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Sunday 17 November 2019 10:33, UK
The Celtics are riding a 10-game win streak and are top of the East. Mark Deeks argues by losing plenty of talent over the summer, the Celtics have improved as a unit.
The 2018-19 Boston Celtics were supposed to be contenders for the NBA title on account of how many options they had. Years of good asset management saw them meet all the items on the checklist for a rebuild; they had a superstar, two complementary stars, young players with star potential, solid role players and at least two options at every position. They were deep and they were good, and they had not had to tank to do it.
In theory, it was about as perfect of a job as a team without a single transcendent talent like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Luka Doncic could manage. In practice, though, having so many pieces who were not only good, but who knew they were good, led to an oversaturation.
The chemistry issues and locker room politics that plagued the Celtics last season have been so extensively covered elsewhere as to not be worth repeating here in any great detail. The short version is that too many players wanted shots and were playing for their own numbers; the disadvantage of having so many quality pieces meant there were not enough minutes and scoring opportunities to satisfy everyone.
The fact that younger players such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier had had some extensive runs in the 2017-18 season, including some big playoff minutes due to the injury absences of Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, proved to be perversely problematic. Understandably, they felt that they had proven themselves already, and wanted more.
Therefore, while it would be revisionist history to claim that it was entirely within their control, the fact that nine of the team's roster - that is to say, more than half - became free agents this past summer turned out to be unusually beneficial.
True, the impending paydays that loomed over last season were a causative link behind the selfish play of some of the players. Yet in losing all of Rozier, Irving, Marcus Morris and Al Horford over the summer allowed the Celtics to theoretically make additions by subtraction.
And with the best record both in the Eastern Conference and the entire NBA so far this season, on a nine-game winning streak in which they have looked spry, harmonious and hungry, that potential has become an early reality.
In our season preview of the Celtics, we noted how young of a rotation they were playing. Only Marcus Smart had more than two years of experience of all the bench rotation, and the roster contains seven rookies.
The thinking is obvious; like any newcomer, be it in an office workplace, a school playground social circle or a prison, rookies will know their place and more willingly take a back seat than the established veterans.
And because of this, by going younger, the Celtics hoped to avoid the rotational and tensions caused by last year's overabundance.
Ten games in, and that appears to be the case. Notwithstanding the fact that Enes Kanter has been out injured, while Hayward has suffered a fractured hand and will miss the next four to six weeks, the Celtics appear to be running out a 12-man rotation, just as we saw they were in the pre-season.
Not all of these pieces are playing at their best; in particular, rookie reserve forward Grant Williams has yet to catch up to the pace of NBA play offensively or the slightly longer three-point line, and is shooting only 25.8 per cent from the field, while Tatum's desire to play like Kobe Bryant is seeing him force up too many awkward mid-range shots and overly contorting around the basket, shooting only 39.7 per cent himself as the go-to player on the wing. Nevertheless, the team as a whole are clicking offensively.
On the season so far, the Celtics are ranked first overall offensively, committing by far the fewest turnovers in the league and embodying old school efficiency as a result.
Replacing Irving with Kemba Walker has meant a slight talent downgrade, but only a slight one - Walker himself is a worthy multiple-time All-Star and tremendous offensive talent at the point guard position, one without ideas above his station (as evidenced by his many years of protest-free toiling away on a Charlotte Hornets franchise that never threatened the high playoff seeds). Less of a ball-dominant player than Irving, he will still contribute a consistent 20+ points per night with the ability to single-handedly change the outcome of any game, but who has yet to rub anyone the wrong way in doing so.
At the forward positions, allowing Morris to walk to be replaced only by the more defensive-minded Grant Williams opened up time and shots for Tatum, who as a result is able to try and become a half-court god without it hurting the team by having Morris alongside him trying to do the same. And in replacing Rozier with rookie guard Carsen Edwards, the Celtics get the same type of player with far more congruity, also allowing Smart to get more time at the point guard position, which in turn frees up more shooting guard minutes.
In particular, two players who were with the team last year in smaller roles have become important pieces in the offensive efficiency of this season.
Firstly, sophomore centre Robert Williams has become a piece of the rotation regardless of the nightly status of Kanter. In a frenetic style akin to highly disruptive New York Knicks centre Mitchell Robinson, Williams is using his dominant athleticism to be both a strong rebounder, a defensive deterrent, and, most potently, an extremely efficient offensive option.
There is no value to be gained in asking Williams to create, to take jumpers, to handle the ball on the perimeter or even to post up. Instead, the Celtics have extracted league-leading 77.6 per cent shooting from him by just having him lurk near the basket, in the dunk positions, waiting for a lob pass that he can finish over the defense, the kind of shot that no one can stop.
Any driving guard is happy to see a leaper like Williams lurking around the rim, someone they can always throw a lob pass up for. Williams is able to catch and finish like few others have ever been able to, and while he offers nothing else with consistency offensively, this vertical spacing concept - most famously embodied by two-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz - expands a playbook without requiring any specific plays to be run.
Williams' decision-making, particularly on defence, needs refining, but the need to replace the interior defence of Horford has meant needing to play Williams, who in turn has added a dimension to the offense.
Meanwhile, Brown has got his starting spot back and is thriving offensively as a result. Perhaps more than anyone, Brown more keenly felt the effect of Hayward's return and Morris' presence last year, averaging five minutes per game less in his third season than his second and starting only 25 games instead of 70.
His offensive opportunities, inevitably, shrunk accordingly. Yet back among the starting five this season, Brown is averaging a career-best 20.1 points per game on a scorching hot .601 true shooting percentage. He is getting to the rim, and he is doing so commensurate with the talent around him.
If Tatum wants to be the wing isolation scorer, and if Walker is contented with being Steph Curry-light and the ultimate playsaver, then it behoves the Celtics to have a player who can score freely alongside them without requiring many dribbles or called plays to do it. Brown has been that player, a relentless attacker in transition and semi-transition who is using the majority of his possessions as either a spot-up or full-court player, not as a wannabe creator.
When he does handle the ball, he is usually driving against ball reversals, close-outs or unset defenses - that is to say, he is taking advantage of the defensive gravity imparted by others, and being disciplined in when to attack. By contrast, although he has become an excellent scoring talent in his own right and is a much better shooter than Brown is at this stage, Morris, as seen in our recent look at his new team the New York Knicks, has a tendency to force the action. When he, Rozier, Morris and at times Irving were all doing that, the flow was lost.
By losing plenty of talent, then, the Celtics have improved as a unit. There is a clear hierarchy now, one which so far has been undisputed and successful. They still have decent depth, and if some of their young players can demonstrate significant in-season growth, it will only help what looks to be a potentially deep playoff run.
More important than the depth though has been the play of the horses they chose to back. The Celtics last year were replete with players overly keen to prove themselves. Yet they chose to back the pairing of Brown and Williams, two of the only few who didn't, and are all the better for it.
