What does this Celtics team need?

[bmac934]

Looking at what we have done against the upper echeleon in the NBA (Spurs, Raptors, Warriors, Cavs) we have competed against all of the above (except the Warriors because Jae Crowder was injured and we didnt have a wing to guard Durant).  And IMO with a healthy avery bradley last night we win the game against the Raptors. 

1. With that being said I think this Celtics team needs to start Smart and bring AB off the bench.  Let AB be more of an ISO scorer off the bench and let Smart take some of the pressure off IT.  Let IT take more catch and shoot jumpers and let him catch the defense more off guard by not always having the ball.  Also smart has obviously gotten better as a playmaker (both for others and himself). 

But even with that being said against the upper echeleon scoring has been a liability.  Some of you might think im crazy because we are putting up 100+ a night but when the elite teams play your looking at games reaching 130 ppg.  We go through spurts where scoring isnt an issue but then go through lulls where we cant score for the life of us.  You guys might say that this is an issue for every team and every team goes through those lulls, but were missing open shots when we hit those lulls.  Im not knocking al horford at all and im not giving up on him but so far i dont think hes been what we thought he would be (which is typical for a player on a new team).  And a lot of you might say we need a scoring wing but Jae Crowder for better and worse is part of the teams identity.  3 people off the table for myself are IT JC and MS.  For me the answer is a scoring 4 or 5. 

2. Jahlil Okafor is the answer (part of the reason im referring to him as "the answer" is because he is going to be such low cost & hes clearly available).  Jah has more potential then Nerlens so even if hes just a trade chip moving forward he addresses two needs, scoring and rebounding.  Yes im aware hes swiss cheese on defense but I'm sure brad can put him in situations where he can succeed.  Then on the other spectrem we have al horford to swap in (or even play together) in the event his d is too much of a liability.  For the past few months I've said I would take either Nerlens or Jah and lean towards Nerlens, but now I want Jah.

PS: against the Cavs Tyler Zellers scoring and MS playmaking was the difference maker.

[Moranis]

Aside from a franchise player, the same thing it needed last year in no particular order

Wing Scorer
Rebounding
Big man depth

[Ilikesports17]

Avery Bradley is terrible as an "iso scorer"

Jahlil Okafor is a bad rebounder

[slamtheking]

Aside from a franchise player, the same thing it needed last year in no particular order

Wing Scorer
Rebounding
Big man depth

yup, that covers it pretty succinctly

would like to cover the second two items at the same time ideally

[bmac934]

Ok maybe "iso scorer" wasnt the best terminology but letting him score 20 points a game off the bench was my point.  Jahlil is not a bad rebounder.

Its painful watching Jae average 12 ppg and put up 9 points last night but sliding him to the bench is not the answer.  He's part of our identity and part of the reason were the team we are.  Not many wings can do defensively what he does and if you ask anyone in the NBA perimeter d and IT is our identity.

[Rosco917]

IMO Okafor isn't the answer, first he's an old fashion back to the basket center, that doesn't fit into the style of play CBS and DA want to play. As an organization you must settle on a style of play that your team will be designed around. You can't be every style.

Okafor is a walking "minus" because of his "swiss cheese" defense. He struggles to get back on defense, his conditioning is suspect. He doesn't rebound very well. IMO I feel Okafor will slow the Celtic pace down to a crawl.

Noel runs the floor well, can defend 3 positions, he adds energy to the game on both ends, his playing pace is much faster than Okafor, he protects the rim, and is an improving offensive player. He's far from perfect, he'll never be a Cousins, but he's a better choice than Jah.

Secondly, we need a wing that can consistently score, add energy, and find his own shot on the second unit. Kind on like what Green has been doing for several games now.

 

[bmac934]

IMO Okafor isn't the answer, first he's an old fashion back to the basket center, that doesn't fit into the style of play CBS and DA want to play. As an organization you must settle on a style of play that your team will be designed around. You can't be every style.

Okafor is a walking "minus" because of his "swiss cheese" defense. He struggles to get back on defense, his conditioning is suspect. He doesn't rebound very well. IMO I feel Okafor will slow the Celtic pace down to a crawl.

Noel runs the floor well, can defend 3 positions, he adds energy to the game on both ends, his playing pace is much faster than Okafor, he protects the rim, and is an improving offensive player. He's far from perfect, he'll never be a Cousins, but he's a better choice than Jah.

Secondly, we need a wing that can consistently score, add energy, and find his own shot on the second unit. Kind on like what Green has been doing for several games now.

You just described Jared Sullinger last year.  Jared Sullinger who was on the floor in late game situations almost every game.  Except Okafor 100% has better conditioning then Sully idc what anyone says.  And conditioning was the reason DA didnt resign Sully.

If your referring to a green type of wing scorer off the bench yes I'm all for it.  But the lions share of celtics fans (even maybe including yourself) are referring to a franchise player type wing.

Why does everyone think Jah cant rebound?  If your just looking at stats obviously being in a three 7 foot center system is going to come with a shared workload.

[Ogaju]

this Celtic team needs a BIG, and we need to let Brown play more minutes. That is the only way you are going to find out what you have with him and if he needs to stay or go.

We also need to choose a strategy, win now or build for the future. Make the Net's picks real assets and not albatrosses around the team's strategy going forward.

