Category: NBA

Gordon Hayward Would Like to Re-Introduce Himself

So much for the whole “no effort, no ball movement on offense” malarkey that I definitely did not buy in to.

The Celtics offense has returned to Erotic City (both literally and figuratively) and a lot of it has to do with the elevated play of one Gordon Hayward in recent weeks. All it takes is moving the max contract player to the bench for him to drop 30 points in a near-triple-double, I’ve long said that.

The Celtics offense has undergone a serious rejuvenation since their dismal stretch that started about two weeks ago. They set their season-high in points two games in a row against New Orleans (124) and Cleveland (128). They’re playing with more pace, and getting back to the threes-and-layups style that best suits their personnel. In the last three games, they’ve jumped from 23rd to 19th in overall pace of play, and, FINALLY cracked the top-20 in offensive rating. The team with Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford and Jaylen Brown took 23 games to get into the top two-thirds of the league in offense, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess, so I’ll take it.

The rest of this blog is a personal thank-you note to Gordon Hayward, whom I know for a fact reads all of the stuff I write. I saw in an article by Tom Westerholm of MassLive that Marcus Smart got Gordon all sorts of riled up in practice this week. After the 30p/9r/8a outburst on Saturday, Morris told the media that Smart was fouling Hayward so often and so hard that “he just got red at one point” (Tom Westerholm, The Athletic). I, for one, did not know it was possible for Gordon Hayward to be visibly upset (unless he just found out on video that he’s having his third girl) but if there’s someone to bring that anger out, Smart will do it. He shot 50% from the field (4-5 3PT, 10-10 FT) against Minnesota and was clearly the main distributor and scorer on the second unit. He makes everyone around him, especially Terry, a better player on offense. Against the Cavs, he had 14p/4a/4r on 6-9 from the field and he was a +16. Whatever it was that Marcus was doing, it essentially completed his rehab process because he attacks the rim with so much more force now than he had up until this week. Apart from the dunks, this was probably my favorite play of his the entire game;

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Boston Celtics

✔@celtics

Making space and knocking it down

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He catches that ball, and there is absolutely no chance he’s gonna pass it. He just drops his shoulder into Derrick Rose (who also had a good game despite having 0 knees), moves him back a solid 4 feet, plants on the ankle that twisted like a pretzel last season and nails a beautiful turn-around. I need him to keep being aggressive. It makes my breathing easier. I am itching for the inevitable poster he’s gonna throw down in one of the next few games (sick joke that the next game is 4 days from now, btw).

The Gordon Hayward comeback is complete. And you know what’s funny? It’s only up from here. He’s only getting closer to his former self.

grinch smile GIF
via GIPHY

Brad’s lineup shuffle is paying dividends awful early. Real shame. The Kyrie-Smart-Tatum-Morris-Horford starting five is miles more energetic, they look a team that is ranked #2 overall in defensive rating. They’re tied for #7 in net rating with the Hornets (4.0) , just one spot below the superteam and dynasty, the Golden State Warriors (4.3). Now, the sky isn’t falling in Oakland, is it? Nobody expects them to not make the Finals, even though their all-stars hate each other, right? Well, the Celtics actually like each other, and Brad Stevens is just starting to get a hold of this group. Like I said, it’s all up from here. And in the last week, they look damn good. That Grinch gif is me x1000. Go Celtics.

P.S. Can we please get some minutes from Robert Williams? Every time he plays he has at least one highlight-reel block. The dude legit plays volleyball out there.

I Have Never Seen Anything Like I Did Last Night

Wow. Never in one game have I seen a team play so terrible and bad for an entire half, and then come out and do a complete 360 be so good for the rest of the game.

That felt like an out-of-body experience. Every game with the Celtics feels like a bad acid trip at some point but I thought my soul was going to evaporate watching the majority of this game. They get boned on every shot they take for a full two hours before they magically make 18 in a row and tie the game to end regulation. They had 13 points at the end of the first quarter. They were down by 22 points in the second half. They were down by 12 with 3:30 left in the game.

The Suns made three field goals in the final nine minutes. The Celtics outscored them 51-29 in the fourth quarter and OT. They made eight consecutive shots to end regulation and start OT. They, quite literally, were as bad as a team can possibly be, and as good as a team can possibly be within the span of one game. This wasn’t “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” this was “the excruciatingly painful, and the immense feeling of joy.” No in between.

