Boston's Bench Not Getting to the Rim Against Pacers

[Big333223]

I missed the game against the Pacers last night but something jumped out at me in the box score. Terry Rozier and Aron Baynes only hit 2 shots each, both 3's. Marcus Smart only had 1 made basket, also a 3.

This means that Marcus Morris was the only Celtic bench player to convert a 2-pointer last night.

[jambr380]

We pretty much only have one player on our team who ever takes the ball to the rim in an aggressive manner and that is Jaylen. Kyrie and [to some extent] Rozier get there, but are a bit too 'cute' at times.

Others like Tatum, Horford, and Morris have that ability, but they settle for outside shots far too often.

[gift]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

[mmmmm]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

It's not just the bench and it's not just this game.

The C's are near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories and two key ones are FTr (the ratio of FTA/FGA) in which we are ranked 29th and share of shots within 3 feet of the rim, in which we are ranked dead last.

Our offense really looks awful right now.   A lot of the problem is just plain ice-cold shooting (we are 24th in eFG and 26th in TS%) but there are also some pretty glaring systematic problems with our offense.

We don't run aggressive pick & rolls, we are very predictable about popping and our handlers never dive off the pick.  And don't get me started about our love of using the off-side of picks.   The latter drives me nuts as it again and again has our handler facing two defenders.

Part of me is hopeful that these things will fix themselves over time.   But part of me worries because, the fact is, outside of the Isaiah Thomas Experience (tm), our offense has mostly been pretty poor in the Brad Stevens era.   Don't get me wrong.  I think he's a brilliant coach overall and our elite defense most of those seasons is huge and a big reason why we've been in the playoffs every year since the first one.

But the offensive scheme he employs is ... not something that makes me excited.  And it isn't putting points on the board.    I think Danny & Brad should consider maybe bringing in an offensive guru as an assistant.

It's awesome that we are the #1 defense in the league.  But you don't win titles on one end of the court.  Almost every title team is usually ranked in the top 10 in both sides of the court.  And we are currently #27th on offense.

[Vermont Green]

I watched (on TV) a fair amount of the Indy game, my first real chance to see them play.  I don't like the reliance on the 3 and I was not really impressed with the overall play.

I know the math about how hitting 33% of 3s is equal to hitting 50% of 2s but I think this is missing some important factors.  Freethrows is a big one as discussed by others.  Another is the long rebounds leading to easier baskets on the other end.

We are playing with a starting line up of a PG, 3 wings, and a perimeter-style big.  The game plan and style of play is all wing play because we are playing mostly wings.  We are underachieving so far, no two ways about it.  I am not suggesting we go with all low post play but we need more emphasis on dribble penetration first (you can always kick it back out), pick and role sometimes (get some people cutting to the hoop vs pick and pop all the time), and yes, sometimes, post someone one up when you have an advantageous match-up.

[gift]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

It's not just the bench and it's not just this game.

The C's are near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories and two key ones are FTr (the ratio of FTA/FGA) in which we are ranked 29th and share of shots within 3 feet of the rim, in which we are ranked dead last.

Our offense really looks awful right now.   A lot of the problem is just plain ice-cold shooting (we are 24th in eFG and 26th in TS%) but there are also some pretty glaring systematic problems with our offense.

We don't run aggressive pick & rolls, we are very predictable about popping and our handlers never dive off the pick.  And don't get me started about our love of using the off-side of picks.   The latter drives me nuts as it again and again has our handler facing two defenders.

Part of me is hopeful that these things will fix themselves over time.   But part of me worries because, the fact is, outside of the Isaiah Thomas Experience (tm), our offense has mostly been pretty poor in the Brad Stevens era.   Don't get me wrong.  I think he's a brilliant coach overall and our elite defense most of those seasons is huge and a big reason why we've been in the playoffs every year since the first one.

But the offensive scheme he employs is ... not something that makes me excited.  And it isn't putting points on the board.    I think Danny & Brad should consider maybe bringing in an offensive guru as an assistant.

It's awesome that we are the #1 defense in the league.  But you don't win titles on one end of the court.  Almost every title team is usually ranked in the top 10 in both sides of the court.  And we are currently #27th on offense.

Good post. Agree completely about the aggressive pick and rolls. It's almost like the offense is devised for less capable players. Unfortunately, it may be capping the potential of the current roster.

[Redz]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

It's not just the bench and it's not just this game.

The C's are near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories and two key ones are FTr (the ratio of FTA/FGA) in which we are ranked 29th and share of shots within 3 feet of the rim, in which we are ranked dead last.

Our offense really looks awful right now.   A lot of the problem is just plain ice-cold shooting (we are 24th in eFG and 26th in TS%) but there are also some pretty glaring systematic problems with our offense.

We don't run aggressive pick & rolls, we are very predictable about popping and our handlers never dive off the pick.  And don't get me started about our love of using the off-side of picks.   The latter drives me nuts as it again and again has our handler facing two defenders.

