Looks like this is going to be a process

[JBcat]

I’m not too worried about Hayward.  He is missing some explosion, has some rustiness, and the 3’s aren’t falling, but it will come.  You see signs like the step back J, and the come from behind block. His handle seems pretty good right now, and has done a nice job leading the break a few times.  His passing at the very least is going to help our offense.

You can’t really take too much from preseason though.  Other than a few minute stretch in game 2 Tatum has seemed a little off, and we know how good he is.

I am super excited about this team, and curious if Ainge makes any tweaks with trades during the season.

[tenn_smoothie]

Almost no preseason practices whatsoever. Three players easing themselves into NBA form coming back from injury. 3 games in 6 nights. 12+ MPG for scrubs like Wannamaker, Lemon,  Yabusele and Ojeleye. 5+ MPG for scrubs like Dozier, King, Roberson.

Of course this team looks out of it. But its preseason. Nothing here is important or means anything.

This lack of practice time pre-season is not good for this team.

I have always been bothered by Stevens lack of a leash on the offense. Laugh if you want, but he seems afraid to tell these guys not to shoot when he needs to. Celts current offense consists of one or two passes and up goes the first halfway open look from 3. Can Stevens not say to Smart and Morris and Rozier, and also Baynes now, that their job is not to jack up 25-footers ? That it hurts the team ? I sure hope the play of this team tightens up considerably.

Maybe the thinking is, let 'em play, don't ratchet up the intensity too soon. It's a long season. But our guys are not used to being the top dog. Hope it does not go to their heads and I sure hope they aren't worrying about "getting theirs."

[nickagneta]

Almost no preseason practices whatsoever. Three players easing themselves into NBA form coming back from injury. 3 games in 6 nights. 12+ MPG for scrubs like Wannamaker, Lemon,  Yabusele and Ojeleye. 5+ MPG for scrubs like Dozier, King, Roberson.

Of course this team looks out of it. But its preseason. Nothing here is important or means anything.

This lack of practice time pre-season is not good for this team.

I have always been bothered by Stevens lack of a leash on the offense. Laugh if you want, but he seems afraid to tell these guys not to shoot when he needs to. Celts current offense consists of one or two passes and up goes the first halfway open look from 3. Can Stevens not say to Smart and Morris and Rozier, and also Baynes now, that their job is not to jack up 25-footers ? That it hurts the team ? I sure hope the play of this team tightens up considerably.

Maybe the thinking is, let 'em play, don't ratchet up the intensity too soon. It's a long season. But our guys are not used to being the top dog. Hope it does not go to their heads and I sure hope they aren't worrying about "getting theirs."

I don't think this is a coaching thing as much as it's a "we know how good we are and are just going to loosen up our shots and individual moves before deciding to play team ball once the season starts" type of thing. Stevens kinda let them know that's not acceptable after the game. My guess is the next game is going to see a tighter rotation and crisper team play, sorta like what you see in the third preseason game of the NFL.

[Moranis]

Almost no preseason practices whatsoever. Three players easing themselves into NBA form coming back from injury. 3 games in 6 nights. 12+ MPG for scrubs like Wannamaker, Lemon,  Yabusele and Ojeleye. 5+ MPG for scrubs like Dozier, King, Roberson.

Of course this team looks out of it. But its preseason. Nothing here is important or means anything.

This lack of practice time pre-season is not good for this team.

I have always been bothered by Stevens lack of a leash on the offense. Laugh if you want, but he seems afraid to tell these guys not to shoot when he needs to. Celts current offense consists of one or two passes and up goes the first halfway open look from 3. Can Stevens not say to Smart and Morris and Rozier, and also Baynes now, that their job is not to jack up 25-footers ? That it hurts the team ? I sure hope the play of this team tightens up considerably.

Maybe the thinking is, let 'em play, don't ratchet up the intensity too soon. It's a long season. But our guys are not used to being the top dog. Hope it does not go to their heads and I sure hope they aren't worrying about "getting theirs."

I don't think this is a coaching thing as much as it's a "we know how good we are and are just going to loosen up our shots and individual moves before deciding to play team ball once the season starts" type of thing. Stevens kinda let them know that's not acceptable after the game. My guess is the next game is going to see a tighter rotation and crisper team play, sorta like what you see in the third preseason game of the NFL.

except we have years of Smart jacking up more than 4 3's a game at an all time awful hit rate.  Over 50% of Rozier's shots last year were 3 pointers (Smart was at 48.3%).  Nearly 2/3's of Semi's shots were 3 pointers.  Larkin was nearly 40%.  Morris was at just over 38%.  The 4 best rotation players from deep were Tatum, Horford, Irving, and Brown.  Only Theis, Baynes, and Monroe shot a smaller percentage of 3's than those 4 (I didn't count Bird since he wasn't a regular rotation type player). 

The problem isn't a mass of 3 pointers, it is a mass of 3 pointers from the wrong players. 

[nickagneta]

Almost no preseason practices whatsoever. Three players easing themselves into NBA form coming back from injury. 3 games in 6 nights. 12+ MPG for scrubs like Wannamaker, Lemon,  Yabusele and Ojeleye. 5+ MPG for scrubs like Dozier, King, Roberson.

Of course this team looks out of it. But its preseason. Nothing here is important or means anything.

This lack of practice time pre-season is not good for this team.

I have always been bothered by Stevens lack of a leash on the offense. Laugh if you want, but he seems afraid to tell these guys not to shoot when he needs to. Celts current offense consists of one or two passes and up goes the first halfway open look from 3. Can Stevens not say to Smart and Morris and Rozier, and also Baynes now, that their job is not to jack up 25-footers ? That it hurts the team ? I sure hope the play of this team tightens up considerably.

Maybe the thinking is, let 'em play, don't ratchet up the intensity too soon. It's a long season. But our guys are not used to being the top dog. Hope it does not go to their heads and I sure hope they aren't worrying about "getting theirs."

I don't think this is a coaching thing as much as it's a "we know how good we are and are just going to loosen up our shots and individual moves before deciding to play team ball once the season starts" type of thing. Stevens kinda let them know that's not acceptable after the game. My guess is the next game is going to see a tighter rotation and crisper team play, sorta like what you see in the third preseason game of the NFL.

except we have years of Smart jacking up more than 4 3's a game at an all time awful hit rate.  Over 50% of Rozier's shots last year were 3 pointers (Smart was at 48.3%).  Nearly 2/3's of Semi's shots were 3 pointers.  Larkin was nearly 40%.  Morris was at just over 38%.  The 4 best rotation players from deep were Tatum, Horford, Irving, and Brown.  Only Theis, Baynes, and Monroe shot a smaller percentage of 3's than those 4 (I didn't count Bird since he wasn't a regular rotation type player). 

The problem isn't a mass of 3 pointers, it is a mass of 3 pointers from the wrong players.

My response was more about tenn's last paragraph than anything to do about three point shots.

Stevens' philosophy on three pointers is that if they are in the flow of the offense or wide open looks, then players need to take them regardless of how good they are at shooting threes. That philosophy isn't going to change no matter how much you, I and others wish he wouldn't encourage bad three point shooters to shoot threes.