Olynyk Fits Well in Boston’s Starting Rotation

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/prac-010516-Kelly-Olynyk-Fits-Well-Boston-starting-rotation








Posted: Jan 05, 2016



By Taylor C. Snow |  @Celtics
Celtics.com


January 5, 2016




WALTHAM, Mass. – Brad Stevens has been mixing and matching Boston’s starting rotation throughout the season, trying to find the perfect fivesome to send out for the opening tip.

He switched things up again Monday night in Brooklyn, giving Kelly Olynyk a spot start in place of Jared Sullinger, who had been struggling a bit since the start of December.

While Olynyk’s stat line (nine points and four rebounds) wasn’t overly impressive against the Nets, his presence alone was game-changing.

Given his deep range, Olynyk fits perfectly alongside players who like to attack the defense: guys like Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and potentially Avery Bradley when he returns from his hip injury.

“When you have guys who can shoot the ball the way Jae’s shooting the ball and Avery and Isaiah throughout the line, and now in the first group there’s a lot of spacing a lot of rhythm for those guys to create driving lanes,” Olynyk said following the C’s practice Tuesday afternoon. “And if [the opposition isn’t] going to help, then we’re going to get layups all day, and if they are going to help, then we can [kick out for] 3s, and that opens up the glass as well.”

Monday marked Olynyk’s third start of the season. He also started consecutive games during late December, in which he tallied 19 and 20 points respectively.

The 7-footer says opening the game between the lines has a much different feel from coming off the bench, but he embraces the opportunity to start when it’s given to him.

“When you come off the bench you’ve gotta go right away, you know, make some plays happen right away,” said Olynyk. “When you’re starting you can kind of ease into the game more, feel it out and pick and choose your spots because you know the opportunities will come throughout the course of the game.”

It took awhile for Olynyk to ease into Monday’s game, at least in the scoring column. His first points came just three and a half minutes before halftime. But he hit some key shots after that point, including a huge 3-pointer during the fourth quarter that gave Boston a 10-point lead over the Nets.

“We were really locked in,” Brad Stevens said Tuesday afternoon. “We were really engaged and we did have pretty good spacing."

Stevens believes Amir Johnson benefited most from that spacing last night. Given that Boston had so many 3-point threats on the floor at once, Brooklyn was forced to keep tabs on the perimeter.

That opened up opportunities inside for Johnson, and he capitalized with a 6-of-6 shooting performance from inside the paint. The 6-foot-9 forward said he greatly benefitted when Olynyk was on the floor alongside him.

“He provides offense, spreads the floor a lot, the guy is a great shooter and gives me a chance to roll,” Johnson said of Olynyk. “We have certain bigs that can spread the floor and shoot, and certain bigs that are good rollers, so it just makes the offense look better.”

The team definitely played at its best when those two were on the floor Monday night. Johnson led the game with a plus/minus rating of plus-13, and Olynyk was right behind him with a plus-12.

In the process, the C’s were able to hold Nets center Brook Lopez to 19 points and five rebounds, just two nights after he erupted against the C’s with 30 points and 13 boards.

The Celtics will have to face another daunting interior task Wednesday night when they host Andre Drummond and the Detroit Pistons.

Drummond has been in a league of his own this season, averaging an NBA-leading 16.0 rebounds per game, including 5.7 per night on the offensive glass. He tallied 22 points and 22 rebounds when the Pistons hosted the C’s on Dec. 26.

Based upon that performance, among others, the C’s may want to swap Sullinger back into the starting rotation to add another big body at Johnson’s side in an attempt to stifle Drummond.

“I will say that Sully and Amir have been statistically pretty good as far as when they’ve been on the court together, so I’ll continue to look at it, continue to look at how we played against Detroit and everything else and go from there,” said Stevens.

He sure is a man with a lot of frontcourt options at his disposal.

Decisions regarding the starting Boston’s starting lineup will likely be made just a couple of hours before tip-off Wednesday evening, but if Olynyk does get the call, he will be more than ready and he’ll certainly enhance that starting rotation’s ability to space the floor.




bob
MY NOTE:  We won.  Hard to argue with that.  We lost when we played the exact same team 2 days earlier with Sully starting.  Sully came off the bench last game and still grabbed 10 boards and scored no worse than he did when he started (took fewer fgas) in fewer minutes.  Our offense sucked when Sully was starting, we shot 45% last game.  Sometimes it isn't about who is better overall, it's about who performs better in certain situations and Sully might work better off the bench than Kelly does.  Tristan Thompson was underwhelming as a starting PF but became a total monster after LeBron came back and took his starting slot.  It isn't happening because he wants or expects to get his starting job back from LeBron.


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KO has to start because he is the only big on the team that has a reasonable chance of making 3 point shots. However that is the only reason why he should be starting as his defense still stinks as is his rebounding ability.

dboss

dboss wrote:KO has to start because he is the only big on the team that has a reasonable chance of making 3 point shots.  However that is the only reason why he should be starting as his defense still stinks as is his rebounding ability.

dboss

dboss,

I would agree with that for as long as Bradley is out. With Bradley out, and Turner starting in his place, Brad needs a player that can stretch the floor. Turner does not have Bradley's range. Bradley, on the other hand, does not have Turner's penetration abilities. Turner needs someone he can drive-and-kick to and Sully is not a good outside shooter and should be down in the blocks anyway. If he is, then the middle is clogged up. Kelly gives Turner a target, a bail out, another option. When Bradley returns, then you have that floor stretcher. What we won't have is inside presence and maybe that is the door re-opening for Sully again.



bob



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Good point about it is always not about who is better but how the unit functions when you are trying to decide who starts and who subs in.

One of the Cs problem this year is that none of their forwards and centers have separated himself from the rest of the group either positively or negatively. If such a thing had happened, playing time for the rest of the group would much more likely been much more decided by now.

A couple of reasons why this has not happened are: 1( each guy brings something positive to the team 2) no one in the group is really good enough to have taken complete hold of a true starting position which probably comes with 30-36 minutes of playing time each and every night, and 3) too many of the members of the group are still pretty young professional players (in their third of fourth year) who are just still too inexperienced to deliver the consistency to take over as a full time starter.

This has been a very regularly discussed topic at our Friday morning Celtics breakfast meetings almost all season long and the answer may very well be part #2 and part #3.

It is my belief that this issue is not going to likely solve itself this year at least until a guy who can score on a regular basis is added to the mix. I think that Cousins is the guy to take a chance on to fill the scorer's role in the front court. Trading for Cousins very likely means that at least one (maybe even two) forward currently on the team will head off to Sacremento.

I have read many posters comments about not wanting Cousins, but he also rebounds better, shoots threes better than any forward or center on the roster at this time and may even play as good on defense as the rest except maybe for Amir Johnson. He is only 25 and has a contract that pretty much matches Lee this year and then could be a bargain for the next two years.