KO lack of progress - body

[ManUp]

Kelly came out of college a near finished product. His player comparison was Louis Scola. He's slow, unatheletic, with short arms. His defense will always make him a liability on the floor considering he doesn't rebound or score well enough to justify him playing long minutes. Í wanted to trade the guy since day one and the longer we hold on to him the less his value will be. He's an end of bench 11th or 12th guy , a towel waver. There I said it that's how I feel, prove me wrong Kelly.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Pierce looked pretty soft and doughy a lot of his career too.

And no, I'm not comparing them as players, just their physiques.

[Celtics18]

Why are Kelly's defensive numbers so good?

I'm seriously asking, seeing as I have a hard time understanding it.  Everyone has seen him play, and the eye test almost unanimously tells us that he's not a very good defender.  But he must be doing something right.

I can't think of a case of someone simultaneously having as poor a reputation as a defender and at the same time having numbers as good as Kelly's on the defensive end.

It can't just be that he plays against other teams' second units.  Lots of guys in the league play against second unit guys.  And if those guys are lousy defenders, the numbers usually show they are lousy defenders, despite not playing primarily against starters every night.

I do think a lot of the credit has to go to Stevens for putting him in good situations.  I also, though, think we might need to reconsider the eye test on Kelly.  He's too easy a target.  He's white, pasty, short arms, bad hair cut, scruffy goatee, and worst of all, falls down a lot.  He just looks like a guy who can't play any D.  As soon as he steps on the court, it's "oh geez, this guy's gonna get eaten alive."

But he doesn't get eaten alive.  Even if the eye test tells us he does, the numbers tell us otherwise.  It's not only the advanced stats, the DRTG and the Defensive Plus Minus numbers, he also does quite well in the traditional defensive stats of steals and blocks. 

My personal take on Kelly's defense is that he doesn't protect the rim very well and he doesn't guard the perimeter very well.  What I believe he does do well is guard the lane.  He's not a blitzer on the pick and roll, he's more of a drop back and read the ball handler and the rolling big.  In these situations, I find that he has fairly good awareness and good hands defensively.  This helps explain his very high steals per minutes stats for a big.  He intercepts plays, he cuts off plays, he gets steals.  Occasionally he'll come over and get a block or just get his body in the way of a driver.

In the end, I do think he has a long way to go defensively, but I don't think just automatically calling him a "terrible" defender jibes with reality.

He's already got some decent skills defensively.  The numbers confirm that.  And if you watch more closely, so does the eye test. 

[D.o.s.]

Three of the seven best defensive lineups the Celtics deployed last year, by the numbers, featured Jameer Nelson and Kelly Olynyk:
http://stats.nba.com/league/lineups/#!/advanced/?Season=2014-15&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612738&sort=DEF_RATING&dir=1

Rajon Rondo graded out as a better defender than KO last season. So did Gerald Wallace:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/2015.html?lid=header_teams

Jared Sullinger averaged more blocks than Olynyk did. Olynyk's one steal per game is good, but considering Al Jefferson is close to that, and I think you'd agree that Jefferson is hardly a good defender (and my suspicion is that you don't think Sully is a particularly good defender either).

 I would maintain that most everyone on the Celtics had their defensive numbers inflated by their system -- the system that allowed them to finish 12th in the league in Defensive RTG overall, and this particularly applies to Kelly Olynyk, who also did not post his numbers playing starters minutes, and is unlikely to maintain them if he ever cracks 30 minutes per night -- something to take into account when you're casually extrapolating per-minute stats.

That is one reason, probably, why Olynyk's defensive numbers are inflated towards something you could squint at and say "they're good", especially if you wanted to see him stay with the Celtics -- a notion you've expressed on multiple occasions.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Why are Kelly's defensive numbers so good?

I'm seriously asking, seeing as I have a hard time understanding it.  Everyone has seen him play, and the eye test almost unanimously tells us that he's not a very good defender.  But he must be doing something right.

I think a big thing is that he will give up such bad plays to SFs and guards once or twice a game where you just yell "you didn't even try!" at the TV, then you don't notice all the good stuff he does.  He is 7 feet tall and his dad was a coach, it's not like he's the end of the world out there.  I'm a lot more worried about his offensive consistency than anything.  He should be MURDERING every second unit and he can't always turn it on.  That's what we need him for and when he's doing it, it's a thing of beauty.

