Celtics' Bright Spots - Kelly Olynyk

http://www.sportsmedia101.com/bostonceltics/2014/04/15/boston-celtics-brightspots-from-the-2013-14-season-kelly-olynyk/



Boston Celtics’ Bright Spots from the 2013-14 Season: Kelly Olynyk
April 15th, 2014 at 9:39 AM
By Sean Melia



It's been a rough season for the Boston Celtics. They lost a lot of games. They lost a lot of close games. They showed some signs of regression throughout the season, and we here at Celtics101 tended to focus on the negative rather than the positive this season.

So we decided to turn over a new leaf and find some bright spots from this season. First on the list (in no particular order), is Kelly Olynk's growth and improvement.

Over the course of the season Olynyk earned more and more respect from Brad Stevens. His minutes went up steadily and he returned that faith with some solid games and some nice areas of improvement.

Olynyk has capped off this stretch run of his rookie season with some pretty solid games. He scored a career high 25 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers and backed that up with a 28 point outburst on Monday night against the Philadelphia 76ers. While the opponents might not be the most challenging and they probably looked more like the summer league opponents Olynyk burned in Orlando last June than an NBA team, it was nice to see Olynyk have some good scoring output.

At the end of the game in Philly on Monday the Celtics ran a little play on the wing for Olynyk: Chris Johnson set a pick and Rajon Rondo fed Olynyk who caught the ball, raised up, and nailed the jumper. After what felt like five minutes of looking at the replay, the refs decided it was a two pointer. None-the-less, the fact that Brad Stevens ran a play for Olynyk at the end of the game says something. Stevens has not stopped coaching all year, so when he calls a play, he wants it to succeed.

From January-April, Olynyk's Offensive Rating has been above 100, an impressive clip. His highest FG% and his TS% came in March and April. His FG% is above 50% in both months, and his TS% is above 60% for March and April, respectively. He has also hit 20 of his last 43 three-point attempts, a 47% clip. Not bad, especially when you consider his 29% 3FG% in February. Something has clicked with his shooting.

Where Olynyk needs to work this summer is defensively. With more minutes comes a higher Defensive Rating. March and April he had ratings of 107 and 111, respectively. Obviously, playing on a bad team means a player's Defensive Rating is going to be a little bit higher. However, as a power forward/center Olynyk is going to make himself even more valuable if he finds a way to score like he has the past two games while also stopping his opponent from getting points.

Olynyk's plus/minus has been on the plus side in the last three months of a season. A good sign not only for Olynyk but for Stevens, who might have found some better lineups for Olynyk to play in.

The Jared Sullinger – Kelly Olynyk combination is one that has been fun to watch all season, even dating back to pre-season, when both big men showed off their solid passing skills and chemistry on the floor.

The final bright spot here for Olynyk is his per 36 minutes stats (from NBA Reference): he would have averaged 15.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per 36 minutes this season. This is encouraging if Olynyk spends his summer getting a little bit stronger and comes back prepared to play more minutes while also not worrying about the "rookie wall."




bob
MY NOTE:  There's a blooper video on this site that is really funny.  I couldn't figure out how to copy-and-paste it here.

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Can there be any doubt that Kelly has made the most mercurial rise in the ranks of any Celtic this season.  Of course, the bad news is that he started so poorly that he had a low base from which to improve.  The the good news is that he has improved dramatically in several areas—and none of them represents "false improvement" that doesn't hold up in the long run.  His shooting (inside and out); his aggressiveness in getting to the rim; his willingness to run the floor; his passing ability that helps facilitate a motion offense.  These are all great contributions to a developing team.  His rebounding has improved by leaps and bounds (pun intended), as he's averaging nearly as many rebounds per minute as the two team leaders—Kris Humphries and Jared Sullinger.  Even Kelly's defense is improving, although at a slower rate because some of his defensive deficiencies are physical in nature.

But, when a player has as much basketball intelligence as Kelly does, don't ever count him out in any aspect of the game over the long haul.  Intelligence has been a key attribute of every great Celtics team of every Celtics era.  Welcome to the Celtics, Kelly.

Sam

Article on re-drafting 2013 draft has Olynyk going #5 instead of #13. But in retrospect it was a very weak draft:

http://www.therichest.com/sports/basketball-sports/re-drafting-the-top-10-players-from-the-2013-nba-draft/?utm_source=OT-US&utm_medium=Content-Distribution&utm_campaign=OT-US

Hi,
Just to emphasize the article. During the last game in Cleveland one of their schmucks-announcers said about KO: "...he'll be an average player at best..."
I'm not sure he'll get on the level of such players as Dirk, KG or Dunkan, but I'm pretty sure he can reach level of Bosh.
Also, I'd add Sully as a bright spot. He's not a rookie but showed a lot of skills and smarts and has huge room for improvement.

AK

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
Just to emphasize the article. During the last game in Cleveland one of their schmucks-announcers said about KO: "...he'll be an average player at best..."
I'm not sure he'll get on the level of such players as Dirk, KG or Dunkan, but I'm pretty sure he can reach level of Bosh.
Also, I'd add Sully as a bright spot. He's not a rookie but showed a lot of skills and smarts and has huge room for improvement.

AK

sinus,

I'd take #13 Kelly Olynyk over #4 Tristam Thompson anyday.


bob


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Bob,
I would add their last year's #1...

AK