I hope that this latest winning streak does not let Ainge forget about our rebounding needs

Some times winning can mask a team's weaknesses and I hope that Ainge has not forgotten that
our team is still pretty weak on the boards.

I believe that Avery Bradley is still our leading rebounder per game even though he has not
played for the last 15 games. A playoff team is not likely to have a 6'2" guard as its leading
rebounder and do well in the playoffs.

Certainly none of us know what Ainge may be thinking or know anything that he may be
close to doing as far as helping this year's team, but I will be disappointed if this glaring
need is not addressed by the 21st.

I am pretty certain that DA understands the rebounding needs.

dboss

don't we have Kelly?

cowens/oldschool wrote:don't we have Kelly?

Kelly was drafted to play 4, Danny said so on his draft day. He sometimes guards 3s and sometimes 5s but he was drafted as a 4.

Zeller, on the other hand, is a 5 and nothing but a 5. He makes Nenad Krstic look like Charles Atlas. If Zeller actually played 5 like a 5 should play maybe Kelly could play more minutes at the position he should be at, 4, even though that will take him away from the basket more on defense and, therefore, away from the rebounds.


bob


.

I agree with Bob. I have been hard on Kelly in the past , but he has improved his footwork immensely, is slowly getting his shooting touch back and is an excellent passer for a big. Scapegoating him for our rebounding woes is non-productive. Horford is no great shakes on the boards either. Zizic for Zeller might make sense.

Just for clarification here are the current rebounds per 36 min for the Celtics this year:

Zeller- 9.0
Mickey- 8.4
Amir- 8.2
Kelly- 7.7
Horford- 7.4
Jerebko- 7.3
Bradley- 7.1
Green- 6.4
Rozier- 6.2
Crowder- 6.0
Brown- 5.9
Smart- 4.5
IT- 2.8

I left Young and Jackson off the list due to little playing time.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2017_per_minute.html

looks to me like Horford and Crowder are the biggest under achievers when it comes to rebounding.

kdp,

I am not sure that I fully agree with your thought of Crowder being a rebounding underachiever this year due to him covering lots of guys who play mostly on the perimeter and he also spends a lot of time on the offensive perimeter as his outside shooting has improved so much this season.

However, with that said, he is also part of the rebounding problem as well. I believe that our entire team (except possibly Avery Bradley) does not do a very good job boxing out and driving towards rebounds. With just about every guy on the team as guilty as the next, I have to think that rebounding does not look to be an emphasis of the coaching staff for some reason.

There is no question in my mind that the Cs give up lots of rebounds to other teams who do not just completely overpower them like when a guy like Drummond bulldozes them for about 20 rebounds per game when we play the Pistons.

I wasn't attempting to imply that rebounding is not a problem, just that some of the usual suspects of where the problem lies, may not jive with the facts.

Zeller and Kelly were both called out as weak rebounders, when the facts are they two of the best we have on this team.


so yes, for me Crowder and especially Horford are more to blame and the numbers show it.