Brad Stevens will have a tricky coaching job this season

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/10/23/brad-stevens-will-have-tricky-coaching-job-this-season/fWgK0C6TWVqjNzj7Na5ZwO/story.html



Brad Stevens will have a tricky coaching job this season

It’s not that the Celtics coach has too little talent to work with — he probably has too much.





Celtics coach Brad Stevens will have difficult decisions to make on playing time.
JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2015



By Bob Ryan GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  OCTOBER 24, 2015




The Boston Celtics begin their 70th season Wednesday night against a onetime serious rival, the Philadelphia 76ers.

Now, I’ve been wishin’ and hopin’ and waitin’, and I am here to inform you that it’s pretty evident to me that Larry, Kevin, Robert, Paul, KG, and Ray — none of ’em — will be walking through that door. This is my way of saying that the 2016 NBA champion will NOT be the Boston Celtics. But I think you already knew that.


But that’s OK. We’ve certainly had more than our share of championship teams in this town. I’m not the greedy type. I can wait a little longer to haul out the Duck Boats. Anyway, there’s always the Patriots.

As far as basketball is concerned, I’ve been searching for the proper word to describe what I’m feeling about the 2015-16 Celtics, and what I’ve settled on is “curious.”

I’m very curious to see what will unfold.

I do not envy Brad Stevens. Danny Ainge has handed him a team that could have him second-guessing himself for maybe 40 out of every 48 minutes a night.

The ideal NBA team has a solid starting five and no more than a three-man rotation off the bench. One of the subs should be someone who can play two positions at a high level. Either that, or one of your starting five should fit that description. The others should have a clear strength, be it shooting, defending, or rebounding. A ninth guy capable of filling in when needed is nice, but not mandatory.

The others should know their place. They should be useful practice players and they should cheer loudly from the bench during the game. They should not expect any major playing time.

Stevens does not have such a team.

Time may prove me horribly wrong, but it appears to me that Brad Stevens has a complete roster of legit NBA players. There are no All-Stars, but they can all play this game at an NBA level. That may be giving James Young far too much benefit of the doubt, but if I’m wrong on him, they still have 11 useful players, and until and unless a few people get hurt, you don’t need 11, except to practice.

This kind of roster construction worries me. I don’t mean that Danny should not try to find as many quality players as he can, but the problem here is there happens to be far too much talent parity, if that makes sense. They’re all going to think they should be playing more, and they probably will be right.

Can they handle it? Can Stevens handle it? We shall see.

If the Celtics are going to be successful — and by that, I mean moving up from the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference to the fourth or fifth — there will have to be a universal dedication to a T-E-A-M mentality. And that may not be easy when the agents, the families, and the friends start telling each of these guys how he is being screwed out of playing time by the coach. I’m tellin’ ya, Brad Stevens is really going to earn his money with this group. There are going to be difficult nightly calls.

I like a lot of these players. I like what Ainge did by bringing in David Lee. The Celtics are getting Lee at a beneficial juncture in his career, when he will be attempting to reestablish himself as a big-time force in the league after being placed in a subsidiary role by the champion Warriors. Here is a man whose hustle and industriousness are legendary, and yet he may never play harder than he will this year, just because. That means he is an 18-and-10 guy waiting to explode.

You are in for a treat in Amir Johnson. He is the very definition of a young veteran, a 28-year-old power forward with 10 years of NBA experience. He has not played in spotlight cities (Detroit and Toronto), nor does he have a spotlight game, but he is a glue guy who cares about winning and who gives this team more grit and oomph than it has had the past few years. The Celtics are clearly better off for the presence of Messrs. Lee and Johnson.

Didn’t we all kind of develop a man crush on Jae Crowder last year? I know I did. Ridding themselves of the Rajon Rondo problem would have been good enough. Crowder proved to be a pleasant bonus. Ainge may even have found something useful in Jonas Jerebko.

Then, of course, there is the great tease known as Jared Sullinger. You can’t teach that innate rebounding instinct. You can’t ask for better hands or feet. But he fouls too much and has not been in sufficient shape to stay on the floor.

I would have liked to lock him in a room with Paul Silas, a onetime thuggy sort who decided in mid-career he wanted to be great and then lost 35 pounds in order to pursue his goal.

Does Sullinger really want to be great? Only he knows. One other thing: I fear he has gone 3-point crazy.

Tyler Zeller was a find. He’s not great, but he knows what he’s doing out there. Kelly Olynyk? He’s better than he thinks. How rare is that?

My dues for the Marcus Smart Fan Club are all paid up. He will only get better and better. I still think Avery Bradley would make an ideal third guard on a championship team, which is why my heart has been beating a little faster every time rookie R.J. Hunter does something good. Could he become the shooting guard this team desperately needs? In due time, of course.

Now, this is intriguing. Are the Celtics going to be the beneficiaries of Evan Turner’s obvious talent? It sure looked that way on many second-half occasions last season.

The X-factor of them all is Isaiah Thomas. He injected life into this team last season and was the primary reason for its second-half surge. The question is whether or not he will be content to be the same bench sparkplug he was last season. That remains the Stevens-Ainge plan. It may not be the Isaiah Thomas plan.

The Celtics won 40 games last year and should be better this season. But are they any better than the likes of Washington, Toronto, Milwaukee, or even Charlotte? I see Miami taking a big step forward, perhaps overtaking Chicago. And don’t forget that Atlanta won 60 last season. But the Hawks lost DeMarre Carroll to free agency and there may be something of a market correction.

The East is getting better. It’s not the equal of the West, but it is going to feature more good teams than in the past few years, and the Celtics will be one of them.

In Boston’s particular case, the issue will not be raw talent. It will be attitude.

