stevens team: defense first, fast paced offense

[hwangjini_1]

Some very good points above on the "new" play-defense-AND-run-on-offense plan.

If ,if, if this is to happen on a sustained basis, then Stevens will need to play at least 10 players significant minutes each night. If, if, if the celtics can put fresh legs out in waves this is, perhaps, sustainable in theory.

But the next question would be..... Do the celtics have enough depth to legitimately play 10 to 12 players a night? Or, will,the drop off in talent erase any advantage gained from running like heck and defending like crazy?

I also wonder if this will,shape up like pitino's early efforts at having full court pressure for much of a game. It simply was too much to ask of players.

But this season is not about the wins. It is about building a team for the future, at least to me. So this plan might at least make losses entertaining. 

[snively]

I don't think we can play up-tempo very successfully without Rondo.

We have some excellent transition weapons in Green and Wallace, but I don't believe you can rely on garden-variety NBA ball-handlers, passers and decision makers to take advantage of those weapons consistently.

When you don't have the best offensive guards, it makes more sense (to me) to run a slower-paced offense built around getting the ball to your frontcourt.  Memphis, Indiana and Chicago (sans Rose) employed similar strategies with mediocre backcourts.

[hpantazo]

It would be a great strategy except we don't have a rim defender to pull it off. It's hard to run when the opponent lives in your own paint

And that's in a best case scenario where I assume humphries , Sullinger, and green dominate the defensive glass

[Celtics18]

It would be a great strategy except we don't have a rim defender to pull it off. It's hard to run when the opponent lives in your own paint

And that's in a best case scenario where I assume humphries , Sullinger, and green dominate the defensive glass

The point is to disrupt the opposing offense before they have a chance to set up plays that get them good looks in the paint. 

It's more about having defensive lane fillers, ball hawkers, and disruptors than about having rim protectors. 

[hpantazo]

It would be a great strategy except we don't have a rim defender to pull it off. It's hard to run when the opponent lives in your own paint

And that's in a best case scenario where I assume humphries , Sullinger, and green dominate the defensive glass

The point is to disrupt the opposing offense before they have a chance to set up plays that get them good looks in the paint. 

It's more about having defensive lane fillers, ball hawkers, and disruptors than about having rim protectors.

disrupting passing lanes certainly helps, but this strategy does not work consistently if you can't protect the paint and take care of the defensive boards. Those are the fundamentals of fast break basketball, and we don't have anyone even remotely resembling a legit center, never mind a rim protector. We do have good rebounders in Humphries and Sullinger though, but Green has been a relatively weak rebounder and is going to get a ton of minutes this year.

Just look at last season to see plenty of examples of our team disrupting the opponent from getting into their offensive sets, forcing bad shots, and then getting 3-4 offensive boards which eventually resulted in a layup and deflated the energy of our defenders.

[Celtics18]

It would be a great strategy except we don't have a rim defender to pull it off. It's hard to run when the opponent lives in your own paint

And that's in a best case scenario where I assume humphries , Sullinger, and green dominate the defensive glass

The point is to disrupt the opposing offense before they have a chance to set up plays that get them good looks in the paint. 

It's more about having defensive lane fillers, ball hawkers, and disruptors than about having rim protectors.

disrupting passing lanes certainly helps, but this strategy does not work consistently if you can't protect the paint and take care of the defensive boards. Those are the fundamentals of fast break basketball, and we don't have anyone even remotely resembling a legit center, never mind a rim protector. We do have good rebounders in Humphries and Sullinger though, but Green has been a relatively weak rebounder and is going to get a ton of minutes this year.

Just look at last season to see plenty of examples of our team disrupting the opponent from getting into their offensive sets, forcing bad shots, and then getting 3-4 offensive boards which eventually resulted in a layup.

It's no secret that we don't have legitimate rim protectors.  I'd love to have one or more, but it's simply not the case.  Coach Stevens' job is to make the best of the roster he has.  Personally, I think playing an aggressive, pressuring, perimeter defense, and trying to get out and run off turnovers represents the best chance of success given the makeup of our roster. 