Somehow we survived the starters not named Kyrie putting up a goose egg in the first half. Tatum didn’t even score until there were 5 minutes left in the game and only had 4 on 1-7 FG in the game. Hayward had 8 on 3-8 FG,  Horford had 7 on 3-7 FG, and the bench didn’t show up until the second half. The team as a whole played awful defense until halfway through the third quarter and couldn’t stop Devin Booker and TJ Warren (?????) for the life of them. The Celtics’ ability to turn this game around in the blink of an eye, on the road, is truly a testament to their chemistry and toughness. People always bitch and say there are too many stars, only one ball, blah blah blah. Well, Kyrie took 28 shots last night and almost single-handedly won the game. Clearly, other guys are fine with not getting shots if they WIN THE GODDAMN GAME. Nobody on this team gives a rat fuck about their stats if they win. It is a team. Brad Stevens puts them in positions to succeed, and they know this, so they go as hard as they can for him and for each other so they can capitalize on those opportunities. It doesn’t always work out because the second-best player on the team just got his ankle glued back together, and the three young stars have a significant reduction in minutes. These things take time. It’s the 11th game. But what we saw last night showed us exactly what they are made of, even if they sucked wind for 28 minutes. /endrant

Now that I’m done with my spiel that I didn’t mean to get into before I started writing this, I’ll get into some film.

The Celtics defense was fucking bad in the first half. I came really close to giving up on this game, considering the cellar-dweller Suns were torching them. Transition defense was bad, and so was the help side. Here’s a sweet combination of the two;

All four players that got back on defense are staring at Devin Booker as he goes up the court. It sounds trivial to say this about NBA players, but sometimes you just have to keep your eye on your man. I know it’s tougher in transition, but not one person was watching out for the cross-court pass. Jaylen got there just in time for Canaan to hoodwink him with a nice pump-fake three.

Obvious bad pass from Jaylen. He had Kyrie, but it was a bit late. Booker makes a nice save and dribbles it back up the floor and Warren gets an easy three. Either one of Terry or Baynes has to commit to Warren instead of continuing to fall back into the paint. The lineup the Suns had out there was all shooters except Ayton. Gotta know they’re looking for the three ball.

There were too many good offensive sets in the last 6 minutes to count. Kyrie was hitting legit circus layups. When Jaylen goes hard to the rim like he was there, it opens up the Celtics offense. He’s probably the best athlete on the team, and when he puts that to good use, everyone benefits, specifically guys like Morris and Horford. It takes pressure off of Kyrie when he’s not the only guard they have to worry about scoring the ball.

And then we got a beautiful display of basketball genius. Brad Stevens ATO plays are second-to-none;

 

Bottoms. That’s Marcus Morris SENIOR, to you sir. You knew as soon as he took that shot it was gonna fall. Smooth as ice.

OT was a different animal. There was a very slim chance the Celtics were gonna lose after Morris hit the buzzer-beater, but they still let Phoenix hang around for the first few minutes.

All is well, though. Brad Stevens can still yell at his team despite them pulling a 22-point comeback out of their ass. The perfect ending. We got Utah tonight, no Kyrie, and I’m calling a big game from Scary Terry right now. This trade rumor stuff (which I will address in a blog later today) is pissing him off and he’s gonna get to start tonight. Go Celtics.

It’s Time For College Athletes to Get a Slice of the Pie

For as long as amateur sports as existed, they have been exactly that; amateur. Anyone who competes in an amateur sporting event is doing so in order to expand their popularity and become a better athlete. The ultimate goal is to make the eventual leap from amateur to professional. The thing that separates these two? Some might say age, but with the NBA’s age limit being 18 and one year removed from high school, and the MLB’s and NHL’s policies being relatively the same, “kids” can still be professionals. What really makes someone a “pro” is money. Pro athletes make money, and lots of it. Millions upon millions. Some of the highest-paid people on the planet. You know who makes more than a pro athlete does? The person who owns the team the athletes play for. Combine all the athlete’s salaries and multiply them by about 10, and that’s how much a sports team makes. The big bucks.

Oddly enough, colleges are the same way. The NCAA has 347 Division 1 schools, all of which have a ton of sports that haul in a ton of money. Factoring in all the tuition bills they’re getting from regular students, not to mention the money produced by student-athletes, they have plenty of cash to go around. The average salary of a university president is about $140,000 (Business Insider) so it’s clear the school employees get a hefty chunk of that, but the rest has to be allocated to someone (after all the school’s expenses have been paid, of course).