Hey, Brad: good luck.



bob
MY NOTE:  Great article by Bob Ryan, one which I agree with totally.  No stars, but almost all legit NBA players (with the possible exception of the seemingly Teflon-coated James Young).  It's interesting to note the differences between Danny's approach and Sam Hinkie's.  Hinkie thinks the path the greatness is to be horrible for half a decade and then home-grow your stars, probably for another half a decade, and then maybe trade some for others.  So far, the 26ers suck and have sucked all along and they aren't looking so hot now neither.  In other words, Hinkie is about as far into his rebuild as Danny is with ours and Hinkie's team is as bad as ever.  Danny is growing some young'uns like Sully and Kelly and Smart, but he is also bringing in good, solid veteran players.  Not stars, but players that other GMs look at and see value.  Danny is thinking that a combination of some organic growth, cap space and a team that is appealing to free agents because they don't suck, they are on their way up, they are making some noise will get us into the late playoff rounds.  So far we have gotten better.  We went from 25 wins to 40 in a year.  The Sixers, since Hinkie took over in 2013, went from 19 wins to 18.  

Greek mythology claimed that Athena sprang, as an adult, from her father Zeus' head.  A charming albeit unappealing picture, but I don't believe it.  Sure, it can happen.




We cannot count on having another perfect garden of Eden where we draft Bird, have the #1 pick and then trade it for the #3 pick and a 7'0" center and have all of them go into the HOF.  That would be delusional.  We need some breaks, we need some players and we need someone who can pull them together.  We have the third of those 3.  Danny is assembling the buffet table for other GMs to peruse.


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In the for-what-it's-worth department, my view is the Celtics have been in the same boat for the past 3-4 years - having a roster of fairly good players with many who can make a good case for minutes. That is- back to the PP-KG latter days, the talent level has been fairly well distributed. Doc would not bench vets to allow enough playing time for newbies, but I think Brad is less constrained because he doesn't really have to demote anyone.
This year's team seems more talented than last year's - Lee is better than Crash, Zeller, Smart, and Olynyk should be better. Sully could be better. I'm hopeful for the rooks, but the same coaching dilemma is there: who gets the minutes? My hope is we will see at least 10 players and various combos on the court every night. Our ace is Brad. With a coach whose a bigger star than anyone on the roster, maybe egos can be checked as players are asked to go all-out every night - even if it's just for 5 minutes. Go Celtics! Hawk

An abundance of mediocrity would be fine, if teams were forced by rule, to play all players equal time. Then perhaps a 12 man roster of average players would be a sound way to put a championship team together. But as it stands now its the teams with the super stars that dominate the playing time and make their teams legitimate championship contenders. Right now Brad is making the most of the hand that Danny has dealt him . Hopefully Danny will be able to land a couple All Leaguers over the next 2 or 3 years so that the Celts can join the other elite teams in the hunt for a championship.

swish

Allotting playing time to this year's roster may be a concern for Stevens but it is much better than having to worry about not having any depth on your team. He has two full groups of at least competent NBA players (and maybe even more), but not having enough talent to have a chance to win each night is a much bigger headache for any coach.

I would hope that he has a group of guys who all want to play, but will also be well aware that each one of them can contribute positively to a winning situation which, of course, will assist every one of them in the future. Guys who will be both free agents and traded will earn more money and will be more accepted if they are not carrying a "selfish" label.

The other place where having this level of depth plays is with injuries over the course of a long season. If Smart goes down, Rozier steps in. If Lee goes down, we put Sully back in the starting lineup. If Zeller goes down, Kelly or Amir can fill in, without a huge loss in production in either the starting lineup or the bench. Kind of like how Brady dropped 30 points on the best defense in the league yesterday behind a makeshift o-line. A deep team can do that.

That doesn't work on a superstar-driven team, as we saw when the Thunder had almost Celtic Perry Jones filling in for Durant last year, and they missed the playoffs. Or with the Lakers, who were screwed after they lost Kobe and Randle early last season, and finished out with a bunch of guys no one had ever heard of.

The depth, combined with a statistically-minded coach like Stevens, also means that he might change units based on matchups. So if there is a team where their starting PF has done well against Lee, but can't guard Sully, he can change around the lineups to maximize our strengths and the opponent's weaknesses. Harder to do when you only have 8 real players on the team.

Should be a fun year.

-V

If being considered the best of the worst brings a fan basketball happiness, then perhaps this coming years Celtic team should fill the bill. While its true that a major injury to a super star can bring a painful end to a promising season I for one would rather go into the season with a team led by a couple of super stars rather than a team long on depth but lacking the super stars.

swish

BaronV wrote:The other place where having this level of depth plays is with injuries over the course of a long season.  If Smart goes down, Rozier steps in.  If Lee goes down, we put Sully back in the starting lineup.  If Zeller goes down, Kelly or Amir can fill in, without a huge loss in production in either the starting lineup or the bench.  Kind of like how Brady dropped 30 points on the best defense in the league yesterday behind a makeshift o-line.  A deep team can do that.  

That doesn't work on a superstar-driven team, as we saw when the Thunder had almost Celtic Perry Jones filling in for Durant last year, and they missed the playoffs.   Or with the Lakers, who were screwed after they lost Kobe and Randle early last season, and finished out with a bunch of guys no one had ever heard of.

The depth, combined with a statistically-minded coach like Stevens, also means that he might change units based on matchups.  So if there is a team where their starting PF has done well against Lee, but can't guard Sully, he can change around the lineups to maximize our strengths and the opponent's weaknesses.  Harder to do when you only have 8 real players on the team.

Should be a fun year.

-V

I agree with this, and I'll add one other aspect -- playing 10-deep also reduces injuries because players don't wear down as much over the course of the season. Guys who play tired and dinged up tend to get hurt more frequently. Playing lots of guys means everyone stays fresher.