Celtics 16/17 - biggest weaknesses?

[vgulab]

I was thinking about what the biggest weaknesses for this team are and what this team is missing

In my opinion last year biggest weaknesses are also this year weaknesses- shooting and rim protection.

The shooting problem wasn't really visible until Bradley got injured in the playoffs. IT and Avery are good shooters but if those guys got injured there wasn't good cover for them. Smart, Turner, Crowder weren't making enough outside shots to be called good shooters. Did we improve our shooting this year? Yes we have. We got excelent 3 point shooter in Green if Bradley is injured, we got Rozier who will get minutes in the rotation this year and it is a solid shooter, we expect Smart to make more shots, i think Brown is little bit better shooter than Turner and with Horford we got another streching big. So we improve our shooting a little bit but i'm satisfied with our shooters.

the rim protection problem is a little more complicated. Yes Horford isgood defender and solid shot blocker, we also have Amir who is also solid shot blocker. Maybe even Mickey will get minutes to prove that he can block shots but the BIGGEST problem in this roster are still our 7 footers. There are 2 7 footers in the roster and none of them is shot blocker. Olynyk and Zeller are bothe terrible shot blockers and also Jerebko is not a great one. So Amir and Horford( our best shotblockers) will play most of their minutes together so another shot blocker will do good for our team. It's my opinion that we still need another rim protector and that is why i've been saying that i like Noel on our team.

[otherdave]

rebounding will be a concern too

[PhoSita]

Mostly the same as before -- outside shooting, getting to the free throw line, individual scoring (i.e. ability to exploit individual matchups in the playoffs), defensive rebounding.

[dannyboy35]

I'd say scoring when they lock down IT.

[Moranis]

Same three as last year (in no particular order of importance)

1. No shot blockers or rim protectors
2. Mediocre at best rebounding
3. No take it to the hole/go to scorer type Wing (like Pierce was forever)


And these to a lesser extent (in no particular order of importance)

4. No interior/down on the block scorer
5. No great or consistent three point shooters
6. No great passers
7. Size in the backcourt
8. Lots of injury prone players

[jambr380]

I don't really care if we don't block any shots, just as long as our bigs continue to play excellent positional defense and we grab rebounds. KO and Amir are already quite good at this and Horford is elite in this category.

I would be much more concerned with the lack of rebounding from our bigs than their rim protection. I am actually fairly confident in our guard/wing rebounding ability, though.

[saltlover]

Same three as last year (in no particular order of importance)

1. No shot blockers or rim protectors
2. Mediocre at best rebounding
3. No take it to the hole/go to scorer type Wing (like Pierce was forever)


And these to a lesser extent (in no particular order of importance)

4. No interior/down on the block scorer
5. No great or consistent three point shooters
6. No great passers
7. Size in the backcourt
8. Lots of injury prone players

Did you know that Al Horford is top 80 all-time in block percentage, and that last year was one of his best two seasons in shot blocking?  Did you know that Amir Johnson is top 50?  Both players essentially had the same block rate as Marc Gasol last year (3.6%, with just rounding being the difference), who was 20th in the stat.  Did you know that only one team had two players on it with a better block rate (the Knicks, who for all their shot blocking were not a good team)?

No we don't have Whiteside, Jordan, or Gobert, but the two bigs who figure to play the most minutes are both very good shot blockers, both last year and for their careers.  Shot blocking and rim protection is not a weakness.

 

[Moranis]

Same three as last year (in no particular order of importance)

1. No shot blockers or rim protectors
2. Mediocre at best rebounding
3. No take it to the hole/go to scorer type Wing (like Pierce was forever)


And these to a lesser extent (in no particular order of importance)

4. No interior/down on the block scorer
5. No great or consistent three point shooters
6. No great passers
7. Size in the backcourt
8. Lots of injury prone players

Did you know that Al Horford is top 80 all-time in block percentage, and that last year was one of his best two seasons in shot blocking?  Did you know that Amir Johnson is top 50?  Both players essentially had the same block rate as Marc Gasol last year (3.6%, with just rounding being the difference), who was 20th in the stat.  Did you know that only one team had two players on it with a better block rate (the Knicks, who for all their shot blocking were not a good team)?

No we don't have Whiteside, Jordan, or Gobert, but the two bigs who figure to play the most minutes are both very good shot blockers, both last year and for their careers.  Shot blocking and rim protection is not a weakness.

Horford blocked 1.5 shots a game.  By far better than any Celtic, but also a long way away from the elite.  He will definitely improve Boston's shot blocking, but he won't fill the void.  He also gets most of his blocks on his man, and not help defending. 