There's no point in lamenting what he doesn't have, from Stevens' perspective.  His job is to try to make the best of his roster and his situation.  It sounds like that's what he's going to do. 

Let me just add that last year's Miami Heat (and the year before that, for that matter) didn't have any elite rim protectors.

I know I will get scoffed at for comparing this Celtics team to the Heat, but they are the model of a team that successfully played good pressure perimeter defense without a strong rim protector. 

[hpantazo]

It would be a great strategy except we don't have a rim defender to pull it off. It's hard to run when the opponent lives in your own paint

And that's in a best case scenario where I assume humphries , Sullinger, and green dominate the defensive glass

The point is to disrupt the opposing offense before they have a chance to set up plays that get them good looks in the paint. 

It's more about having defensive lane fillers, ball hawkers, and disruptors than about having rim protectors.

disrupting passing lanes certainly helps, but this strategy does not work consistently if you can't protect the paint and take care of the defensive boards. Those are the fundamentals of fast break basketball, and we don't have anyone even remotely resembling a legit center, never mind a rim protector. We do have good rebounders in Humphries and Sullinger though, but Green has been a relatively weak rebounder and is going to get a ton of minutes this year.

Just look at last season to see plenty of examples of our team disrupting the opponent from getting into their offensive sets, forcing bad shots, and then getting 3-4 offensive boards which eventually resulted in a layup.

It's no secret that we don't have legitimate rim protectors.  I'd love to have one or more, but it's simply not the case.  Coach Stevens' job is to make the best of the roster he has.  Personally, I think playing an aggressive, pressuring, perimeter defense, and trying to get out and run off turnovers represents the best chance of success given the makeup of our roster. 

There's no point in lamenting what he doesn't have, from Stevens' perspective.  His job is to try to make the best of his roster and his situation.  It sounds like that's what he's going to do. 

Let me just add that last year's Miami Heat (and the year before that, for that matter) didn't have any elite rim protectors.

I know I will get scoffed at for comparing this Celtics team to the Heat, but they are the model of a team that successfully played good pressure perimeter defense without a strong rim protector.

I fully agree that it's the right strategy to instill in our current group, and get them to focus on defense and running to develop these habits long term, and have some exciting games once in a while this season, but this year we will lose a lot of games playing this way. We will lose this year regardless, so we may as well instill the correct mindset into these players for the future. Sooner or later when we prepare to legitimately compete though, we need a rim protector or two.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

People keep talking about we have been saying that for years but you have to remember Doc was saying that with a system in place with tweaks over the years, maybe the system wasn't conducive to running. It's not like we had many players that could run, especially the most important ones. Stevens system is new and created based on the team running, so it's at the forefront... then add the players needed to work that system (all but maybe one or 2 guys are able to do it). Sure it's still talk right now but it's not like Doc had the players or the system for it. The reasons I believe we really didn't continue that pace after RR went down is b/c our players weren't prepared for that, we probably were exhausted, also Doc had a chance to get practices in and make "adjustments" that hurt us... we played free b4 he had a chance to put his 2cents in it.

[Newguy]

Sounds like Rick Pitino's plan part II.  He tried to do the same thing when he first became the Celtics coach.  We all know what happened then.  Hopefully, Stevens' plan is much better.

[hpantazo]

People keep talking about we have been saying that for years but you have to remember Doc was saying that with a system in place with tweaks over the years, maybe the system wasn't conducive to running. It's not like we had many players that could run, especially the most important ones. Stevens system is new and created based on the team running, so it's at the forefront... then add the players needed to work that system (all but maybe one or 2 guys are able to do it). Sure it's still talk right now but it's not like Doc had the players or the system for it. The reasons I believe we really didn't continue that pace after RR went down is b/c our players weren't prepared for that, we probably were exhausted, also Doc had a chance to get practices in and make "adjustments" that hurt us... we played free b4 he had a chance to put his 2cents in it.

