Celtics need to let Morris continue feasting on seconds

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-let-morris-continue-feasting-193505580.html









Celtics need to let Morris continue feasting on seconds







A. Sherrod Blakely
NBC Sports Boston•Nov 19, 2017, 11:35 AM







It gets harder to find problematic areas when a team wins 15 straight, like the Boston Celtics have.
 
But there are some. Boston's inability to develop a consistent scoring threat when the second-unit players are on the floor hasn't cost them a game yet, but you can see it coming if they don't address this at some point.
 
Well, the answer to their second-unit struggles may be staring them right in the face – Marcus Morris.
 
While he does go back and forth as a starter, keeping him on the floor in the second quarter with the second unit makes sense for all involved.
 
Morris is a better scorer than many expected, but opportunities aren't as plentiful with the first group. Kyrie Irving and Al Horford are the top two options. The team's young wings, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, probably stack up slightly higher in the scoring pecking order than Morris.
 
So for him to get quality looks with the second unit in the second quarter not only helps the team offensively, but it keeps Morris even more engaged than he already is.
 
We saw that in Saturday's win over the Hawks.
 
Morris had 14 points, with 10 coming in the second quarter when he was surrounded primarily with players off the bench.
 
"We need Marcus quite a bit," said coach Brad Stevens. "We're still managing his minutes appropriately as he comes back."
 
Morris missed the first eight games of the season because of a sore left knee. Since his return, his minutes have been capped at around 25 or less, in addition to not playing back-to-back nights..


But as he continues to play a more significant role, look for his minutes -- and his role as a primary scorer in the second quarter -- to increase.
 
"He brings us scoring," Stevens said. "He brings us defense, he brings us toughness, and we really needed his scoring (against Atlanta), his ability to shoot the ball both off broken plays and off movement."
 
Here's a look at five other takeaways from Boston's 110-99 win at Atlanta to extend the team's winning streak to 15 in a row which is the fifth-longest streak in franchise history.

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JAYLEN BROWN'S EMERGENCE


The improvement in Jaylen Brown has been evident all season, but it's really spiked the last two games. The second-year wing player dropped 22 points on Golden State Thursday, then followed that up with a career-high 27 Saturday. Conventional wisdom tells you not to bank on Brown delivering like that on a consistent basis. But as a former No. 3 overall pick who works as hard as Brown does . . . would anyone be surprised if this becomes a new-norm when it comes to Brown?

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HORFORD STREAK CONTINUES
 
Early foul trouble and an overall lack of flow offensively had Al Horford looking at having his first game of the season with a negative plus/minus. At the half he was at -16. Then came the Celtics' second half surge which saw them turn a 16-point deficit in the first half into a double-digit victory. And Horford's plus/minus? For the game he stood at +2, keeping his streak alive of having a positive plus/minus in every game played this season.

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KYRIE IRVING
 
An efficient scoring Kyrie Irving is an NBA team's worst nightmare. One of the league's well-established scorers, Irving was just too much for the Atlanta Hawks to handle. And the end result was one of the most efficient scoring nights in Irving's career as he tallied a game-high 30 points on 10-for-12 shooting.

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TATUM'S SECOND-HALF SURGE
 
For the second straight game, Jayson Tatum did not begin playing his best basketball until the second half. Against the Hawks, Tatum scored all of his 14 points in the second half. And in Thursday's win over Golden State, 10 of his 12 points came in the second half. "For whatever reason he was pretty tentative (in the first half)," said Stevens. "He's a good player, so struggles aren't going to last long. He'll figure it out."

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SMART'S SHOOTING (SLIGHTLY) BETTER
 
There's plenty of room for improvement when it comes to Marcus Smart's shooting. Against the Hawks, he had 10 points on 3-for-8 shooting. Now the numbers won't wow you, but they are a huge step in the right direction in comparison to how he has been chucking up shots lately. In Boston's previous five games, Smart was a face-cringing 10-for-52 shooting, or 19.2 percent from the field. Even with all the impact he makes consistently with his defense and effort, that number has to continue to improve if Boston is able to continue along its winning ways.




bob
MY NOTE:  Having Morris coming off the bench to score also answers the question "Why isn't Baynes starting more?".



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I very much agree that the second unit has hit the wall as far as scoring goes, and also that it is currently a problem that has been masked by the streak but will surface as more of an issue on the nights when the first group does not score as well as normal.

The second group has people who can score, but Stevens so far has not figured out exactly which guys to place in this group.

The thought of keeping Morris with this group is very sound as he is more of a scorer than probably most of us anticipated.

The idea of keeping Larkin in this group should also get highly considered as he is also a scorer who has so far not really been given regular minutes to prove himself. Although he is not a premier defender or rebounder he is good enough in both areas to hang with bench players from other teams.

Theis has some scoring ability but seems to need more familiarity with the guys who are going to comprise the second group on a more regular basis. He may be able to attach himself to Larkin if they could play more regularly with each other.

I believe that there is no question that some guys play better with certain other guys and such a situation is not always specifically connected to one's complete talent level. Sometimes it is more about a mental "feel and comfort", and it is tough to describe by statistical analysis of any kind.

Coach Stevens will figure it all out in a short period of time.