Boston Celtics spend training camp building faster and more versatile offensive system

http://celticswire.com/2017/09/30/boston-celtics-spend-training-camp-building-faster-and-more-versatile-offensive-system/




Boston Celtics spend training camp building faster and more versatile offensive system


By: Jared Weiss | 46 minutes ago



Brad Stevens came on board with the Boston Celtics at a time where the NBA was undergoing a transition. Playing styles tend to be cyclical, with game plans adjusting to reactionary rule changes and enhancements in player development over generations. The transition Stevens helped usher in was to a five-out, positionless era. This meant more threes, faster pace and greater versatility.

But after years of building up his team’s pace, the Celtics plateaued at a pace of 99.32 last season, good for 12th in the league per NBA Stats. They were again middle of the pack in the playoffs, ranking 9th of 16 teams. Compared to the year before, where they ranked just behind the Golden State Warriors for third in the league in pace, it was clear the Celtics had taken their foot off the pedal as their forced turnovers declined – dropping from second in the NBA in forced turnovers per game in ’15-’16 to 17th in ’16-’17 — and their half-court offense dramatically improved.

But Stevens’ new team is built to run and will need to as they get acclimated to each other early in the year. Stevens wants to see the pace of the half-court offense improve as well, now that they have more ball handlers and more capability.

“I want us to play faster if we can keep the ball within our team and I think faster can be a number of things,” Stevens said. “For us, it’s pace is the word. Pace can be up the floor, but it can also be once you get into your half court, to be able to move and cut and play together.”

The growing pains are clear early, as they are still a bit discombobulated at training camp. They have a new point guard and a new secondary point forward, so the quarterbacks of their offense are learning how to work with their new targets.

“We’re throwing the ball all over the gym right now and making some plays that we’ll have to clean up,” said Stevens. “But as far as the intent of what we’re trying to do and the way the guys are playing and trying to play together and everything together, sharing the ball has been good.”

Marcus Smart, one of the veterans of this team surprisingly, is experiencing more of an adjustment than an overhaul this camp.

“It’s a lot of similarities. Brad wants to play a little bit faster this year,” Smart said. “With the sill set that we have on the court and then coming off the bench with certain guys, we definitely have the capability to do that. So, it’s going to be a unique (brand) of play from Brad this year.”

Boston’s ability to analyze the efficacy of their movement will be enhanced this year. They already have a series of metrics they can look to too analyze their speed, ball movement, and everything else. But with the league allowing wearables to be used in games this season, their analysis will continue to grow.

“(We have) All kinds of ways. Yeah, all kinds of ways. Speed of cuts and everything else. I heard a coach this summer say, ‘There aren’t wrong cuts. There are just soft or hard ones.’ I think at the end of the day we want to do everything with pace. We want to be high-motor.”

The concepts will not be dramatically different from years past. They will still have sets initiated by the primary ball handlers, although that list has grown with the Hayward signing and possible improvement from Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier. The area where Stevens sees an opportunity to advance is balancing all their offensive ideals with defensive versatility.

“Obviously, you want as many ball handlers as you can on the floor, but the versatility part is really good because it gives you a chance to a little bit more be able to switch defensively with a lot of guys at different positions on offense. But ultimately, we want the best ball handlers with the ball more often than not to initiate and then to make plays for each other.”

With the preseason opener 48 hours away, they will get their first chance to put it all to the test. With a shortened preseason this year of just four games, they will have to expedite that growth curve for everyone new, young and old.



bob


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Can't wait for the 48 hours to be over.

“But with the league allowing wearables to be used in games this season, their analysis will continue to grow.”
  First time I had heard about “wearables” and had no idea what it was referring to.  The article below shed some light on it for me.  

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/biometric-tracking-sports/522222/[img]https://

Pace, as defined by the NBA, is an absolutely useless stat when used, as the Auther has in the below quote, to predict success.

"But after years of building up his team’s pace, the Celtics plateaued at a pace of 99.32 last season, good for 12th in the league per NBA Stats. They were again middle of the pack in the playoffs, ranking 9th of 16 teams. Compared to the year before, where they ranked just behind the Golden State Warriors for third in the league in pace."

swish