what will happen with the Heat, as one of LeBron and Wade will have the ball and the other will be less dangerous than average without having the ball in his hands.

  As for the original post, the main defensive issues compared to last year are losing Perk and TA, neither of which were due to any change in strategy by the Celts. Hopefully Perk will come back, KG will be a little more mobile and our defense will still be good.

Eh our turnover rate in the playoffs still wasn't good. Combine that with our trouble getting to the line at times and our decreased eFG% in the playoffs I think our

  Turnover rate isn't the best but turnover differential is good.

We forced turnovers at an amazing rate this post season, I think Celticshub did a very good article on it. I don't know if we can count on that sort of stretch again.

  Our turnover differential in the last 3 playoffs were +1.4, _0.8 and +1.6. it's never been a real problem for this group.

I don't like to view it that way.

Turnovers are a problem for the teams offensive efficieny, turnovers forced by the team a plus for the teams defensive efficiency. The Celtics offense could be much better than it is without the turnover issues, their defense has allowed them to be succesful and compensated for their issues on the other end.

So what you say makes sense by the fact that in the end the Celtics D gets more possessions than the Celtics O costs them. (as far as turnovers go, rebounding obviously is was a different story this past season) That doesn't mean that turnovers on offense aren't a problem!

So when we talk about offense the turnover differential doesn't come into my thinking.

  I could have also mentioned that while we're near the bottom of the league in regular season turnovers we're close to average in the playoffs. But in our particular case, I think that our biggest weakness in turnovers (compared to our opponents) is offensive fouls. I would guess the bulk of this is illegal picks. Maybe we're worse at this than other teams, or maybe we just set more picks, which could contribute to our above average fg%. Lowering our turnovers could, to a certain extent, lower our scoring efficiency. They might not get the boost in offense that you're expecting.

  In any case, "much better" really means 2%-3% better. Somewhat significant, but something that would generally move your team from 15th to 11th or 12th, not like 15th to 4th or 5th.