Boston's Bench Not Getting to the Rim Against Pacers

[Vermont Green]

It is not just drives to the hoop (although that is a good place to start).  You can pick and ROLL (vs. pop) and get people cutting to the hoop and making the defense react.  You can also do off the ball picks and get people cutting back door.  And of course you can use picks to create switches and then post up mismatches.  These are the old fashioned fundamentals.  We just aren't doing them.  We just pass the ball around the perimeter or pick and drift to the 3 point line.

I like the Stevens's quote.  It is almost exactly what I said in an earlier post.  We just need work at it.  Looking for 3s is the path of least resistance.  We are predictable.  You can always go to that at the end of the shot clock but you need to mix it up.

[Spicoli]

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.

Gave you a tommy point for the bolded. I couldn't agree more. The Stevens era has produced a fantastic brand of defense, and it has also produced a very underwhelming brand of offense. We need to get someone in here to assist Stevens on the offensive side of the ball. This brand of offense that we're running is downright garbage.

[Boris Badenov]

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.

Gave you a tommy point for the bolded. I couldn't agree more. The Stevens era has produced a fantastic brand of defense, and it has also produced a very underwhelming brand of offense. We need to get someone in here to assist Stevens on the offensive side of the ball. This brand of offense that we're running is downright garbage.

Have we all forgotten what he did in 16-17? We were a top-10 offensive team with exactly one "plus" offensive talent. Amir, Horford, Bradley and Crowder is just a weak lineup, especially with Smart, KO and the still-undeveloped Brown and Rozier.

What's happening now is far more likely to be "bunch of new-ish guys playing together with uncertain roles" than to be "our coach can't construct a great offense."

[The Oracle]

The C's are shooting the 2nd most pull up shot attempts in the league (29.1 per game) at the 2nd worst EFG% 36.3%.

The C's are tied for 23rd in drives per game at (37.9) and 28th in FGA off of those drives (15.1).

The C's are also dead last in points scored off turnovers (13..

They need to find a way to attack the rim much more, stop shooting so many pull up jumpers and create some easy buckets off turnovers. 

[Chris22]

I would like to see us start Irving, Brown, Morris, Tatum, and Horford.

Hayward is not there yet.

[Celtics4ever]

I think we need Morris off the bench for some second unit scoring pop.   Folks that want to start him would cripple our bench.

[RodyTur10]

The C's are shooting the 2nd most pull up shot attempts in the league (29.1 per game) at the 2nd worst EFG% 36.3%.

The C's are tied for 23rd in drives per game at (37.9) and 28th in FGA off of those drives (15.1).

The C's are also dead last in points scored off turnovers (13..

They need to find a way to attack the rim much more, stop shooting so many pull up jumpers and create some easy buckets off turnovers.

This used to be our calling card. Brown, Rozier, Tatum and Smart (as intigator) thrive in transition offense. We need more easy buckets!

[RodyTur10]

I think we need Morris off the bench for some second unit scoring pop.   Folks that want to start him would cripple our bench.

Starting Morris doesn't make much sense to me either. Especially since the duo Morris/Horford is horrible defensively as your front court. I keep advocating to start Baynes, that will make things easier for Horford as well. Horford with freedom is much better than when he's on the court being the lone rim protector and prime rebounder.

[pearljammer10]

If the three's go in the offense is amazing. If they don't the offense is horrid.

This is the new NBA. You don't have to like it, but get used to it. It isn't going anywhere.