Stevens has 'good feel' for Celtics lineup combos

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/stevens-has-good-feel-celtics-lineup-combos?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo




Stevens has 'good feel' for Celtics lineup combos

October 11, 2015, 7:00 pm








WALTHAM, Mass. -- Brad Stevens is quick to point out that no ironclad decisions have been made when it comes to who will play this season for the Boston Celtics.

But the same starting five has been trotted out in both preseason games.

In the backcourt you have Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley. Manning the wing position is Jae Crowder, and the frontcourt 1-2 punch consists of David Lee at power forward and Tyler Zeller at center.

Boston won both of its games overseas by a convincing margin of 24 points per game.

And the play of the first unit set the tone in many respects for each blowout win.

But as well as the first group has played, Stevens isn’t ready to crown this unit as the team’s starting five.

“It’s still very much in figuring this team out,” Stevens said

However, it’s becoming clearer that there are some players who may have strengthened their case for remaining with the first group.

"I think those three guys on the perimeter are all really good defenders and can get into the ball,” Stevens said.

He’s referring to Smart, Bradley and Crowder, who came into camp as the frontrunners to emerge as starters this season.

“And David can kind of act as the point forward with that group,” Stevens said.

That leaves Zeller as the one player with the first unit whose role as a starter, on the surface at least, looks far from a given.

Zeller is the Celtics’ only true center, which in some ways limits what he can do on the floor.

But to Zeller’s credit, he has shown the ability to be a positive force around the rim, especially when it comes to rolling to the basket out of pick and roll sets.

In the first two preseason games, it’s clear that Zeller does fit in well with the other starters, which is a bigger factor in who starts for Boston than whether the most talented five-pack of players are on the court at tip-off.

If the Celtics were to make a lineup change here in the preseason, it most likely would involve Zeller being replaced by Amir Johnson or Kelly Olynyk.

For Stevens, it’s all about finding the right combinations of players in order for Boston to be successful.

“I have a pretty good feel now for who I want to play with whom,” Stevens said. “There might be two options at one spot that we’ll have to figure out as they compete against each other in practice, but as far as like, who I want to play with what group, what their skill sets that complement each other are, I have a pretty good feel for.”

And it remains to be seen if that will involve a lineup change in the near future.

“At the end of the day, we’ll see if that (starting lineup) stays or changes,” Stevens said. “I’m not dead-set on it by any means.”


bob
MY NOTE:  I don't know if this is just Blakely stating his opinion or if he is stating what he has been hearing but, if you want to get some insight into how Brad thinks, this might be a very revealing statement "Zeller is the Celtics’ only true center, which in some ways limits what he can do on the floor."  It suggests that a single-position player is not considered highly utile in Brad's mind and system.  You know if Doc was still the coach he'd be riding Zeller right into the ground precisely because he's the only true center.  I don't think you can get two more different approaches to the game of basketball than Doc and Brad.


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we'll see if the rotations change once Turner is healthy.

I could see a starting group of

Zeller
Lee
Turner
Bradley
Smart

With
IT
Amir
Crowder
Kelly
Sully

as the main backups.

Jerebko might be the $5M man out of the rotation, hard to figure that one though.

Roziers knee issue may drop him out of the rotation completely , at least early in the season.

I am sure that Stevens has been running thousands of combinations of his players through his head every day since last season ended and even more so since signing Johnson and getting Lee plus the three new rookies.

This is part of his job and he and his staff will likely have plenty more debate on just this very topic alone.

Now that the exhibition games have started they will get to test their theories and then make changes if necessary.

With the depth that this team seems to have Stevens will find lots of good working combinations. And, on such a team as the Cs are currently constructed one of his big problems may be to console players about limited minutes and yet keep them motivated at 100%.

The "stars" that are not present actually present more of a "minutes" problem than if there were two stars on the team because, we must all remember that every one of these players have been "the man" on most of the teams that they have played for in their past (especially when they were younger). Now, for the good of the team, they may have to swallow some ego and pride which is not always an easy thing to do.

wide clyde wrote:I am sure that Stevens has been running thousands of combinations of his players through his head every day since last season ended and even more so since signing Johnson and getting Lee plus the three new rookies.

This is part of his job and he and his staff will likely have plenty more debate on just this very topic alone.

Now that the exhibition games have started they will get to test their theories and then make changes if necessary.

With the depth that this team seems to have Stevens will find lots of good working combinations. And, on such a team as the Cs are currently constructed one of his big problems may be to console players about limited minutes and yet keep them motivated at 100%.

The "stars" that are not present actually present more of a "minutes" problem than if there were two stars on the team because, we must all remember that every one of these players have been "the man" on most of the teams that they have played for in their past (especially when they were younger).  Now, for the good of the team, they may have to swallow some ego and pride which is not always an easy thing to do.

clyde,

"The "stars" that are not present actually present more of a "minutes" problem than if there were two stars on the team". Excellent point. Setting aside the ego aspect of it (easier said than done though!) there is also the conundrum of "how do you develop and highlight players to the point where they are stars, or at least very desirable trade bait, if they aren't playing many minutes?".


bob


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