Why shedding to the Nuggets within the Finals may have been useful for the Celtics

Celtics

“Oh, make no mistake. The Nuggets would have throttled them.”

A 3-point heave’s price of ideas on the Celtics …

▪ Two weeks after their season ended with a Sport 7 no-show, it stays a bummer that the Celtics couldn’t overcome the Warmth — however principally themselves — to succeed in the NBA Finals.

Oh, make no mistake. The Nuggets would have throttled them. Nikola Jokic might appear to be that awkward however sneaky-effective dude out of your Friday lunchtime pickup recreation, however the spectacular actuality is that his recreation is a component Invoice Walton, half Arvydas Sabonis, and — you’d higher consider it — half Larry Fowl.

In the event you’ve paid any consideration in any respect to the Finals, you understand he’s the perfect participant on this orb and the quintessential fashionable Makes His Teammates Higher man. He would have shredded the Celtics together with his pinpoint passes, genius basketball IQ, and all the pieces else in his distinctive repertoire.

Attending to the Finals for the second straight season would have been an achievement — a parallel one, certain, however it’s nonetheless one thing — for the Celtics. And getting wrecked by the Nuggets in 5 video games (if not 4) would have been good for them.

It may need been humbling in a approach that shedding to the Warmth after successful three straight to drive a Sport 7 was not. And it could have given them first-hand, in-person, desperately obligatory data of what a well-rounded offense is meant to appear to be.

In opposition to the Warmth, Marcus Good bought roasted on back-door cuts by Duncan Robinson, who strikes properly with out the ball however isn’t precisely the modern-day John Havlicek. Jaylen Brown scheduled frequent energy naps on defensive possessions all through the playoffs. Jokic, Jamal Murray, and to a lesser diploma Aaron Gordon would have made a behavior of dismantling the Celtics protection, over and again and again.

If the Celtics are going to take the subsequent step — really, if they will keep away from taking one other step again — they should get away from the excruciating my-turn, your-turn offense that Jayson Tatum and Brown too typically play.

ISO ball is okay, generally, particularly for a expertise like Tatum, or when there’s an apparent mismatch. However when it’s a basic a part of the offense, it doubles as a assure that you just’re not maximizing all 5 gamers on the court docket.

As for the opposite deadly flaw of the offense, I need to admit, I’m undecided something would trigger Joe Mazzulla to deviate from his foolish, shortsighted math recreation of structuring an offense round 3-point makes an attempt.

Such an offense seems to be swell when everyone seems to be taking pictures like an honorary Curry brother. However generally when the primary couple of threes don’t drop, your entire workforce goes chilly. It turns into contagious, and the remedy doesn’t come till the subsequent recreation. Or, within the case of the Celtics, who shot a mixed 16 of 77 from three in Video games 6 and seven towards the Warmth, it doesn’t come till the subsequent season.

I do know, the Celtics don’t have something resembling a Jokic, the fulcrum of all of the Nuggets achieve this properly. However we already know that this Celtics workforce can transfer the ball and play a selfless, versatile type of offense, as a result of they did it this season for the primary 25-30 video games earlier than devolving into their lousiest of habits because the season performed on.

Attending to the Finals and getting rocked may have been the required reminder of what a critical NBA offense seems to be like. Maybe taking part in the Nuggets would have helped the Celtics understand that they need to play like the Nuggets.

▪ So these welcome additions to the Celtics teaching employees imply Joe Mazzulla is headed again to the second row, proper? No? Are we certain?

Tremendous, I’ll plead responsible to overt facetiousness there. Brad Stevens vowed so as to add skilled coaches to Mazzulla’s employees, and inside two weeks he had lived as much as the vow, including Sam Cassell (a 2008 Celtics champion) and the lesser-known however simply as extremely regarded ex-Bucks assistant Charles Lee.

These have been welcome, obligatory hires, however their arrival may result in some fascinating dynamics. Whereas Mazzulla has a full season (together with 20 playoff video games) of teaching expertise now, the argument may be made that he’s the third-most certified amongst them to be the Celtics head coach.

Cassell, who additionally gained a pair of championships as a participant with the Rockets, has been an NBA assistant coach since 2008-09. Know what Mazzulla was doing that 12 months? Averaging 2.7 factors per recreation as a junior guard on West Virginia’s Remaining 4 workforce.

Cassell has the NBA pedigree that some Celtics gamers acknowledged valuing in a coach when Ime Udoka was employed earlier than the 2021-22 season. He’s additionally identified to be blunt with gamers, as Udoka was, and this workforce actually wants a voice like that in its ear.

And Cassell isn’t even the lead assistant. That’s Lee, a well-regarded tactician who gained a title on Mike Budenholzer’s bench with the 2020-21 Bucks. Lee entered the league as an assistant to Budenholzer on the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks workforce that gained 60 video games, a workforce that included Al Horford and, someplace down the bench, Mike Muscala.

I’ll admit it. I feel Cassell and Lee can be higher suits as the pinnacle coach than the holdover head coach they’re now working for.

Hopefully Mazzulla discovered loads from this season, and learns much more this offseason. Together with easy methods to make the most of and belief assistant coaches who in all probability ought to be delegating to him reasonably than working for him.

▪ I can’t think about Stevens goes to commerce Brown for a lesser participant and a few magic beans, so the perfect hope with how his standing is resolved is that he indicators the super-max extension and commits himself to studying easy methods to dribble together with his left hand and move at a mean NBA stage.

Yeah, two weeks after it ended, I’m prepared for the Celtics to run it again. I may see buying and selling Good; he’s 29 years outdated now and his 30s may very well be tough, given his type of play. However my choice is to maintain the present three-guard rotation, with Derrick White getting by far probably the most minutes of the trio subsequent season and Malcolm Brogdon once more offering offense off the bench. (His ill-timed damage appeared to trigger amnesia with some followers relating to how essential he was this season and the way determined the Celtics wanted a participant like him in final 12 months’s Finals.)

We’ll get extra into roster alterations and participant priorities within the offseason. For now, you understand the place I stand. I like their gamers. It’s their type of play that should change.