One Celt is Quietly Challenging for Team's Top 3P%

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/prac-033016-one-celtic-is-quietly-challenging-for-teams-top-3p-percentage



One Celt is Quietly Challenging for Team's Top 3P%



Posted: Mar 30, 2016


By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com


March 30, 2016



PORTLAND, Ore. – Quick – name the top two 3-point shooters on the Boston Celtics.

Kelly Olynyk was likely one of your guesses, which is correct, but what about the other guy?

Did you guess Isaiah Thomas? Maybe Avery Bradley? How about Jae Crowder?

Wrong, wrong and wrong. Try again.

Boston’s other 3-point marksman is none other than Jonas Jerebko.

Jerebko has gone neck-and-neck with Olynyk all season long for the title of top 3-point shooter on the Celtics. His mark of 40.6 percent from long distance narrowly trails that of Olynyk, who owns a team-best mark of 40.8 percent.

This is no aberration for Jerebko, as many Celtics fans know. He has been doing this – exactly this – since he came to Boston at last year’s trade deadline.

The versatile big man shot 40.6 percent from long distance during 29 games with Boston last season and has replicated that reliability with the exact same percentage this season. The only difference is that he’s taking an average of 1.4 treys per game during 2015-16 as compared to an average of 2.2 per game last season.

One of the reasons for Jerebko’s remarkable consistency has been his comfort level in Boston. He has said since joining the Celtics that the team’s offensive system lends itself well to his abilities.

“It’s one of the reasons I came back,” Jerebko said ahead of Wednesday’s practice at the University of Portland. “I like coach’s system and I like how we play. It’s a lot more fun coming back here and knowing what you’re getting into and the system and all of that.”

The system, which relies heavily on players attacking the lane, consistently delivers open looks from long distance to the 6-foot-10 Swede.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can penetrate, get in the paint, find open players and he’s one of those guys that they seem to leave open and we find him and he knocks them down,” said Isaiah Thomas.

All of those makes, along with the other tools Jerebko brings to the table, have been critical for the Celtics this season. In fact, Boston might not be where it is today without him.

Although his numbers are modest, and although he is at the end of Boston’s nightly rotation, Jerebko has been one of the most important players in the C’s lineup over the past two months. He has filled in admirably when his teammates have gone down.

Olynyk missed 12 games from Feb. 19 to March 15, which left a gap in the team’s frontcourt. Jae Crowder, who may return to the lineup Thursday night against Portland, has missed Boston’s last eight games with a right ankle sprain, which has limited the team’s ability to go small.

Boston relied heavily on Jerebko as it navigated through both injuries. He stepped in and delivered solid all around play, including that consistent 3-point shot. Outside of the three games he missed from March 16-20, he was the key player eating up Olynyk’s and Crowder’s empty minutes. Without him, Boston’s offense simply wouldn’t have gotten by.

“I think you saw when both Jonas and Jae weren’t available, and/or Kelly and Jae weren’t available, that was a tough stretch for us because it limited our amount of deep shooting at the 4,” said Brad Stevens. “That just really makes it tough.”

Just imagine if all three of them were out.

Fortunately for Boston, it appears that the opposite may soon be the case. The team’s top 3-point shooter, Olynyk, has been back since March 16. Jerebko has been active for all but three games this season. Crowder, meanwhile, appears poised to return to the lineup either Thursday or Friday.

The Celtics are nearly back to full strength, and that means the offense should soon return to the level it was playing at before the All-Star break. Jerebko, who’s flying under the radar with his stellar 3-point shooting, is a big part of that.



bob
MY NOTE:  We have an inside-out offense.  Our bigs (Kelly, Jonas, Zeller and Sully) are threats from the outside, only Amir isn't.  Our guards are more dangerous inside.  IT and Turner penetrate, Smart posts up (not enough for my liking, but he does it), only Bradley prefers the mid-to-long range shot.  What will be interesting to see after this year (or maybe even another year after that) is whether Danny will have just upgraded the quality of our shooters but kept the same strategy, or replaced them with more traditional roles, with the guards bombing away from outside and the bigs pounding it in from the paint.  The roster has been pretty stable this year but that doesn't necessarily mean that this is how Danny and Brad want the team to look.  Given another year, with cap space and draft picks and all the stuff we know about for Danny to play with, it will be interesting to see if the look we see is the look we are going to get until the next coach/GM comes in and wants to try it differently or if this style is also transitory and part of the rebuild.

In the meanwhile, congratulations are due to Jonas Jerebko (I refuse to call him "the Swedish Larry Bird").  After what was one of the worst shooting slumps I've ever seen, only recently overtaken by Marcus Smart, he has been a real dead-eye shooter.  Brad never lost confidence in him, never told him to stop shooting.  Unfortunately that can bite you in the ass sometimes too (see Smart, Marcus).

We need better shooting guards or, at least, we need our current crop of guards to shoot better.  If they don't then it's hard to send our bigs down low because they won't respect our guards' shooting and will pack the paint.  The reason why Smart can post up is because their bigs can't leave Jonas and Kelly and Sully and Zeller alone from 15' and out and that opens up the blocks for Smart.


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This stat relating to Jerebko's three point shooting is just one more reason to sign this guy to his $5M contract (club option) as soon as the paper can be put beneath a pen in July.

I might also think of trying to sign him for a longer term contract as he brings many things to the Cs besides just good 3 point shooting. He does not complain about not starting, he hustles ALL the time, he can guard two positions, he has improved his ability to drive and finish at the rim, he fights for rebounds, etc, etc. I would think that he could be a solid contributor for four or so years. A four year deal at 25M would be pretty reasonable.

Jerebko has made a nice contribution in limited minutes  although 1.4 3 point shot attempts does not exactly pop off the page.

He still seems a bit awkward to me. His handle is awkward and off balance as is his shot. He has that strange hitch in his shot.  I call it the Jack Sikma hitch.  As far as picking up or extending him a contract, he is just as likely to be playing somewhere else next year.  He is NOT a core player or keeper.  With all the draft picks his $5 million contract may better be used on someone else.  

I suppose that when you have a roster filled with guys that cannot shoot straight a guy like Jerebko, in spite of his obvious limitations appears as a bright light.

dboss

dboss,

The financial cost of all the draft picks will be solidified on the night they get drafted. There will be no surprises.

I would find it hard to believe that any of the draft picks this June will be able to contribute more than Jerebko will in 2016-17 with the Nets pick possibly being the only one. But, even a top 5 or 6 pick may still not be ready to start right away on a good team.

I will agree that Jerebko is not always the smoothest looking player, but he does many, many things quite well for reserve player coming off the bench. Sometimes, "core" players are not just the guys who start games.