Part of me is hopeful that these things will fix themselves over time.   But part of me worries because, the fact is, outside of the Isaiah Thomas Experience (tm), our offense has mostly been pretty poor in the Brad Stevens era.   Don't get me wrong.  I think he's a brilliant coach overall and our elite defense most of those seasons is huge and a big reason why we've been in the playoffs every year since the first one.

But the offensive scheme he employs is ... not something that makes me excited.  And it isn't putting points on the board.    I think Danny & Brad should consider maybe bringing in an offensive guru as an assistant.

It's awesome that we are the #1 defense in the league.  But you don't win titles on one end of the court.  Almost every title team is usually ranked in the top 10 in both sides of the court.  And we are currently #27th on offense.

Good post. Agree completely about the aggressive pick and rolls. It's almost like the offense is devised for less capable players. Unfortunately, it may be capping the potential of the current roster.

Baynes doesn't get to play all of the time for matchup reasons, but the offense seems to flow nicely when he's out there.  Of course he's 3 happy now too, so who knows.

[Sophomore]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

It's not just the bench and it's not just this game.

The C's are near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories and two key ones are FTr (the ratio of FTA/FGA) in which we are ranked 29th and share of shots within 3 feet of the rim, in which we are ranked dead last.

Our offense really looks awful right now.   A lot of the problem is just plain ice-cold shooting (we are 24th in eFG and 26th in TS%) but there are also some pretty glaring systematic problems with our offense.

We don't run aggressive pick & rolls, we are very predictable about popping and our handlers never dive off the pick.  And don't get me started about our love of using the off-side of picks.   The latter drives me nuts as it again and again has our handler facing two defenders.

Part of me is hopeful that these things will fix themselves over time.   But part of me worries because, the fact is, outside of the Isaiah Thomas Experience (tm), our offense has mostly been pretty poor in the Brad Stevens era.   Don't get me wrong.  I think he's a brilliant coach overall and our elite defense most of those seasons is huge and a big reason why we've been in the playoffs every year since the first one.

But the offensive scheme he employs is ... not something that makes me excited.  And it isn't putting points on the board.    I think Danny & Brad should consider maybe bringing in an offensive guru as an assistant.

It's awesome that we are the #1 defense in the league.  But you don't win titles on one end of the court.  Almost every title team is usually ranked in the top 10 in both sides of the court.  And we are currently #27th on offense.

Good post. Agree completely about the aggressive pick and rolls. It's almost like the offense is devised for less capable players. Unfortunately, it may be capping the potential of the current roster.

Agree with these points. I think a lot of people who are unhappy with all the 3s would be fine if the other 60%+ of the Celtics' shots more often terminated at the rim. The Cs shot 41% from 3 against the Pacers. That's excellent. The problem was that when they weren't shooting 3s they were taking a lot of long 2s. Net, it's ugly. Replace about 10 of those long 2s with backcuts and drives that result in a shot at the rim and we are looking at 110 points instead of 102 - a win.

[Surferdad]

It's not just the bench. Celtics shot only 9 FT for the game, made 6 of them. Oladipo alone made 8 FT on 8 FTA.

The threes having been coming around. But the modern game comes down to threes, layups and free throws. The Celtics are missing a good percentage of shots near the rim, not getting to the line and using too many possessions on bad two point shots.

It's not just the bench and it's not just this game.

The C's are near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories and two key ones are FTr (the ratio of FTA/FGA) in which we are ranked 29th and share of shots within 3 feet of the rim, in which we are ranked dead last.

Our offense really looks awful right now.   A lot of the problem is just plain ice-cold shooting (we are 24th in eFG and 26th in TS%) but there are also some pretty glaring systematic problems with our offense.

We don't run aggressive pick & rolls, we are very predictable about popping and our handlers never dive off the pick.  And don't get me started about our love of using the off-side of picks.   The latter drives me nuts as it again and again has our handler facing two defenders.

Part of me is hopeful that these things will fix themselves over time.   But part of me worries because, the fact is, outside of the Isaiah Thomas Experience (tm), our offense has mostly been pretty poor in the Brad Stevens era.   Don't get me wrong.  I think he's a brilliant coach overall and our elite defense most of those seasons is huge and a big reason why we've been in the playoffs every year since the first one.

But the offensive scheme he employs is ... not something that makes me excited.  And it isn't putting points on the board.    I think Danny & Brad should consider maybe bringing in an offensive guru as an assistant.

It's awesome that we are the #1 defense in the league.  But you don't win titles on one end of the court.  Almost every title team is usually ranked in the top 10 in both sides of the court.  And we are currently #27th on offense.

Good post. Agree completely about the aggressive pick and rolls. It's almost like the offense is devised for less capable players. Unfortunately, it may be capping the potential of the current roster.

Actually, the offense is designed for MORE capable players, i.e. the ones we thought we had, but apparently we now see can't hit shots very well.

Nothing is wrong with the offense.  Just hit shots.

