The 2.9 Scheme, Change, and a Celtic-type Player

http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2014/08/sq14-13-29-scheme-change-and-celtic.html?showComment=1407504545937



SQ14 #13 The 2.9 Scheme, Change, and a Celtic-type Player








Yesterday I talked at some length about the changing NBA, and how it has altered the demands on players, coaches, and general managers.  Let me reinforce that notion with another quote from Zack Lowe’s article:
“Offenses are more complex now than they were even at the start of last season [2011-12]. The NBA may still be a pick-and-roll league, but the pick-and-roll a team really wants to run might come after several different 'fake' actions designed to confuse defenders or get their momentum moving in the wrong direction. Predictable offenses just aren’t good enough anymore against elite competition”

The overall takeaway is that coaches must be shrewder in devising their attack, players must be smarter and more aware to recognize the defensive strategies and execute more than the obvious one-player-away passes that have been the staple in the past, and GM’s have to go a step beyond scouting bigger, faster, stronger.  

Which brings me to Celtic-type players, a topic near and dear to my heart.  For decades Boston has leaned toward more cerebral types where athletic talent and basketball skills are balanced with court awareness and seeing the play, and game, develop.  It might be most apparent in their stars (Cousy, Russell, Bird, Rondo, and Garnett come immediately to mind), but the Celtics played a five-man game seldom depending on isolations.  This understanding and awareness has to permeate throughout, including the bench if substitutions are to keep the cohesion going.  When you consider that anyone making it into the NBA has already passed a one-in-a-million screen, further reducing the pool by picking only the insightful makes acquisitions an almost insurmountable task.  And that is not adding the fact that this court prescience is a particularly difficult quality to find, much less quantify.

Part of the reason I am so optimistic about the Celtics’ course is that Danny Ainge has begun to accumulated players with a high BBIQ.  A former PG in the front court, multiple coach’s-sons, a PG who didn’t find math a sufficient challenge in school and dissects film and opponents with equal abandon, and a coach known for detailed preparation and overachieving with his talent on hand.  So let’s move on to how our current roster measures up to the increased demand of the emerging NBA.

As I hinted in the previous paragraph, Rondo, Sullinger, and Olynyk are all known for their understanding for the dynamics of the game as well as their diversity of skills.  I think Zeller will be another player who “gets it” and sees plays developing and player movement before they happen.  On the other hand, my biggest misgiving about Avery Bradley is how poorly he played the point--late passes, telegraphed swing passes, and an inability to envision how the flow on the floor will develop.  Brandon Bass is another player who has been an integral part of recent teams, but who I feel lacks the gestalt understanding of the game that allows him to anticipate.  This seemed apparent shortly after his acquisition as he had real difficulty in picking up the defensive rotations which stood out as he was the only player not “on a string” in lockstep with the Big Three team. Jeff Green also makes me hesitant.  He seems unable to find the open man when his drives collapse the defense.  He does great when running down a block or locking up on the ball, but he is often late on switches and recognizing the “next” threat when offenses begin to move the ball and the defense is stressed.  I think the paucity of his assists and steals point to this minimal understanding since his physical skills should make him excel in these areas.  Wallace is a curious case.  He made some wonderful passes, especially on inbounds plays; but too often in the flow of the game his efforts were late and/or telegraphed begging to be picked off.  Good execution, questionable recognition?

The remainder of the roster remains an unknown to me as I just haven’t seen any/enough of them.  I will comment on Pressey and Faverani.  Phil made so many good passes that I tend to give him a high mark, but there were enough miscues that I’m not sure if he can discern an opening from a closing space.  Faverani is even more confusing.  He made some great passes and his help defense was usually spot on when he got there; however there were reports of his difficulty in learning the defensive rotations.  Will more experience in the Celtics’ systems make him a cohesive cog or is he doomed to be great on one play and lost on the next?

To be sure, I will be closely watching Thornton and Turner whose reputations contain elements of both understanding and oblivion.  Maybe it will be a matter of motivation to play team defense and offense, but their answers to these questions are the acid test for me, not their shot.  As for our rookies, my gut reaction is Smart will be smart, and Young will be young and oblivious--I just hope James gets a coercive environment to develop his court sense because I fear he will otherwise trend toward iso ME ball.  

Who’s left?  Johnson and Babb, too little info; Anthony, don’t care; all three, not sure it will matter.

