Team USA failures are a bad deja vu, and possible preview, for Boston Celtics

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/09/team-usa-failures-are-a-bad-deja-vu-and-possible-preview-for-boston-celtics-john-karalis.html




Team USA failures are a bad deja vu, and possible preview, for Boston Celtics


Posted Sep 12, 5:19 PM






MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 21: Gregg Popovich the Head Coach of the USA National Team speaks to players during a Team USA United States of America National Basketball team training session at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on August 21, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)



By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com



While most of you sleep off your Friday night happy hour, Team USA will hit the court one more time in China to play in the absolute worst game international competition has to offer.

At 4 AM Saturday morning, the mighty United States Men’s National Basketball Team will face Poland needing to win to avoid finishing last in the FIBA World Cup.

It’s an embarrassingly absurd task for a team full of quality NBA players.

Of course, it’s not full of the quality of NBA players Team USA originally wanted. When Jayson Tatum was originally invited to participate, there were real questions about whether he’d make the team. By the time he rolled his ankle in a tough overtime win against Turkey, he was one of the team’s most important players.

We can trudge down the path of assigning blame for the losses, but that’s pointless. America qualified for the Olympics, which is really what most American fans care about, and most of the big guns who withdrew this year will participate next summer. This loss will eventually fade into the history books.

It won’t fade from the minds of those who participated, though. This group of young men have to carry some shame for being the worst-performing team of NBA’ers in major international competition. What’s worse for them is most, if not all of them, won’t get the chance for redemption a year from now.

They’ll forever be treated like the JV team that couldn’t quite cut it while the likes of James Harden, Steph Curry, and Anthony Davis add gold medals to their resumes.

It should be another gut punch to the veteran Boston Celtics who participated, too. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart are only a few months removed from their head-hanging exit interviews after last season’s debacle.

There has been a lot of talk this past month about what these guys could learn from the World Cup experience. It turns out the biggest lesson is one they already learned this past season in Boston.

All three of them will come back with positive things to add to their games. They’ll also be coming home after another underwhelming basketball disappointment. The FIBA World Cup was essentially the 2018-19 Celtics season all over again, just repackaged, condensed, and played a dozen or so time zones away. It was the Men In Black: International of basketball.

The similarities are striking. A deep team full of relatively similar talent was expected to contend for a championship, though there were other teams that had better individual stars that stood in the way. Each relied on a stud point guard that couldn’t falter without it significantly hurting the team’s chances of winning. When push came to shove, each team abandoned things that worked to go on individual forays that ultimately cost them.

Basketball can get complicated with its schemes and rotations, but there are some simple truths to this game. Players do not thrive without structure and well-defined roles. Team USA’s chemistry was far better than Boston’s, but without an absolute, clear-cut, “this is the best player and everyone knows it” kind of player, they were always vulnerable.

Kemba Walker was trying like hell to be “that guy” in the fourth quarter against France. He had grown into the role of “that guy” over the course of the tournament, but Donovan Mitchell was already having a “that guy” game. Walker trying to find his own offense was too much of a departure from what had been working, and it was part of why France came back to win.

The Americans had a bunch of players capable of having big games, and when they needed clutch baskets, each one of them thought he could be the guy to get them. Instead of moving, cutting, and setting picks for one another, they stood there waiting for their turn.

It has to be a frustrating deja vu for the Celtics involved. When they come back, they’ll undoubtedly talk about mining the positive experiences from it, putting the rest behind them, and moving on, but they need to do more than that.

These Celtics have two strikes now. Following up the season they just had with this FIBA World Cup run is a brutal 1-2 punch, but if they don’t learn the most basic lesson of all from this, the shots will keep on coming.

The 2019-20 Boston Celtics will be a very different team than last season’s C’s, but they’ll still have some stinging similarities. Most notably, all of their good players are at a similar level, and they play similar positions on the perimeter.

As much as everyone wants to move on from last year, the Celtics we’ll watch this season have a significant risk of running into the “my turn” problems again. If there’s no clear-cut top offensive option, there will be a power struggle to take that mantle. Sure, Walker will be one of the primary options, but with Tatum, Brown, and Hayward all needing touches and feeling they have takeover capabilities, who will be next in line?

