“Celts are Selfish!? ”WEEI still thinks this stuff gets ratings. Who is this guy?

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CELTICS
Celtics are a selfish, unlikable team
By Tyler Devitte

14 hours ago


This might be the first Celtics column of the year where I didn’t spend a bunch of time perusing stats or “analytics” to support my thesis. I don’t really need a bunch of stats to relay my frustration.

The Boston Celtics remind me of the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.

You know, the back-to-back-to-back Western Conference champions and a team that was a Draymond Green suspension away from three straight NBA titles.


The Warriors coasted on their accomplishments heading into the playoffs of year No. 4 of their dynasty. The Boston Celtics? Boy, do they have some nerve to be acting the same way.

The loss to the OKC Thunder last week is the worst loss by a Boston team since I moved here in January 2019. The Thunder are a glorified G-League team with maybe 2-3 players from that game that would make the Celtics roster.

"We've got to play with more of a sense of urgency," Jaylen Brown said after the loss. "Tonight I feel like we didn't have the sense of urgency that we needed across the board. A team that has some young, talented players came ready to play. And we got beat."


Maybe Danny Ainge is at fault here with his endless references to Boston’s amount of regular season wins. Or nonsense like this: “We have a lot of guys that have been to the conference final three times. I think sometimes you don’t realize how hard winning is every night.”

And you wonder why we see a lack of urgency often with this team. If there is no fear of losing your job and being held accountable or respect for your opponent, you play inconsistently and in a maddening fashion.

"We've got to come and have some pride and play with some urgency," Brown continued last week after OKC’s upset victory in Boston. "I didn't think tonight we played with urgency, especially after a tough game against Charlotte two days where we got our ass kicked, everybody should've came ready to play with more urgency and we didn't for whatever reason."


The 2020-21 Celtics remind me of a selfish team that expects to be playing its best basketball come playoff time. Teams often reflect its leadership. In college basketball, it's almost always a reflection of the head coach. In the NBA, it’s more of a hybrid with players leading the way followed by the coach.

This team is led by… who? Jayson Tatum and Brad Stevens. Too passive. Good luck grilling your team when it needs it. That’s not in Tatum or Stevens’ makeup.

Kemba Walker? He’s been a cheerleader in 40% of the games this season.


Marcus Smart? The Celtics' longest tenured player feels like he’s worn out his welcome in the eyes of some in Boston.

Speaking of Smart, how the hell does he allow himself to get suspended for “threatening language” toward an official before AND after the embarrassing loss to the OKC Thunder?

Because Smart, like many other players on this roster, is selfish.


I’m probably going to killed for that one. The heart and soul of the team is selfish? Yep. I already knew that based on his unwillingness to change his shot selection over the years and it only has gotten worse.

Threatening language before AND after the game is not an example of the NBA officials becoming soft like I had witnessed Celtics fans claiming on social media. You guys will make an excuse for everything regarding this team. It’s pathetic.

This team needs its “heart and soul” for every possible game, especially after missing 21 games earlier this season. Smart got so caught up with what he perceived to be one-sided officiating either against him or his team that he needed to threaten an NBA official multiple times.


Don’t send me headlines of Kobe or Kevin Garnett getting suspended for similar reasons. You get a leash just for being those guys. Marcus Smart is the longest tenured Celtic and that type of garbage can’t be tolerated.

Jayson Tatum is coming off an incredible week where he scored 42 points per game en route to being named the Eastern Conference player of the week. Great! Boston needed an all-time individual offensive performance just to come back from 32 points down to beat the Spurs.

This season, Tatum and Jaylen Brown have improved their assist percentage -- an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor -- from 2019-20 to 2020-21. It’s still not nearly good enough for two players with the ball in their hands a ton.


But here is something concerning that I came across…

Usage rate is defined as “an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor.” To explain it like you are five, that means Tatum would get credit toward “usage” if he has a shot attempt, free throw attempt or a turnover on a given possession.

There are 49 players with a usage rate of 25% or more. Tatum is 16th with a rate of 29.8% while Jaylen Brown is 22nd at 29.0.


Of those 49 players, Tatum is 30th in assist percentage while Brown is 38th. More than half of the players below Brown are big men like Andre Drummond, Kristaps Porzingis and Anthony Davis.

Tatum and Brown are far too talented on offense as scorers to be impacting the game so little as passers. If Tatum and Brown are going to continue to have similar usage rates, they need to either A) increase their efficiency or B) create more assist opportunities for teammates.

If the 2020-21 Boston Celtics are going to make any noise in the playoffs, they need to pull their head out of their butts ASAP. I’ve been betting on that happening all season long due to the talent on paper. I’m no longer expecting them to “get this right.”

There could be some major changes in Boston this summer if they don’t. Let’s hope so.

Sounds like another reader of our site. Can't disagree with much of anything except the 5-year old reference. I'll write more about this in my Pre-Game for tonight's game.

db

dbrown4 wrote:Sounds like another reader of our site.  Can't disagree with much of anything except the 5-year old reference.  I'll write more about this in my Pre-Game for tonight's game.  

db

He is repeating what many have said all year long. Correct on lots of points and I disagree on a few.
It’s the title of the piece that is disturbing to me.
Nothing here makes them more unlikeable unless you already dislike them and selfishness is up to interpretation.
A loud yellow headline with little body to match its jelly back.