I think the fact that we own the Net's picks has led to a somewhat confused strategy that creates complex multi-layer decision making for Danny. If we did not own the Net's picks we probably would have gone the tank route. With the Net's picks though we have this hybrid strategy of win now and build for future with the Net's picks. This strategy as enticing as it looks may be difficult to implement because our win now players are not going to be on team friendly deals for ever. What happens when IT, Bradley, Crowder, Smart, Brown, come into their free agency?

[bmac934]

this Celtic team needs a BIG, and we need to let Brown play more minutes. That is the only way you are going to find out what you have with him and if he needs to stay or go.

We also need to choose a strategy, win now or build for the future. Make the Net's picks real assets and not albatrosses around the team's strategy going forward.

I think the fact that we own the Net's picks has led to a somewhat confused strategy that creates complex multi-layer decision making for Danny. If we did not own the Net's picks we probably would have gone the tank route. With the Net's picks though we have this hybrid strategy of win now and build for future with the Net's picks. This strategy as enticing as it looks may be difficult to implement because our win now players are not going to be on team friendly deals for ever. What happens when IT, Bradley, Crowder, Smart, Brown, come into their free agency?

They hit free agency at pretty opportune times, one after another.  IT obviously gets max money and maybe were in the luxury tax for a couple of years but AH is getting nowhere near this much money in three years.  Crowder hits free agency the same year AH does and MS the year before that.  Contract wise it could definitley work.

[cltc5]

IT off the bench and smart to start or at least better starting. Rotation matchups from the coach at Pg/ she spot

Bring up zizic to see if that answers your big man issues for the moment and if not go after a big like Noel or okafor.

Trade crowder if he's gonna be a baby and open up time for JB.

For the love of god do something, anything with James shoulda taken Rodney hood young!

Light a fire under olynyk or sir his butt for Mickey

That's are immediate need.

Long term...start building around smart brown Avery horford and make some trades to upgrade then bring those stash guys over to fill in spots forn

[The Oracle]

Ok maybe "iso scorer" wasnt the best terminology but letting him score 20 points a game off the bench was my point.  Jahlil is not a bad rebounder.

Okafor is one of the worst rebounders in the entire league!  There is no debating the issue he is awful. 

This is one of the better measures I have found for rebounding "adjusted defensive rebound chance %" which can be found in the NBA's tracking data on NBA.com.

Okafor 65.5%
Olynyk 73.5%
Horford 70.9%
Jerebko 63.9%
Zeller 61.0%
Amir   60.9%

There are very few guys that rate out worse than Okafor it just so happens a few of them are Celtics.  Olynyk would be middle of the pack for Centers.

[PaulAllen]

1.  A Big
2. A Bench

[bmac934]

Ok maybe "iso scorer" wasnt the best terminology but letting him score 20 points a game off the bench was my point.  Jahlil is not a bad rebounder.

Okafor is one of the worst rebounders in the entire league!  There is no debating the issue he is awful. 

This is one of the better measures I have found for rebounding "adjusted defensive rebound chance %" which can be found in the NBA's tracking data on NBA.com.

Okafor 65.5%
Olynyk 73.5%
Horford 70.9%
Jerebko 63.9%
Zeller 61.0%
Amir   60.9%

There are very few guys that rate out worse than Okafor it just so happens a few of them are Celtics.  Olynyk would be middle of the pack for Centers.

Last year Chicago was the 2nd best rebounding team in the league led by Taj and Pau who were both good rebounders.

Pau Avg 11 RPG
Taj Avg 7 RPG
Noel Avg 8 RPG
Okafor Avg 7 RPG

Stats don't tell the whole story you have to look at the big picture.  There is always an arguement to be made when you look at stats alone.  Stevens has said 100 times Smart could score 0 points and be one of our biggest difference makers.

[Ilikesports17]

Ok maybe "iso scorer" wasnt the best terminology but letting him score 20 points a game off the bench was my point.  Jahlil is not a bad rebounder.

Its painful watching Jae average 12 ppg and put up 9 points last night but sliding him to the bench is not the answer.  He's part of our identity and part of the reason were the team we are.  Not many wings can do defensively what he does and if you ask anyone in the NBA perimeter d and IT is our identity.

just because a dude is big does not mean he is a good rebounder. see the helpful stats above. posted by The Oracle. FWIW I think Jahlil is still a nice buy-low candidate. He is a gifted post scorer and has the body to become a good rebounder and passable defender.

[bmac934]

Ok maybe "iso scorer" wasnt the best terminology but letting him score 20 points a game off the bench was my point.  Jahlil is not a bad rebounder.

Its painful watching Jae average 12 ppg and put up 9 points last night but sliding him to the bench is not the answer.  He's part of our identity and part of the reason were the team we are.  Not many wings can do defensively what he does and if you ask anyone in the NBA perimeter d and IT is our identity.

just because a dude is big does not mean he is a good rebounder. see the helpful stats above. posted by The Oracle. FWIW I think Jahlil is still a nice buy-low candidate. He is a gifted post scorer and has the body to become a good rebounder and passable defender.

See my above.  Lets also get it out of the way that the 6ers were the worst rebounding team in the league last year.  At the same time a paper bag could have gotten minutes on the 6ers last year.  With that in mind also because the 6ers only had 2 good players last year who played the same position defenses swarmed the paint making it that much more difficult.