Missing Moose: Brad Stevens says Greg Monroe will figure it out soon after DNP-CD vs. Grizzlies

http://celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/02/26/missing-moose-brad-stevens-says-greg-monroe-will-figure-it-out-soon-after-dnp-cd-vs-grizzlies/



Missing Moose: Brad Stevens says Greg Monroe will figure it out soon after DNP-CD vs. Grizzlies



By: Jared Weiss | 13 hours ago



A prized signing a few weeks ago, Boston Celtics big Greg Monroe got a DNP-CD. But coach Brad Stevens says to hold your moose(s) on freaking out just yet.

It’s hard for a Moose to hide in plain sight. But as the clock ticked down and the Celtics closed out what was once a blowout for a 109-98 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, the team’s largest mammal was nowhere to be found.

Why didn’t Greg Monroe play Monday night?

The answer is as simple as it is complex.

“I went into the game with kind of two iterations of a game plan,” Brad Stevens said after the win. “When we went with (Daniel) Theis in that first stint, that team was – we were playing so well, that I just decided not to put him in in that first stint. And by the end, it’s – you know, I had planned on playing him late, but I didn’t want to just throw him in there with a minute left, or whatever the case may be.”

The crux of the call came when Boston went to its full second unit and put Daniel Theis at the five next to Marcus Morris, Semi Ojeleye, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart. They went on a 23-6 run starting in the last first quarter to blow the game open and Stevens just rode the wave.

Boston has been trying to figure out a seamless way to integrate Monroe into their offensive scheme. Most of his baskets have come on straight post-ups and some occasional pick-and-roll that has looked completely out of synch. He is still learning their defensive concepts, something he is going to have to get down to take playing time from a red-hot Theis.

“He’s still getting to know us; he’s still figuring this out,” Stevens said of Monroe. “We probably threw him to the wolves early and we’ll continue to play him. We have great confidence in him. It’s just a matter of I thought those other guys were playing so well in that first stint.”

“Brad is trying to work me in also,” Monroe told the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy after the game. “But he can’t just stop everything they had going just for me. I understand that.”

Stevens focused on getting him accustomed and thriving in their defensive scheme. It’s actually been one of the major knocks on Monroe’s game over the years. He was once maligned for his lack of defensive versatility when the pick-and-roll hedging and dropping schemes were en vogue earlier in the decade. He improved his performance in Milwaukee’s blitzing scheme. But Boston tends to either switch ball screens or ice them, two things he’s been having trouble with. Stevens is confident he’ll figure that out soon.

“I think he’s going to get more used to the way that we’re trying to play on the defensive end. I think our system is such that it accounts for individual strengths and he’s just going to have to figure out – and kind of be able to see each step of what we’re trying to accomplish against different actions. But he’s really smart. He’s going to figure it out.  It’s not – and then it just becomes, you know, we’ve got good players that are there with him, and there will be nights that are his and nights that aren’t, and it’s just part of being part of a good team.

“But I appreciate his approach a great deal and I think he’s really going to help us.”



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