Why don’t the athletes, who do all the work and advertising for these schools, get any of it?

The age-old adage of “they’re giving the athletes a free education!” is antiquated. Students can take out loans. There’s financial aid and FAFSA. Scholarships for being able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Almost anyone can go to college if they want to. Education isn’t a privilege anymore. 99% of people do it for 15+ years. Doesn’t sound like a special privilege to me. In fact, those kids aren’t even there for the education most of the time. In the wise words of NFL quarterback Cardale Jones, “We ain’t come here to play SCHOOL.” College is essentially a free minor league for pro sports. The idea that the school is doing a service to these kids as they go out and risk their professional careers to make tens of millions of dollars with the schools name slapped across their chest is absurd. The school can sign an endorsement deal with Nike for $500 million and the players are the ones that wear it and make people want to buy it, but they don’t get a penny. All they get is the chance to go out and maybe play well enough to start making more than $0 every time you risk harm to your body.

Most people advocate for a larger stipend for student-athletes. A stipend is essentially an allowance that athletes get, and currently they are very small. Pays for small stuff like food and drinks and some clothes. Not enough to live off of on it’s own. That is why it’s time for the NCAA to fork over some of the approximate $40 million that the average football and men’s basketball programs combine for per year (Business Insider). Give it to the kids that pay your salaries, you crusty old beards. The NCAA has essentially been using slave labor ever since they started signing billion-dollar TV deals.

The changing of the guard is underway, even if it’s slow as a snail. Media pundits from all over are starting to be on the “pay the players” side of the debate. Jay Bilas, perhaps ESPN’s most famous college basketball analyst, firmly believes players should get their cut.

I’m not out here trying to say college athletes should be millionaires. That’s what the pros are for. But while they are walking billboards for their respective school, they need to get some of the revenue. It is the only organization in the world that makes a multi-billion dollar profit off of what is basically a huge collection of unpaid interns. Mark Emmert, the corrupt president of the NCAA, is losing favor by the day. The NFL and NBA are trying to create ways for players to bypass the NCAA and get paid for their talents right out of high school. Some basketball players have chosen pro leagues in China or Europe over the $0 salary you earn in college while simultaneously curating a brand for a school and providing entertainment for millions of people. Change is coming, the NCAA knows it, the athletes know it, and so do the fans. For a guy who just wrote such passionate shit about paying players, I don’t know how or when this issue will truly be solved. But until then, the NCAA is gonna keep finding players, coaches, and brand executives (cough couch, Adidas) that try and extort money.

Celtics Couble-Coverage; Things Look Bad

I got a name for it. It’s like double-coverage, because I cover every other C’s game on this website. Hence, double. BUT, the word “Celtics” and also “coverage” start with C. My journalism class that I paid $700 for told me, “the people love alliteration.” So I gave it to them. Celtics Couble Coverage. Just read it as “Celtics double-coverage.” Don’t hurt yourself.

Alright, TAke a look, y’all:

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I did a blog on opening night saying that the five-worst teams in the NBA were Sacramento, Atlanta, New York, Orlando, and Chicago. I stand by this, despite the Magic beating the Celtics at home and the Knicks just barely giving up the game at MSG. What this means, is that currently the Celtics are a bad, if not terrible basketball team. The Magic and Knicks are not good. The Celtics are just playing badly. Don’t get that misconstrued. And the C’s will come back in due time; but for now, they gotta solve some of the glaring issues.

Celtics-Knicks

This started off as one of those games where you thought to yourself, “Hey, I might get to bed early tonight.” The C’s were clicking in the first, putting up a 31-point quarter, while holding the Knicks to 18. The Knicks’ best player with Porzingis still hurt is Enes Kanter, so Brad played Aron Baynes a lot to combat his size inside. With Horford at the four, the C’s defense improves tremendously. This was evident in the first quarter when Kanter and the Knicks really struggled for open looks.

And that was the end of the “I might get to bed early tonight” thought process. The second quarter was miserable. The C’s made Tim Hardaway Jr. and Allonzo Trier (who was undrafted in 2018) look like all-stars. For a team that did so well defending the three last season (#1 in the league if I’m not mistaken), they have done an awful job at it this year. The chemistry was gonna be a work-in-progress all along with the new additions, but I didn’t think it would have this severe of an effect on the team’s defense. When Baynes is off the floor they really struggle to stop teams. Thank you based Danny Ainge for resigning him when I said we should get Nerlens Noel. Hand up, that was wrong.