Unless Brown works out an extension before the season starts, he’ll go into this year with a contract on his mind. Hayward has a $34 million player option to consider at the end of this season, making him a strong candidate to pull an Al Horford. Tatum is extension eligible next summer, so while he’s not an immediate threat to leave, he’s still looking to cash in with a big contract before next season starts.

Basketball teams don’t thrive with a bunch of individuals trying to achieve their own goals, but the business side of the NBA constantly puts players in positions to make decisions they might not normally make in other settings. The massive contracts and construction of legacies puts the individual’s goals first, even though he’s trying to work within the parameters of a team concept.

If this Celtics team is going to reach its full potential, they’ll have to figure out an acceptable hierarchy of players. The meritocracy of sports has to shine through, or else we’ll get hammered with the same lesson all over again.

Players play best with defined roles. They’re best when they know how to play and when they’re playing.

Many of Team USA’s failures were last year’s Celtics failures. If they’re not careful, they’ll be next year’s Celtics failures too.



bob




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Well that was a depressing yet sobering read!! Slow day at the office?!

db

Preview? This guy is an idiot.

We got killed by Gobert in the paint. There is no 3 second rule, so bigs can set up a tent there. The folks that picked our team didn't take that into account, nor did Pop.

International small ball will get wins against Japan, but not against teams with old school centers. The loss had nothing to do with our player's contributions, it was more about it being a different flavor of basketball and what our team lacked.

USA focas is on winning in the NBA and OLYNPICS. This past international tournament was just a little more preseason practIce for the USA players.

swish

Team USA results have nothing to do with Celtics expectations.

That's like saying if it rains in Atlanta all the bakeries will close in Toronto.

One has nothing to do with the other.

Problem with this team USA was their weak frontline - weak and inconsistent centers and no true power forward, which is vital in the international game.

THe only chance they had was when Tatum was firing on all cylinders. His injury showed his value to this team and the Celtics - not the opposite. Poor article, no cause and effect.

mrkleen09 wrote:Problem with this team USA was their weak frontline - weak and inconsistent centers and no true power forward, which is vital in the international game.

THe only chance they had was when Tatum was firing on all cylinders.  His injury showed his value to this team and the Celtics - not the opposite. Poor article, no cause and effect.

+1 which shows you still need bigs

There's always been a need for bigs - but in past generations, before the 3 point shot popularity, the bigs took a bigger share of the shots. Much larger shooting role now for the non center players.

swish

swish wrote:There's always been a need for bigs - but in past generations, before the 3 point shot popularity, the bigs took a bigger share of the shots. Much larger shooting role now for the non center players.

 swish

Swish,

And more of the shots today's bigs do take are from range.  Without looking at historical stats I'll bet there are a lot fewer shots in the paint in today's game, for bigs as well as overall.


bob


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bobheckler wrote:

swish wrote:There's always been a need for bigs - but in past generations, before the 3 point shot popularity, the bigs took a bigger share of the shots. Much larger shooting role now for the non center players.

 swish

Swish,

And more of the shots today's bigs do take are from range.  Without looking at historical stats I'll bet there are a lot fewer shots in the paint in today's game, for bigs as well as overall.


bob


.

+

bob

I can only find shot locations that go back to 2000-01. Points in the paint then were.158% of all shots taken - 2018-19 it was .092% of the shots taken.

Here's a look at how the role of the BIGS has changed over the years when it comes to fgas.

Bigs = Centers, centers-forward, forward-centers
Guards = Guards, guard-forward, forward-guard

Based on a minimum of 8 fgas per player.

In 1956-57 52 players took at least 8 fgas per game - 25 by the centers (48.0) and 25 by the guards (48.0%).+
In 1985-86 131 players took at least 8 fgas per game - 41 by the centers (31.3%) and 72 by the guards (55%).
In 2018-19 180 players took at least 8 fgas per game - 32 by the centers (17.8%) and 106 by the guards (58.9%)

A huge drop of from Russells first year in the nba.

swish