[joepatsfan]

[/quote]
Actually, the offense is designed for MORE capable players, i.e. the ones we thought we had, but apparently we now see can't hit shots very well.

Nothing is wrong with the offense.  Just hit shots.
[/quote]

Agree. While the offense seems like it has to grind out possessions in order to score that's solely because they are missing the easy open look the natural offense gives them. They are getting good looks and shots they want, just not falling.

[apc]

@ByJayKing

Stevens wants the Celtics to get to the rim more: "Whether that’s by rolls or drives or cuts or whatever the case may be, we just have to continue to get there more. That’s been an issue for us for the last 18 months; prior to that, we were pretty good at that."

I was wondering if Stevens is happy with all those threes- as long as they are good looks.

[gift]

@ByJayKing

Stevens wants the Celtics to get to the rim more: "Whether that’s by rolls or drives or cuts or whatever the case may be, we just have to continue to get there more. That’s been an issue for us for the last 18 months; prior to that, we were pretty good at that."

I was wondering if Stevens is happy with all those threes- as long as they are good looks.

This is exactly what we've talked about in this thread. Good to hear it's in the plan to find ways to improve in this area. We see a couple of good cuts per game, but no reason with the depth we have that guys shouldn't be running crazy, hard cuts pretty much every half court possession. Jaylen Brown alone could feast off of these.

[mmmmm]

@ByJayKing

Stevens wants the Celtics to get to the rim more: "Whether that’s by rolls or drives or cuts or whatever the case may be, we just have to continue to get there more. That’s been an issue for us for the last 18 months; prior to that, we were pretty good at that."

I was wondering if Stevens is happy with all those threes- as long as they are good looks.

For the most part, the three point attempts HAVE been good looks. The overwhelming majority (88%) of our threes have been with no defender within 4 feet and further, over 54% have been with no defender within 6 feet.   The only problem with the threes is that we haven't been hitting them as well as we should.   We are only hitting those wide-open threes at a measly 36.8% clip.   While that's an okay rate for threes overall, it actually sucks for wide open shots.  We need to get that number over 40%.

The more serious problems for the offense are inside the arc.  As many have alluded to, we have almost surrendered any attempt at owning the rim.  I will repeat what I noted above:  We are DEAD LAST in share of shots within 3 feet of the rim.

That isn't a problem with cold shooting.  That's a problem of an offense that isn't even attempting shots at the rim.   Whether that is a problem with execution of the offense by the players or the design of the offense by the coaches is debatable.   But that it is a problem is not debatable.

This has to be driving Tommy insane.  No one preaches, "Go to the hoop and good things will happen!" more than he does.

[CelticSooner]

@ByJayKing

Stevens wants the Celtics to get to the rim more: "Whether that’s by rolls or drives or cuts or whatever the case may be, we just have to continue to get there more. That’s been an issue for us for the last 18 months; prior to that, we were pretty good at that."

I was wondering if Stevens is happy with all those threes- as long as they are good looks.

For the most part, the three point attempts HAVE been good looks. The overwhelming majority (88%) of our threes have been with no defender within 4 feet and further, over 54% have been with no defender within 6 feet.   The only problem with the threes is that we haven't been hitting them as well as we should.   We are only hitting those wide-open threes at a measly 36.8% clip.   While that's an okay rate for threes overall, it actually sucks for wide open shots.  We need to get that number over 40%.

The more serious problems for the offense are inside the arc.  As many have alluded to, we have almost surrendered any attempt at owning the rim.  I will repeat what I noted above:  We are DEAD LAST in share of shots within 3 feet of the rim.

That isn't a problem with cold shooting.  That's a problem of an offense that isn't even attempting shots at the rim.   Whether that is a problem with execution of the offense by the players or the design of the offense by the coaches is debatable.   But that it is a problem is not debatable.

This has to be driving Tommy insane.  No one preaches, "Go to the hoop and good things will happen!" more than he does.

Like you said outside of the IT All NBA season (9th) Stevens hasn't had an offense that ranked higher than 17th in offensive efficiency. There is way too much talent on this team to be so poor on that side of the ball. If guys are too afraid to draw contact and go to the basket then the offense better improve with the cutting, rolling, etc. At least they are seeing the error now rather than later I guess.

[GreenEnvy]

@ByJayKing

Stevens wants the Celtics to get to the rim more: "Whether that’s by rolls or drives or cuts or whatever the case may be, we just have to continue to get there more. That’s been an issue for us for the last 18 months; prior to that, we were pretty good at that."

I was wondering if Stevens is happy with all those threes- as long as they are good looks.

Sounds like Stevens wants IT back. The little guy sure took some heat-check threes, but he was usually looking to penetrate and make something happen at the rim.

This team does have good ball movement to get good looks but how many really look to take it to rim?

Kyrie is obviously the best, and lately we see him doing his dance moves only to take a step back. Same with Tatum. Horford likes to drive with the intention of kicking out, it seems. Hayward is starting to drive with more authority and looking to finish, that’s a positive sign. Everyone else, meh.