Only 52 days until training camp.




bob
MY NOTE:  Another solid premise to base an article upon.  I have made no bones about it, I LOVE coach's sons and would rather have a cerebral player over a human jumping jack.  This author agrees with me, maybe that's why I like the article so much, but he presents a solid explanation for why cerebral matters.  It's because it's not a straight-forward game anymore.  You have to see things before they happen and be able to react instinctively and correctly.  Sully was blessed with a year of Garnett University.  What I found so encouraging about Kelly is that, while he struggled early on, he really "got it" in the 2nd half.  You could see it, it was like flipping a light switch, his game suddenly became coherent.  I am not as ambivalent about Pressey as he is, I think Phil (another coach's son) "gets it".  Pressey didn't try to jam passes into tight spaces like Rondo often tries to do, his assist-to-TO ratio shows that.  Did he make mistakes?  Of course, he was a rookie, but the key for me to feel like I could smile upon him was that it didn't look like the game was mentally too fast for him and he didn't try to succeed just with his speed.  His shooting needs to improve, we all know that, but that is absolutely, positively a trainable, learnable skill.  His point about Bradley was incisive too.  One has to question his BBIQ because of his lack of courtvision and ability to run an offense even though he is really built for that job.  That is why, over the next year or two, I think Marcus Smart is going to consume Bradley's minutes.  He can do everything Bradley can do on defense and shooting and he can play some point.

He's also right, I think, about Jeff Green.  He relies upon his considerable athleticism and basketball skills but he must be the finisher on the play.  You cannot run the offense through Jeff Green and you don't want the ball in his hands more than a dribble or two away from layup distance.  If you can do that for him, however, he is a very strong finisher.

I disagree with him about Bass.  He is steady, he doesn't make many unforced errors and he plays good team defense.  You can't run an offense through No-Pass Bass, but he doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective either, unlike Jeff Green. Was he slow learning the playbook when he first arrived? Maybe, but once he learns them he is as steady and solid as Gibraltar. Brandon Bass is the least of my worries, especially coming into the final year of his contract as he is.

Danny is assembling a very nice core.  The rebuild isn't anywhere near done yet, not even remotely, but you can start to see a pattern developing.  Danny is going for "smarts".  He's going for the Sullys (despite the concerns with his back), Kellys (despite the concern about his athleticism) and Presseys (despite the concerns about his shooting).  Smart is a leader.  Rondo is an extremely smart player.  We need a high IQ center (Zeller? I hate to predict before he has ever laced up a green sneaker. At least let me wait until pre-season).  He doesn't have to be 7', Noah isn't, but he has to be smart.

Without seeing Zeller play in green I can still say Danny has at least 5 players that fit the mold.  If he comes up with just 2 more, at center and SF, that's a short 7-man rotation and you can go places with that as you continue to find #8 and #9. A solid 9-man rotation that executes well because they have high BBIQs can win you some playoff games and then it starts getting interesting.

P.S. I'm enjoying this guy's writing. I'm going to try and find some more stuff by him and post them too.



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I'm also enjoying his writing, perhaps largely because his image of Celtics basketball squares so much with what I've been saying for years.  The Russell Celtics outthought their competitors like no team I've seen since.  Succeeding Celtics teams have followed that pattern, although perhaps not quite to the same degree.  And the important news from these two articles is that Danny is assembling a team with the potential to outthink their foes. The process is nothing close to complete, but it's directionally sound.

I've always said that the cerebral aspect of Celtics basketball was tantamount to having an extra player on the floor.  It will be like greeting an old friend if they can attain the same kind of group thinking and shared instincts as in the past.

Sam

I'm hopelessly lost on this subject. I don' have a clue as to how all the players in the league rank in terms of basketball smarts. Does such a list exist ?

swish

I see no value in criticizing Bradley for not being a point guard. He was pushed into a position he would not succeed at and his performance suffered. As soon as he was placed back at shooting guard, his production was much improved. He's a pure shooting guard that is money from beyond the arc, solid from mid-range can play good defense overall, and exceptional defense at other times. He's the Celtics' most consistent offensive player, aside from Kelly who plays closer to the basket.

I also disagree about Bass. Bass has more value than just his offense, which he is pretty solid at. He is also a good, physical defender, often tasked with guarding guys like Carmelo and Lebron, not easy assignments to say the least.

Jeff Green's deficiencies on offense are two-pronged, both his own poor decision-making and the coaching staff's inability to put him in a position to be more efficient on offense. Stop having him stand so far from the basket. Green should be in a 3-step position where he can finish strong.



KJ

LeBron said yesterday that what he most appreciates about Kevin Love is his high BBall IQ. People may malign LeBron for his personality, but he is another player with a very high BBall IQ.

No one becomes an elite player if they are not smart about the game.