Lee frustrated with playing time

Lee frustrated with playing time vs. Wizards

December 21, 2013, 5:30 pm



BOSTON — Players are always a little grumpy after losses, especially when they lose after having a big lead.

But Boston Celtics' wing Courtney Lee was more upset than usual ... and it was about more than just the game.

He was angry at head coach Brad Stevens' decision to not play him in the second half of Saturday's 106-99 loss to Washington - something that had not happened to Lee in a single game all season.

But as angry as he is about the matter, Lee said he will not make any trade demands.

"Nah. I been through worst (expletive) in life than basketball," he told CSNNE.com. "I don't give up on nothing that easy. It's never going to get to that point. No one man can make me want to walk away from a situation. Now if I get traded, I get traded. That's one thing. But I'll never ask for a trade."

Lee said he was given no explanation for why he didn't play in the second half of Saturday's loss.

"I can't ... I can't figure it out other than I missed a couple shots," said Lee who was 0-for-3 shooting in seven minutes, 40 seconds of court time. "That could be the only reason why he didn't play me."

Actually, the hot-shooting of Avery Bradley was very much a factor.

The 6-2 Bradley led all scorers with 26 points which Stevens acknowledged after the game, "cut into Courtney's opportunity in the second half."

Stevens added, "I'm sure it'll be back to more traditional ways (against Indiana on Sunday)."

That still may not be enough to appease Lee who believes there's a double standard going on in terms of Stevens' substitution pattern.

"I give credit to Avery," Lee said. "He had it going. So it made sense to leave him in while he's going. But what I'm saying in the same sense, there were games when I had it going and I came out of the game."

In Boston's 107-106 loss to Detroit on Wednesday, Lee had 10 points - all in the fourth quarter - while making all four of his shots from the field.

Trailing by three points at the time, Boston subbed him out for Avery Bradley with less than six minutes to play.

When Boston beat New York 90-86 on Dec. 13, Lee had 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting. He played 19 minutes, but only three came in the fourth quarter.

"Are you going to be consistent with what you do? If you're gonna stick to a time subbing pattern that you make before the game and not go off how the game's going? Or are you going to go off of how the game is going? I don't know."

Lee said he has talked with Stevens about the situation, but didn't sound overly optimistic that things will be resolved to his satisfaction.

"We talked," Lee acknowledged. "Of course it's always going to be everything said that I want to hear. But I mean, you see that's not the case when I'm out there."

The Celtics were involved in trade talks with the Houston Rockets that would have sent Lee, Brandon Bass and a future first-round pick to the Rockets for Omer Asik.

However, Houston has opted to keep Asik for now and re-integrate him (good luck with that mission!) into the lineup with the rest of his almost-former-but-still-current Rockets teammates

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KJ

Something like this was bound to happen although Lee may be over reacting to some degree.

Through 9 games in December Lee is averaging 15.3 MPG.  He is shooting .500 from the field and .462 from behind the arc  and .90 from the line.  Yesterday's game he only played 8 minutes

There is a legit argument to me made.  Lee has in fact been one of the most consistent players this year shooting the basketball but his minutes per game are a career low.

Yesterday AB had an exceptional  game so it is also easy to see why he logged 38 minutes.  Lee admitted as much in the interview.

A while back I posted about how the old Celtics managed to have a 5 man guard rotation.  That was feasible because the old Celtics actually played uptempo basketball.  This team has flirted with the concept but has not yet realized what can be achieved.  When you run all of the time you expend more energy and fatigue will set in but at the same time your deep rotation can make it possible to play at a faster pace for 48 minutes.

Brad's challenged is to understand how the the team can benefit from a deep rotation.

When Rondo comes back and Lee finds himself not only sharing two guard minutes with Bradley but also fighting for 2 guard minutes with Crawford things could get a little uncomfortable.  Lee has been the best guard shooting the ball all season and as much as we like Crawford he is only shooting .436 form the field.

The numbers do not lie so Stevens will need to consider this moving forward.

dboss

Dboss,

Excellent summation, particularly in terms of how a lot of problems can be remedied by more up-tempo ball (can produce easy points, can tire the opponent, can enhance the halfcourt game, if an all-out fast break isn't possible, can get into the half court set more quickly, can take advantage of depth without wearing individual guys out, etc.).  But a coach can't just snap his fingers and decree that the team will push the ball more.  The single strongest deterrent is their defensive rebounding and quick outletting.

Sam