“He’s a really good complimentary player,” Ainge said Thursday night shortly after the selection. “He’s not a go-to guy, he’s not a star player, but he’s a really good teammate-type player – he compliments other guys.”
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/06/27/celtics-trade-with-mavs-draft-gonzaga-center-kelly-olynyk-13th-overall/
I've been at peace with Kelly ever since I saw this in 2013. I trust Danny's judgement, and it's looking like he was 100% right in his evaluation.
LOL just goes to show it's our expectations that are the problem.
This evaluation no longer holds water. The value of stretch bigs in today's NBA environment is off the charts and Danny knows it. Couple that with K.O.'s defensive improvement (which no one thought was possible) and you have a very nice piece to the puzzle.
The problem I see with this is that the NBA is all about "flavor of the month".
The Heat probably started the whole "stretch four" ideal when they proved you can win a title without a proper center, and started playing Shane Battier and Chris Bosh in the front court, who mostly gave teams trouble by running out to the line and throwing up threes. Important to not forget that this team also had Dwyane Wade and Lebron James.
The Golden State Warriors probably cemented this "small ball" concept when they dominated and won the title last year, with Draymond Green making that impact as a smaller PF who can defend the perimeter and also step out and hit threes. Important to note that the Warriors also had Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and also had Iggy (a borderline all star not long ego) as their sixth man.
It's a natural reaction thing. In the past, every team was all about size, and dominating the post. So then 'big' guys were all the rage, and the teams who had great bigs (Boston with KG, Lakers with Gasol, Spurs with Duncan, etc) dominated.
Eventually you find that there just aren't enough great bigs out there to go around, so one team out there gets clever and says "we don't have the great big - we'll need to find another way". If you can't beat them at their own game, then play a different game!
So then a team comes along, decides to go small. Suddenly this team starts to dominate, because every other team in the NBA has been built to dominate the inside with this huge, hulking big man who cannot move well, and so this new team (with it's small-ball style) runs rings around the opposition by creating mismatches with their speed and outside shooting.
Now every other team sees this, so every other team that doesn't have a great big starts going small too. Before you know it every team in the NBA starts going away from traditional bigs, and moving towards smaller and more mobile big men who can step out and hit the three.
Eventually you'll find all big men will start working on their perimeter game and athleticism so that they can fit in to today's NBA, and you're going to have a league flooded with stretch fours / fives who's greatest skills are outside shooting, passing and mobility (defending multiple positions). The position will get smaller. Traditional 7 foot bigs who rebound, protect the paint and score in the post will fade away, and become a rarity.
One day all of the best stretch fours will be on teams, and some team will come along and say "we can't beat them at their one game, we need to do something different". This team will go out and sign the biggest, strongest, angriest and most post-dominant big man they can find. Then they will go out and steamroll every team out there, because nobody is going to have a big man big enough or strong enough to defend said beastly man, and so this team will dominate everybody.
Now all the guys who can't get a great stretch big will say "[dang], I'm going to try this post up big man thing too" and they will find great success as well.
Before you know it the whole NBA will go back to huge 7 foot monsters again, and the traditional (as it will be at the time) stretch four will become useless, because they will be incapable of defending any of the dominate post up bigs around the league.
And then it will go full circle again.
Topic: How to Find Peace Watching Kelly Olynyk (Read 10663 times)