Jaylen Brown has had a tough time finding his shot in the early-going. He only recorded seven points on 2/9 from the field against New York. With Gordon in the fold, his role was bound to be reduced a little bit because Gordon is a better playmaker, rebounder and three-point shooter. Jaylen is still the second-best slasher on the team (until Gordon is 100% back in shape) outside of Kyrie, but he doesn’t seem to be attacking on those opportunities as often, either. I don’t think it’s a matter of “what’s the issue” with Jaylen, I just think he hasn’t settled into his role on the team yet. He’s getting the shots up, they just aren’t going down for him yet. Which they will.

The second half of this game was brutal. The offense just seems to randomly stall out and constantly run the same pick-and-roll plays over and over again at times, which I know for a fact isn’t gonna be a long-lasting problem with Brad Stevens as the head coach but it’s very sad to watch in real time. For a team that starts guys known for their offensive game like Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, they sure do suck at scoring sometimes. Now, a lot of this has to do with just missing shots; they were 36% from three, but they still miss plenty of wide-open shots. They miss more open shots than any team in the NBA this season per the NBA’s shot-tracking data. Will this last? Nope. Is it going on right now and causing them to play stressful games against inferior opponents? Chet Ubetcha. A little Fairly Oddparents reference for the kids at home, how’s that for covering all the bases.

Celtics-Magic

I actually attended this game personally With My Smokieng Hot Girlfriend, and we got a similar, but somehow even worse version of the Knicks game. The Celtics didn’t even bother to come out rolling this time. An emphatic 19-point first quarter had them looking pretty dead from the get-go. Nobody got in a rhythm at all this game, and Baynes was ruled out with a hamstring injury for the next few games. The massive Orlando frontcourt of Nik Vucevic, Mo Bamba and Aaron Gordon was clearly too much for only Horford and Theis to handle. Vucevic was bullying guys down low all game long and finished with 24 points and 12 boards.

The Celtics did a really brave and courageous thing and decided to go out and put up an even worse offensive performance than they did against the Knicks. The C’s were 9-40 (22.5%) from three. 9-40. That is really fucking bad. Al Horford is a great shooter, he’s modified his game like few players ever have to become a stretch-5 playmaker, but goddamn he gets way too many looks from three. I don’t know if every single one of these is by chance either; there were at least three specific plays I remember being set up for him to get a three off a screen. Why not do that for Tatum? Or Kyrie? Or any of the sharp-shooting wings and guards we have??? I love Al but he does not need seven 3PA in a game, especially when he’s made one.

Thank the lord for Kyrie Irving because otherwise this would’ve been an embarrassing double-digit loss. Like I said, not one player was in a rhythm the entire game, but Kyrie did end up finishing 10-19 from the floor with 22 points, 8 boards and 5 assists. He’d been a bit slow to start the year so for him to lead a comeback effort like that definitely bodes well. He and Gordon both ended up with three-point chances to tie the game at 93 at the end, but they just couldn’t get them to fall, much like they had all night. Giving up 93 points to the Magic is fine, but going 9-40 from three and scoring 19 points in a quarter is not gonna win you the game. Thankfully, we all know Brad Stevens is gonna right the ship, most likely soon. The open jumpers are gonna fall eventually, that’s why you play 82 games in a season. This shit happened last year, too, and then they went on a 16-game win streak. You know what they say, “history repeats itself.” Go Celtics.

Boston Celtics vs Orlando Magic: Social Media Story

The Boston Celtics faced the Orlando Magic for their second home game and fourth game overall last evening. The Celtics entered the game with a record of 2-1, with the Magic sitting at 1-2.

The Celtics had a new addition to the injury report this week; center Aron Baynes has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. Many writers who cover the Celtics have been wondering how head coach Brad Stevens will combat this injury;

Brad Stevens ended up staying with his usual small-ball starting lineup of Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford. However, it was extremely noticeable that Baynes’ defensive presence off the bench was missed.

