Summer Quandaries 8 - Best Chance for #18

http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2016/09/sq2016-8-best-chance-for-18.html

The Boston Celtics best chance for Banner #18 is for Isaiah Thomas to win the Sixth Man of the Year award! I've never posted an idea that I feel is so likely to draw ire, so I'd like to assure my 12 readers that I have sprayed my computer with flame retardant and am writing this column in nonflammable font, hence feel free to vehemently disagree with my premise and/or my reasoning.

Actually I started this article several weeks ago with the title, “No Going Back.” However, the more I thought about it, the logical conclusions were that the best way to climb the mountain was for the Celtics to, indeed, go back. Here's the beginning of that article:

No Going Back

The best value for Isaiah Thomas is spark plug for the second unit. The problem is that the ship has sailed on that one. To his full credit, upon arrival in Bean Town, Isaiah took the bit in his teeth and performed his way right onto the All Star team. He lobbied for the starter position, he lobbied for the All Star team, and he played his way into both. He has stated that he soon wants the Brink's truck backed up to his bank account. You can make a strong argument for Thomas being the best player on the team.

And yet . . .

The problem is that he is very nearly a stand-alone weapon on a team desiring to build a well-oiled machine based on passing and finding the open shot. Isaiah Thomas is also the most replaceable starter with the assets on hand. He is a defensive liability, and expects to be the very-well-paid starter far into the future. Finally, the pace and space ball sharing offense desired by Brad Stevens is not well served by a ball dominant player. In fact I thought the Celtics turned in an almost magical performance this past season with their two ball handlers, and leading assist men, firmly entrenched in the shoot-first category.

By the time I finished the last paragraph, it seemed obvious the Celtics could be the best version of themselves if Isaiah returned to his initial role as leader of the second unit. Unfortunately, beside the rather huge problem of him giving up his hard-won starting position, right now there is no replacement (much less a superior one.) Yet that better-fit is exactly what is needed.

The Celtics thrive with on-ball pressure—to drain the shot clock, to harry the passing lanes and opponent's offense, to slow ball movement and prevent passes arriving on-time and on-target, to thwart the “small ball” attacks growing ever more popular, and to lighten the load on a front court built for flexibility rather than to create a Great Wall of China. Isaiah is, at best, the 4th best defender among Boston's guards. He is vulnerable to being posted, is too easy to pass (and often shoot) over, and creates untenable mismatches when force to switch. He will likely never be a plus defender, and I say that with only admiration for the effort he puts into his defensive endeavors.

He is a consummate scorer but even that strength comes with its own weaknesses. His height, and his inclination, do not lend themselves to spotting, hitting, enabling, or assisting his teammates for easy and/or open shots. He has been far and away the highest assist player on these Celtics but I am left feeling that even this fact is a byproduct of having the ball in his hands almost all the time and having enough forays into the lane thwarted so that he is forced to relinquish the ball. To often this has led to a forced or hurried shot rather than an easy one.

For the Celtics to be all they can be, their lead guard (perhaps guards is a better option) needs to be unselfish and opportunistic (and by that I mean anticipating opportunities for all five on the floor). Strangely, the only guard on the team that I feel really looks for teammate opportunities, is R. J. Hunter who he lacks the ball security to control any sizable portion of the possessions, and may not even make the team. If that isn't depressing enough, the only other ball-handlers lack (or have lacked) consistent outside shooting efficiency and have not been all that sparkling in court awareness and spotting open (or even better, soon-to-be open) teammates. Recently both Smart and Rozier have shown encouraging signs of progress, but each has a long way to go. In fact the only ways that Marcus and Terry have reminded folks of Rajon Rondo is in their shooting. As for the other starting level guard, Avery Bradley has to list ball-handling and passing among his weakest assets.

I've painted a pretty dim picture, but I feel it is important to appropriately assess the teams needs, even if solutions are not available at the moment. If you don't know what you are looking for, how will you recognize it when you see it? In an ideal world, to me, Rozier and Smart would make giant strides, Thomas (and Bradley) would accept moving back to the second unit for the betterment of the team, and the rotation players would all make substantial progress in both court awareness and passing precision.

Do I think this will happen? No. Do I think Thomas will ever accept the loss of his starting role? No. Now if an equal solution presents itself, AND IF Danny and Brad can sell the 2nd team spark plug role as the 6th man super-sub in the vein of Hondo, Maxwell, and McHale—perhaps.

Just in case you have gathered the pitch but haven't decided to light it yet, let me add fuel to the fire. During the draft I kept dreaming of trading Isaiah to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns and their draft pick (Dunn)!
[Discuss on CG Forums!]

Gyso,

Thanks for posting Lee's column.

I agree with what he says.  I think IT would be better on the 2nd unit, but that isn't happening.  RJ is a very intelligent passer but he isn't going to get the minutes to make the difference.

We gained one of our major needs, a rim protector, with Horford but we lost a ball handler with Turner.  

bob
P.S. Worcester and I are in Esponsese, Portugal. We walked 21kms today and 23kms yesterday. 24kms tomorrow. It is beautiful here.

.

Bob,

I agree that IT would be a wicked good sixth man, but that ain't gonna happen.