And for the record, that 80th isn't exactly accurate because guys like Nerlens Noel don't show up on the list, yet Noel's block percentage is 4.5 which would put him between Josh Smith and Dwight Howard in 26th place (assuming other players aren't missing as well). 

To have any chance of making the yearly top 10 a player has to have at least 4 for BLK% (and some years it is over 4.5%).  Al Horford has never been above 3.6%. 

So yeah, Horford improves the shot blocking on the team, but it is still a glaring weakness.

[hpantazo]

Biggest weakness: No Lebron James, Steph Curry, or Kevin Durant on our roster. Other than that, we can hang with any team.

[KG Living Legend]

Biggest weakness: No Lebron James, Steph Curry, or Kevin Durant on our roster. Other than that, we can hang with any team.

 Exactly. No top ten player, other than that rock solid.

[max215]

Major issues from last year: interior defense (Amir is good but can't play much), shooting/spacing, scoring in the half court, and rebounding.

Interior defense: Solved. Horford is a very good rim protector, and between him and Amir, we can have a rim protector on the floor for 48 minutes.

Shooting/spacing: Helped. Horford offers shooting at the 5, which should do wonders for our spacing. IT will have a lot more room to work, making him even more deadly. Gerald Green might offer some additional shooting off the bench, and we can hope that Marcus will no longer be the worst three point shooter in history.

Scoring in the half court: Helped immensely. Horford is an outstanding passer, elite PnR finisher, elite screener, excellent post player, and excellent mid-range shooter. We finally have a second legit scoring threat. We won't have an elite half court offense, but we'll no longer be painful to watch.

Rebounding: ?. We lost our best rebounder, right? Technically, yes, but we did actually rebound better with Sully off the court. A similar phenomenon exists in Milwaukee, where Greg Monroe seems like a great rebounder, but the Bucks actually rebound better with him on the bench. Compound the loss of our "best" rebounder with the addition of a "poor" rebounder in Horford (some have suggested that Horford's declining rebounding numbers are due to the Hawks scheme and presence of Millsap), and one would think that rebounding will be a massive issue. I'm not sure we'll be as bad as some fear, but rebounding will likely be a weakness.

The one major weakness remaining seems to be rebounding, and we'll likely still have some problems scoring in crunch time, but we addressed a lot of our weaknesses.

[PhoSita]

I'm not worried about defense, except perhaps if the Celts face the Pacers or Cavs in the playoffs.  Not sure Crowder or Smart has the size to really check PG or LeBron.

My expectation is that the Celts will again be a top 5 defense.  Perhaps top 3 with the addition of Horford.

Problem will be the offense.  Can the team put together a top 10 offense without being particularly good at hitting threes or getting to the free throw line?

Last year their offensive ineptitude was covered up in large part by their ability to limit opponent scoring and gain an edge in possessions by forcing lots of turnovers.  Will be interesting to see if they continue that this season.

So long as they continue to force a lot of turnovers, their weakness on the defensive glass won't be as big an issue, since they'll still be doing a good job in the possession battle. 

But can they make the most of their offensive possessions in the half-court?

[Boris Badenov]

End of game and broken play offense. We still don't have that guy you can give the ball to with 5 seconds and have something good happen. That guy who strikes fear into hearts of his opponents.

(In the Big Three era we had two of those guys in Pierce and Allen. It's one difference but it means almost everything in terms of competing for a ring.)

[celticsclay]

pessimistic fans

[Evantime34]

Rebounding and outside shooting.

The C's have a chance to have the best defense in the league. Our defense should be better than last year with Horford and I expect the teams who finished ahead of us on defense to be worse on that end as well.

My worry is that there will be games that the C's can't buy a bucket and there defense won't be able to prop the team up because they give up offensive rebounds in back breaking situations. On the bright side, I think they could be ok on the glass if the wings/guards rebound at a high level.

Outside shooting shouldn't be as big an issue as last year. Replacing Sully's 3 point looks with Horford's should immediately improve over last year's percentage. Olynyk is likely to get more time this year than he ever has before, since he's one of our best 3 point shooters, KO attempting more 3's will help our percentages. There is also an argument to be made for Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart improving their percentages. Still, it makes me nervous that there will be games where teams dare the C's to beat them from the outside and the Celtics just can't hit enough shots.

Overall, I'm very high on this team, but I can see frustrating losses where they can't get key rebounds or make important 3 point shots.