Stevens depleted the 2nd unit from ball-handlers to try and "fix" a starting unit that didn't need fixing. Furthermore he exacerbates it with not replacing those ball-handlers in the 2nd unit with others we have at our disposal and also by going small when we have bigs more than capable of stepping in.

So this isn't really about Bradley, though having him does help... this one is on Stevens' rotations.

take  your best defender out and replace avery with marcus coming off an 17game miss-he is not in top form yet,insert turner not nearly as good ,isaiah doesn't have bradley's added pressure on backcourt thats not even talking about his offensive game( points) and ability to run patterns and timing-if you give his touches to turner or crowder its a whole different ballgame-please correct me if i'm wrong

Quote from: BudweiserCeltic on January 07, 2016, 10:21:32 AM

Stevens depleted the 2nd unit from ball-handlers to try and "fix" a starting unit that didn't need fixing. Furthermore he exacerbates it with not replacing those ball-handlers in the 2nd unit with others we have at our disposal and also by going small when we have bigs more than capable of stepping in.

So this isn't really about Bradley, though having him does help... this one is on Stevens' rotations.

The starting lineup needed to change, Bradley is injured

Yes, but that could've been solved with the simple inclusion of Turner or Smart. Smart who was a starter prior to Bradley.

But Stevens decided to also bring in Olynyk for Sullinger.

Doing those two moves did this:

Hurt our starting unit's defense. Remove a lot of ball-handling and shooting from the 2nd unit.

Some of that could be tempered if Stevens didn't decide to go small with the 2nd unit, by doing so he's also worsening our 2nd unit's defense.

More than that, he isn't replacing the playmaking ability we had off the bench. Smart needs more ball-handlers with him and shot creators. Young/Hunter aren't that.

This was the perfect opportunity to try Rozier and Smart together.

So no, while the starters needed a small change because the injury, Stevens elected to go through a major shake-up in our rotation to try to fix some things that didn't need fixing.

You start Smart you pretty much keep the starting unit philosophy going. You elect to go with Turner/Olynyk you're trying to fix something beyond simply subbing for an injured player. The whole dynamic of the team and rotations changed.

I guess my main issue wasn't that there was a change, but Stevens missed the whole follow through.

Avery and IT are the only current players I feel confident about being Celtics after this rebuild is complete. I don't feel 100% about anybody, though Crowder and KO also have the feel of keepers with all the trade chips the C's have.

AB is difficult to replace and I see him continuing to grow on offence. Not the all star we need but a possible starter on a contending team.

Avery is longest tenured player on the team and while he doesn't take the most shots on the team, typically, nor is he the most offensively talented player on the team, the plays that the team runs for him are a staple of the offense (dribble handoffs, running him off screens, etc). 

Without Bradley out there, the team hasn't been able to fall back on those plays when the offense is stalling in the half-court.