Every coach stamps his philosophy onto his team. With Ime Udoka taking over the reins in Boston, he reveals some of his plans.
Udoka shares his excitement as a new coach with analyst Brian Scalabrine, "I harped on execution and effort." He added, "expectations are great and it's a good pressure to have."
The Celtics have new faces (Dennis Schroder, Josh Richardson) and return some old ones (Al Horford, Enes Kanter). I'd expect personnel to be a bit in flux early. Jayson Tatum has added more muscle and we'll see a leanerJaylen Brown post wrist surgery.
I'll be looking especially at their transition, half court offense, defense, and rebounding.
The Celtics open up with a pair of one-on-one actions but multiple "one more" passes followed by a pair of Marcus Smart turnovers.
The Celtics appeared not to run a lot of sets, unless you count "step up ball screens." Defensively, it was switch everything. Rob Williams used his length to block a couple of perimeter shots. I'm not sure that will work against the quicker mismatches.
When Jayson Tatum shot at least 7 free throws, he averaged over 33 points/game. And when he shot at least 12, he averaged 44 points/game. With the bigger upper body, Tatum looked like a load in the post.
Per Scalabrine, "Offensive fouls are going to be a point of emphasis this season."
Jaylen Brown looks much quicker...coming off a 24.7 ppg season.
Schroder looked good on the pick-and-roll lob with Horford and passing in general..."a Rondo look-alike." (Schroder and Horford shared experience in the ATL.)
Brad Stevens' name didn't come up in the first quarter from Mike Gorman or Scalabrine.
"Reckless closeout" - three free throws and shooting team retains the ball.
"You work on it, you do it in the game..." after Pritchard nails a three off the dribble.
Not surprising the trend to threes and layups is even more pronounced. 12 of the Celtics first 18 shots were threes.
Scalabrine, "you gotta shoot and you gotta run pick-and-rolls."
The energy level on both sides was unexpected...maybe an effect of crowd size?
Way too many players fouling three-point shooters...
Jaylen Brown only NBA player under 6'6" over the past two years to average over 20 ppg, 6 rpg, and shoot over 48%.
Jalen Suggs looked overmatched physically against Smart but drained a three from out near the logo.
Scalabrine, "you don't want role players getting into their bag and shooting stepbacks."
Scal adds, "no matter what...you have to take care of the basketball."
Nice Hammer screen from Horford to get Brown an easy corner 3. Great set up on the strong side to allow the action to unfold. Nice on-ball screen from Richardson to help Schroder get the passing angle too pic.twitter.com/HuTPsTVzgO
— Adam Taylor (@AdamTaylorNBA) October 5, 2021