Do I agree with his premise that Smart is too much of a hot head?  Yeah, but his hot head also propels the team so you take the good with the bad.  Do I think he's selfish for not changing his shot selection over time?  His coach is telling him, and everybody else on the roster, if you have an open shot take the shot.  If he was wide open at the arc and didn't take the shot I'd pull him from the game if I was Brad.  His total fgas/game is down from last year and his assists/game are at a career high.  How is that selfish?

As far as the J's assists contributing to, or diluting, their usage rate we know they aren't there yet.  As pointed out by dbrown and ktron he's stating the obvious.  I blame Brad a bit for this, he should tell them to run without the ball more, and I blame Danny for not giving Brad more veteran floor generals.  Brad's trying to make lemonade out of a couple of players who aren't natural playmakers because Kemba isn't a floor general, PP is a rook and Tremont's a Hobbit.  If Evan Turner was playing do you think we'd be talking about the J's playmaking?  No, we wouldn't, and the reason why we wouldn't is because Turner would have the ball in his hands and not theirs.  Yes, I know about "Evan Turnover", but bigger picture he still had a healthy assist-to-turnover ratio which means he was doing more good as a playmaker than harm.  

Not that the Js are as bad as we make them out to be.  Sure, Tatum has been in an awful turnover spree for a while now but his season-to-date assist-to-turnover ratio is still a decent 1.63:1.  Jaylen Brown's is 1.26:1.  Also, a positive number.  My problem is that I want to have my offense run through players that have at least a 2.0:1 ratio, and that's neither of them.  Marcus Smart, the guy this author is saying is so selfish, has a 3.0:1 ratio.  Kemba Walker, the guy we run down as being "not a true point guard", still has a 2.38:1 ratio this season.  Pritchard's is 2.0:1.  So, we actually have 3 players who should be running the offense before Tatum and/or Brown it's just not happening because Kemba is in catch-and-shoot mode and Pritchard is a rook and is deferring to Tatum.

This joker who wrote this isn't the only one who knows how to use stats.


Bob


.

This is not different from the idiots who are now doing game talk on 98,5, NBC?TV, Boston. They have no idea about the game of basketball. One of them is a Hockey jerk, more than one are Patriots lovers, now all of a sudden they are experts on the Celtics. DJBean, idiot of all idiots, Phil Perry belongs on the Patriots only, Tom Giles, he is the bookie of the channel. This is what we have to deal with. Felger has an open mike now doing the late night show with Holley, and has rubbed off onto Holley who now is getting sickening to watch. So, the answer is.......I do not read them, I do not listen to them.

Everyone knows there are issues with this team, I am not looking to whitewash anything, However when I read articles like above, it makes me shut it all down. Grande/Max are critical at times, but at least you know they know what they are talking about.

This is open season on the Celtics. Every blogger, wannabe writer is making up stories just to try and get noticed. Eventually they will fall by the wayside. Celtic Pride????They have no idea what that term means. Waste of air and space as far as I am concerned.

Since I asked myself and everyone here, who is this guy? I decided to do some research on this ass clown Tyler Devitte.
Briefly, Up until 2019 he was a PA announcer for Jacksonville University down yonder in FLa. During that gig, He was also a “sidekick” on a Jacksonville morning radio sport show. He, says he was similar to a “Danette” on the Dan Patrick show.
He currently answers the phones for Glen Ordway during his midday show. Some of those types are called “producers” but a great many of them embellish the title and..well, answer the phone.
Bottom line is, the youngun is trying to make a name for himself with hopes of getting a full time gig someday in Beantown.
Unfortunately he has been influenced by the Ordway, Felger types that feel that they can make a name for themselves via controversy.
His poorly written commentary and tweets are indicative of his influence.
Where has all the substance gone?
Sports TV in Boston has sunken so far down its pathetic.
I saw the promo about Felger joining Holly on BST and to this day have not watched a second of it. Holly to me, is our last saving grace. If Felger is somehow rubbing off on him then thats pretty sad. I listen to Holly on XM and he still appears objective about the C’s but again he’s with a guy (Michael Smith) who’s a lot smarter than Felger and some of those other MOrons on NBC.
Abby is great on the sideline and of course they’re not using those folks right about now, but she’s pretty bad as a host. Perk knows the game and is wicked smart and does tell it like it is so at least there is some substance left on that channel.
Finally, if and when Mike leaves (which may be sooner than soon because of the Scalabrine pandemic) I’d vote for a Grande/Max simulcast.
Until then there’s always Jack and Coke.

I really don't understand all the handwringing and "time to blow it up" proclamations. In my mind there is a very obvious reason why the Celtics have had lulls and difficulties meeting expectations - health. Rarely have the Celtics best players all been healthy. Between Covid decimating the line-up, Kemba's slow return to form, Rob's knee, etc, etc, the Celtics best haven't really had a chance to prove what they are capable of. Hence, calls to blow it up, or suggestions that it might be time for Brad and/or Danny to step down, or the insinuation that Tatum is somehow not a winner seem short sighted. Nobody likes losing, but we haven't even had a chance to see what these guys can do when healthy long enough to figure out roles and develop chemistry.