Hey, say hi to Worcester!

Just one week in Europe and you go all metric on us? If your goal is to walk kilometers instead of miles, do you take shorter steps?

Cheers,

gyso

gyso wrote:Bob,

I agree that IT would be a wicked good sixth man, but that ain't gonna happen.

Hey, say hi to Worcester!

Just one week in Europe and you go all metric on us?  If your goal is to walk kilometers instead of miles, do you take shorter steps?

Cheers,

gyso

Gyso,

Will do. Worcester is packing right now to start our day. I'm in rhe lobby loitering. 24 kms today.

It's just easier to go metric than translating everything back-and-forth. We should have gone metric ourselves a generation ago but were too stubbornly curmudgeon to accept change.


bob


.

That's about 15 miles, I think. You guys are getting in some serious hoofin'!

IT needs to stay in the first unit until we improve our scoring, hopefully by finding a serious outside shooter.  Also need Rozier or Jackson to be ready to take over at the point.  Rozier is probably close.

Personally, I don't see IT ever becoming a second unit guy again.  At least not happily.

The team as it stands now is Horford's team. He is the only true star we have. IT is close and of course, he was an all star last year.  I don't think IT will be here next year and may not finish the season. A big trade happens and Danny can get himself a pass first pg he will do it. Dunn was the smart pick for our needs but Brown will be the better overall player, and very soon. Rozier is tough, and with his head for the game, will make a good second unit pg until Jackson is good enough to replace him. Our roster is filled with very good, very young, role players, every one of which, can be improved upon.



Our coach has a vision for how he wants to play and I see no reason for Danny not to keep tweaking the roster to get the right components. That is not this current team. This is not the roster that will finish the season but even if it were, it should definitely make the ECF's with a legit shot at the Finals. At that point "anything is possible".

We have a good shot at the top pick next year because we have Brooklyn's pick. This is going to be a big time fun season for Celtics fans. This team will play very well and will only get better with more experience and those roster tweaks we all want to see. Plus, next year we get Yabusele and Zizic with one more year of International experience under there belts. I'd have preferred they both make the roster this season but I have no shot at Executive of the Year LOL

17goingon18

The guy who wrote this article said he wanted to trade IT for Karl Anthony-Towns and Dunn? Ummm, what else was in that package? Minny isn't trading Towns for ANYBODY right now. 

He also said Maxwell was a super-sub in the vein of Hondo and McHale? Max was a starter here from his 2nd season until his last. McHale only became a starter when Max was traded for Walton.

Ram wrote:The guy who wrote this article said he wanted to trade IT for Karl Anthony-Towns and Dunn? Ummm, what else was in that package? Minny isn't trading Towns for ANYBODY right now. 

He also said Maxwell was a super-sub in the vein of Hondo and McHale? Max was a starter here from his 2nd season until his last. McHale only became a starter when Max was traded for Walton.

Ram,

You are quite correct.  McHale actually won the 6th man award the two years prior to becoming a full time starter.  He played so well filling in for an injured Maxwell that the Celtics were able to make the decision to deal Max in order to get Walton.

The writer is a guy that goes by the pen name Lee Lauderdale.  He writes a lot of stuff I'll call 'off the cuff' to be polite.  Research and fact are not his strong suits, it's more an opinion thing.  His stuff often ends up getting posted here as a different point of view to consider.  I'm not sure what fantasy land he was in suggesting a draft day deal for Towns.  Lauderdale does say it was something he kept dreaming about.  I would suggest he should go back to dreaming about women and cars like the rest of us (guys).

Regards

NYCelt wrote:

Ram wrote:The guy who wrote this article said he wanted to trade IT for Karl Anthony-Towns and Dunn? Ummm, what else was in that package? Minny isn't trading Towns for ANYBODY right now. 

He also said Maxwell was a super-sub in the vein of Hondo and McHale? Max was a starter here from his 2nd season until his last. McHale only became a starter when Max was traded for Walton.

Ram,

You are quite correct.  McHale actually won the 6th man award the two years prior to becoming a full time starter.  He played so well filling in for an injured Maxwell that the Celtics were able to make the decision to deal Max in order to get Walton.

The writer is a guy that goes by the pen name Lee Lauderdale.  He writes a lot of stuff I'll call 'off the cuff' to be polite.  Research and fact are not his strong suits, it's more an opinion thing.  His stuff often ends up getting posted here as a different point of view to consider.  I'm not sure what fantasy land he was in suggesting a draft day deal for Towns.  Lauderdale does say it was something he kept dreaming about.  I would suggest he should go back to dreaming about women and cars like the rest of us (guys).

Regards

Haha, very true. 

He makes some very good points about IT being best served as a 6th man. If James Young had improved the way we had hoped by the end of this past season, or if Ainge had drafted someone like Dekker or Hollis-Jefferson instead of Rozier in 2015 than perhaps there would have been no need to pick Jaylen Brown. The C's could have gone with Dunn, paired him with Bradley as starters and made Thomas and Smart the backups. It would have been a backcourt where minutes were roughly shared equally among all 4 guys but Thomas would bring the scoring spark to a 2nd unit that definitely needs it. 

But yeah that author definitely should know Max was never a 6th man.