Brad Stevens is known for being a basketball savant and all-around intellectual, but without Aron Baynes, the number of lineups he can employ against a team with four huge big men like Orlando is very slim. Baynes’ defense inside forces the opponent to kick it out to the perimeter, where the Celtics have equally-good defenders waiting to get in passing lanes. Baynes alters the opponents shot when he defends them, which doesn’t show up in the stat sheet at all, but is something that affects the game and every coach, player, and competent fan sees it.

On top of the absence of Aron Baynes, the Celtics just played down to the level of a clearly-inferior Magic team. The Magic are expected to be among the worst teams in the entire league this year, in the midst of a rebuild, and have very few established players on the team. First-round picks Mo Bamba and Jonathan Isaac are appealing pieces that both played well last evening, with Bamba posting five rebounds and two blocks off the bench and Isaac putting 18 points and 12 rebounds.

One of the Celtics’ biggest strengths last season was three-point shooting. Last night against the Magic, the Celtics shot 9-40 from three-point range. First of all, the team just has to hit their open shots. The Celtics also did a poor job of facilitating, with players like Al Horford taking threes off screens that looked like they were meant for Tatum or Hayward.

This is just a brutal stat. 9-40 is so tough against the Orlando Magic. All it takes is the Celtics playing a decent-at-best game and they will get past a team like this. But so far, it’s been nothing but inconsistency from the Celtics. They’ve opened the season going win-loss-win-loss and have looked very good on certain occasions, but on others looked like they were nowhere near the championship-contending team that most NBA writers deem them to be.

Despite their shooting woes and lack of inside defensive presence (Orlando center Nikola Vucevic put up 24 points and 12 rebounds), the Celtics were still only down three points with one possession left. The ball was inbounded to Kyrie Irving, who missed a three to tie the game. The ball was rebounded by Boston and kicked out to Gordon Hayward, who also failed to connect on the three, and the game ended with a final score of 93-90, a a gutting loss for this Celtics squad in the early-going.

 

 

Boston Celtics 2018-2018 Season Preview

Public Service Announcement: The Boston Celtics men’s professional basketball club opens up their 2018-2019 NBA season on Tuesday, October 16th at the TD Garden in Boston against the rival Philadelphia 76ers. Tip-off is at approximately 8:08p.m. ET.

FINALLY. The wait is over. In a mere two days, the last memory of Celtics basketball that we have is no longer that excruciatingly painful Game 7 Eastern Conference Finals loss to LABron and the Cleveland U-16 AAU squad. No more Celtics hospital squad. Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving are back at full strength. And don’t forget Daniel Theis, either. The deepest team in the NBA is finally at 100% health. Oh, and they added a DeAndre Jordan-esque big with the 27th pick in the draft, Robert Williams. This team is LOADED. Expect to see Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown make even bigger strides towards being legit stars in this league. Tatum spent the offseason working with Kobe, and as long as it wasn’t a sabotage by the Lakers I’m sure he will benefit from learning from him. Terry Rozier has been in trade talks for his entire career, and that won’t change this season, either. He is the best backup point guard in the league, and due for a big-money contract. Like I said, this team is loaded. Young talent across the board. They may end up having a 12-man rotation. Insane.

Opening the season against Philly at home is gonna be awesome. When Gordon comes out in the introductions, there is a 0% chance the Garden doesn’t register on the Richter scale. The Hayward-Simmons matchup on night one is primetime stuff. Dare Ben Simmons to shoot a three. He won’t. He only has 11 times in his entire career. Sad stuff, really. I anticipate Boston and Philly to be two of the top three teams in the East this season, so starting off the season series with a win on opening night would be huge.

This is the part of the column where we have to be realistic; the Celtics have a pretty fat chance at winning a title this year. Remember that team out west that set the record for most wins in a season a few years back, and then added Kevin Durant? Well, I hope you’re sitting down. They got DeMarcus Cousins, too. Albeit off an Achilles injury, they still added the best true center in the NBA. Their starting lineup has five all-stars. I fully expect the C’s to make it to the Finals, but it might be tough once they get there. It’s gonna take a whole lot of luck (and probably injuries) for anyone to be able to beat this absurdly-talented Warriors team.

That doesn’t mean we can’t hope, though. The Celtics “position-less basketball” scheme matches up well with any team in the NBA. They have the second-best starting five in the league. Brad Stevens remains a basketball savant and all-around wizard. There’s a lot to like this year. The pieces of the puzzle are there, they just gotta put them all together. And that starts on Tuesday. Keep a close eye on the C’s this year, and get on the bandwagon now before it’s not cool anymore.