[rollie mass]

kelly's ankle injury severely effected his game,he barely could get up for a two handed dunk,he was falling down and awkward ,slower first step and it threw his shot off and confidence-he had almost no lift
a seven foot guy with a bum ankle that is allready not fast,just look how long marcus took to recover-
kelly is only coming on his third year-this is a 7footer who can shoot,pass and play d as shown by stats--kelly has put in minutes and numbers his first two years and been part of  the team effort  that got us to the playoffs-can't call him a bust
 

[chambers]

How can you see if he's bigger or more ripped in this pic? He's wearing a back t shirt that's slightly baggy.

I'm looking at it on 75 inch Samsung LED and there's absolutely no way to define whether he's become more defined.....

I'll give him till October. I don't care if he doesn't get bigger, just as long as he gets stronger and faster.

[SHAQATTACK]

Bodies ok

It's the issues

Upstairs that concerns me .

Confidence.

[GratefulCs]

Why are Kelly's defensive numbers so good?

I'm seriously asking, seeing as I have a hard time understanding it.  Everyone has seen him play, and the eye test almost unanimously tells us that he's not a very good defender.  But he must be doing something right.

I think a big thing is that he will give up such bad plays to SFs and guards once or twice a game where you just yell "you didn't even try!" at the TV, then you don't notice all the good stuff he does.  He is 7 feet tall and his dad was a coach, it's not like he's the end of the world out there.  I'm a lot more worried about his offensive consistency than anything.  He should be MURDERING every second unit and he can't always turn it on.  That's what we need him for and when he's doing it, it's a thing of beauty.

couldn't have said it better myself. TP

[Tr1boy]

How can you see if he's bigger or more ripped in this pic? He's wearing a back t shirt that's slightly baggy.

I'm looking at it on 75 inch Samsung LED and there's absolutely no way to define whether he's become more defined.....

I'll give him till October. I don't care if he doesn't get bigger, just as long as he gets stronger and faster.

He still has a baby face. His forearm, shin look soft. 
Now look at a guy like Jason Smith.   Face, thicker neck alone can provide clues as to how fit you are

Kelly needs to get ripped, quicker and especially stronger.  He cant be pulling guys down around the net, hoping someone else will get the rebound. He needs to hold his position, then go up quickly to get the rebound himself.

I know KO can be good , if he can put it together/play with confidence. It starts with obtaining a top body.

[clover]

https://instagram.com/p/5qFjNWgcll/

Recent photo at the Olynyk Klynyk camp.   Does not look like his body has improved at all from last season. 

I'm a fan of KO but this upcoming season will be highly critical of his play.  After 2 seasons, you would think one would learn.  He got pushed around the 1st 2 seasons, and really needs to come to camp at the best shape of his life. Especially in the strength department

He comes to training camp with the body we see from his KO  Klynyk camp, and I will be the 1st one to start a thread to trade him.   

Here he was dropping 31 at the Nike Crown game in Toronto. Looks pretty good to me with some more upper body definition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPm3LSzkGFw

[Tr1boy]

https://instagram.com/p/5qFjNWgcll/

Recent photo at the Olynyk Klynyk camp.   Does not look like his body has improved at all from last season. 

I'm a fan of KO but this upcoming season will be highly critical of his play.  After 2 seasons, you would think one would learn.  He got pushed around the 1st 2 seasons, and really needs to come to camp at the best shape of his life. Especially in the strength department

He comes to training camp with the body we see from his KO  Klynyk camp, and I will be the 1st one to start a thread to trade him.   

Here he was dropping 31 at the Nike Crown game in Toronto. Looks pretty good to me with some more upper body definition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPm3LSzkGFw

He still looks soft

[clover]

My God, he nearly ripped a guy's arm off last season.  What do you want from the guy?

Nearly is not good enough.

Ha ha.

[clover]

https://instagram.com/p/5qFjNWgcll/

Recent photo at the Olynyk Klynyk camp.   Does not look like his body has improved at all from last season. 

I'm a fan of KO but this upcoming season will be highly critical of his play.  After 2 seasons, you would think one would learn.  He got pushed around the 1st 2 seasons, and really needs to come to camp at the best shape of his life. Especially in the strength department

He comes to training camp with the body we see from his KO  Klynyk camp, and I will be the 1st one to start a thread to trade him.   

Here he was dropping 31 at the Nike Crown game in Toronto. Looks pretty good to me with some more upper body definition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPm3LSzkGFw

He still looks soft

Surely he looks more like a pro basketball player than Sully does.

[The One]

I'm just happy he doesn't look like this anymore!