I agree with this point. It always sounded as if Doc and Danny wanted to run with the previous teams, but we never really had the personnel to do it. Our guys were too old, slow, and too terrible at rebounding to be a running team. On top of all that, they consumed too much energy on defense to be able to do anything else.

[D.o.s.]

Another thing about playing fast--I'm not sure we have big men who can rebound and make a good outlet pass to the degree that we'd need to routinely get up the floor post haste.

[SHAQATTACK]

It's all good for now....... Having bad b ball withdrawal  at this point.

Man a " W". Is gonna taste so fine dis year......  Might  be scarce  lol

[pearljammer10]

love it. get those shots up.

[Tr1boy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UYG1Ksrnm4

Watch 2:11 = Olynyk vs Butler. Just to show how much detail Stevens Butler team played defense.  Take off Olynyk and his defender out of the picture and there is alot going on.

Watch 2:20 = Olynyk vs Butler 2nd clip. Again forgetting about Olynyk vs Smith, lots of details and sync movement between the Butler defenders. I especially like the way the other Butler interior player fronts his man, to avoid him able to get a pass cleanly or have a chance for an offensive rebound.   

[crimson_stallion]

At the end of the day, the main things I want from this team is to establish an identity (whatever that is) and to always play to their own strengths.

In the earlier days of the big-3 era Doc used to always talk about not matching up with other teams, and instead playing to the Celtic's own strengths.  He'd always say that it didn't matter who they played against, they always played the same way - defense first, grind it out. 

The last two seasons (when the Celtics started struggling) Doc has been talking a lot less about playing to the Celtic's strenghts, and a lot more about matching up with opponents.  Every day it seemed he was changing the roster around to match up with the strengths of Team X or Team Y. 

If Boston played the Heat, then Doc would go small to 'match up'.  If they played a quicker team, then he'd use a three guard rotation to try to get quicker.  If he played a big team, then he might give Jason Collins some minutes.  If a team uses a certain playing style, it's usually because they are very good at that playing style, and they beat a lot of teams by exploiting it. If your team doesn't play that style, it probably means that your team is NOT very good at playing that way, and DOESN'T beat many teams by exploiting that play style.  So, why intentionally try to "match up" your playing style to match the strengths of your opponent?!?!?! It makes no sense because they are almost always going to do it better!

Great teams don't "match up" with their opponents.  Great teams always play to their own strengths.  Great teams understand what they do well, and they make use of those strengths to win games.  Great teams love to play against a team that is different to theirs, because it means that somewere along the line your team has a competitive advantage...you just have to find it. 

You play against a team that excels at small ball?? Go big and hammer them in the post.  Playing against a team that loves to run in transition?  Play grind-it-out defense, control the boards and slow the tempo of the game.  Playing against a team that is bigger and slower than you are?  Go with a quick lineup and run them in to the ground.   The whole idea is to take the opponent out of their comfort zone, not try to play into it. 

Miami won the title last year, but the they really struggled to beat teams that had big, dominant front lines (San Antonio, Utah, Indiana, etc).  It seems like those teams that had the most success against the small-ball Heat lineups, which makes perfect sense because smaller front-line guys like Lebron and Bosh don't have the skills to defend guys like David West, Tim Duncan and Al Jefferson in the low post. 

Doc instead tried to match Miami by running small-ball, but there is probably no team in the entire league who has a better small-ball frontcourt than that of Lebron James and Chris Bosh.  This entire plan was ludicrous and a recipe for defeat.

I like what I'm hearing about Stevens because I think he is more of a strategic coach.  I think he will look at statistics a lot more to analyse what opposing teams/players struggle against, and I think he will work his gameplan to take advantage of that.   At least that's what I'm hoping, because I'm sick to death of watching Celtics teams try to beat opposing teams at their own game...and failing.