Celtics Star Jayson Tatum Doesn’t Mind Coming Off Bench, Just Wants To Win

dboss wrote:Forget the sarcasm comment I made.  You were not being sarcastic.

I also posted a link that suggest that the starters will be the two we agree on plus Brown Tattum and Hayward.  So there is a source other than what you have read on the board.  I did not see the link before I had Brown in there as the 3rd definite starter.

As I stated, I would be interested in who you think would be the started at SG.  If not Brown who?

I do believe that we wiil see 2 to 3 different lineups.  I think the players that may be in that mix includes Tatum, Hayward, Baynes, Morris and maybe even Williams, Theis and of course Smart who has started for the team.

Great depth certainly provides a lot of options.

bobheckler wrote:I don't want to mention any names (Cowens, ahem) but some people on this board didn't want us to make the playoffs in Brad's 2nd year because they wanted a lottery pick with an almost infinitesimal shot at KAT.  I argued that year that, not only should you always play to win, playoff experience is something you have to go through in order to advance to the Championship round.  So we got swept that year but the experience, and the bad taste we had in our mouths from it, made us better the next year, and that made us even better for the year after that.  It is a progression of increasingly competitive milestones that have to be earned.  EVEN IF LeBron stayed in Cleveland and EVEN IF Kyrie and Hayward are out this coming playoffs too we would still be more formidable just because we are more playoff seasoned and battle hardened.

The most important muscle in a pro athlete's body is the 4" one between their ears.  GSW still has that over us.  EVEN IF we do match up well with them physically we will have to execute exceptionally well to negate their championship experience.  In my opinion, that experience is more impactful than how many All-Leaguers are on a team.  The 2003 Lakers were a super team too, remember?






bob


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bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

bobheckler wrote:I don't want to mention any names (Cowens, ahem) but some people on this board didn't want us to make the playoffs in Brad's 2nd year because they wanted a lottery pick with an almost infinitesimal shot at KAT.  I argued that year that, not only should you always play to win, playoff experience is something you have to go through in order to advance to the Championship round.  So we got swept that year but the experience, and the bad taste we had in our mouths from it, made us better the next year, and that made us even better for the year after that.  It is a progression of increasingly competitive milestones that have to be earned.  EVEN IF LeBron stayed in Cleveland and EVEN IF Kyrie and Hayward are out this coming playoffs too we would still be more formidable just because we are more playoff seasoned and battle hardened.

The most important muscle in a pro athlete's body is the 4" one between their ears.  GSW still has that over us.  EVEN IF we do match up well with them physically we will have to execute exceptionally well to negate their championship experience.  In my opinion, that experience is more impactful than how many All-Leaguers are on a team.  The 2003 Lakers were a super team too, remember?






bob


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Are you serious? Was that the team that IT came off the bench and gave us a spark? This team is completely masterfully rebuilt, that team had Sully, I think it had KO. That team had no Jaylen or Tatum or GH or Kyrie or Horford, but guess it was essential to win so that this core could get together years later....which player got valuable experience that year bob that is making him better NOW....???

Cow,

Players aren't the only ones that gain from playoff experience, coaches do too.  That year was Brad's first NBA playoff experience and, understandably, he made a lot of mistakes that he didn't make the next year.  While they fly under the radar a lot I'm sure Jay Larranagga and the assistant coaches improved as well.

IT and Jae Crowder were with us for that year and for two more years after that.  That playoff experience, ALL THREE YEARS of it, made them valuable trade chips in the Kyrie deal.  The new GM in Cleveland wanted proven playoff players, plus picks, for  Kyrie.  We got away with only giving up one pick because the value of the veterans included in the deal was proven over three playoff seasons, not just two.  IT blossomed into an MVP candidate from this experience, his playoffs in his last year was remarkable.  Would it have impressed Cleveland as much if we exited sooner because we were still lean on playoff experience?  The playoffs are a completely different beast from The regular season, and everybody knows it.

The odds are we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near KAT, which means our likely pick would only be a marginal improvement.  Our playoff performance in year 3 (year 1 we missed the playoffs completely) assuming we missed the playoffs in Year 2 also would be weak.  ZERO playoff experience for IT and only 81 playoff minutes for Crowder when he was with Dallas.  That's 2 of our starters with only 81 total playoff experience going into year 3 playoffs.  How do you think that would have gone?

And if our Year 3 playoff experience was weak because we missed the playoffs in years 1 AND 2, what happens to our odds of landing Al Horford?  His team eliminated us in Year 3, but we impressed him.  Suppose we didn't impress because we, including Brad, were playoff rookies?

We went into Year 3 playoffs with higher expectations precisely because we expected to do better than a first round exit like in year 2.  What would our expectations have been if that was our first playoffs?  Lower.

Besides, Minny has had KAT for years now, and Wiggins.  How far has that gotten them?


bob


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bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:I couldn’t give 2 shits about KAT or Wiggins, so if we didn’t get in playoffs that year, we wouldn’t have signed Horford, maybe he was kicking Sully’s ass that one year cause he wanted Sully’s job...??? That last comment was not serious, Al is not KG, not Cowens, not Parrish or McHale, he’s a nice glue guy that defends really well and is still in great shape, but I don’t know if he’s worth that contract. Anyone who is into analytics would probably agree with me.

We suckered Cavs in that deal, Jae Crowder and IT did nothing for them and sadly both former C’s have regressed since that trade. Maybe their your pg they just drafted can help them....it took Rozier a few years, but glad he’s stepped up.

Cow,

"I couldn’t give 2 shits about KAT or Wiggins"?  That is revisionist history.  You went on and on about how a 1.6% chance of moving up to #1 and drafting KAT was better than getting obliterated in the first round.  

Your comment about Horford makes me wonder what you're recreating with.  Who ever said he was any of those players?  Other than Anthony Davis, who in today's NBA is like them?  But as far as just being a glue guy and that metrics will bear you out, I disagree.  He is a 5X All-Star.  He wasn't voted in by a bunch of ballot-stuffing yahoo fans, like the ones who voted Kobe to start even though he tore his Achilles, he was added by 5 different All-Star coaching staffs who looked past his box scores and saw an elite game-changing player.  Hockey assists, the pass before the pass that creates the shot, is a metric coaches pay close attention to.  So is a big who is able to go to the perimeter on offense and defense.  Watch the next time we play Miami.  Horford will be outside and Whiteside will NOT want to leave the paint and, if he does, Horford will swing the ball around and then a pass will hit a cutter and Whiteside will be too far away to recover and protect the rim and that is the non - boxscore impact of All Horford.

IT and Jae have not done as well but the point is that Cleveland thought they would be good because they played well here, including getting to the playoffs consistently for three straight years.


bob


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dboss wrote:I mentioned the rebuild inside of the rebuild.  The current team is light years better but the collective experience derived from playing together is still in the early stages of development.

Ainge has completed the task of assembling a team that can win right now and well into the future.  Coach Stevens has gained valuable coaching experience along the way.

This team has little if any resemblance to the team 2 years ago.  The constant is Brad Stevens.  Marcus Smart is the longest tenured player on this team.  Imagine that!