Starting Five - 1/25
by Jeff Clark on Jan 25, 2010 7:37 AM EST
in Boston Celtics News & Links
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PrintA number of interesting bits and pieces from this morning.
Some interesting comments from Doc on the rebounding concerns. Downright offensive - ESPN Boston
"We're holding teams to 41, 42, 43 percent shooting, so clearly there's more offensive rebound opportunities," said Rivers, whose own team is shooting an NBA-best 48.7 percent, while limiting opponents to 44.3 percent (sixth in the NBA). "If we can get defensive rebounds, we can shoot 60 percent, because we can run. When teams are scoring and getting offensive rebounds, that slows the game down and takes us out of our break." Rivers noted that the Celtics don't put a heavy emphasis on generating their own offensive boards. He instructs his guards to fall back immediately upon shot release, while the bigs have the freedom to crash at their discretion.
Opposing point guards present problem for Celtics - The Boston Globe
Derrick Rose was the catalyst of the Bulls’ stunning win at Boston Jan. 14, providing 17 points and eight rebounds. Jason Kidd piled up 17 assists, to go with 13 points, in Dallas’s win over the Celtics Jan. 18. Rodney Stuckey totaled 27 points with 11 rebounds in Detroit’s victory Jan. 20. The only guard who didn’t lead his team to victory was Portland’s Andre Miller, who tallied 28 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds in an overtime loss Friday night. The commonality in those four guards is their strength and size advantage over Rondo. He simply can’t check those players one-on-one, and Rivers said the help hasn’t been there.
With Kevin Garnett back, Green find way - BostonHerald.com
Above all, according to Celtics coach Doc Rivers, the return of Kevin Garnett has signaled a return to certain principles that had started to fade. "He’s the guy who holds everyone else accountable on the Celtic way to play, and without him I thought that was slipping," Rivers said following yesterday’s practice, raising an issue that has struck a chord elsewhere in the lineup.
Every week an opposing fan who watches their team play Boston on League Pass will submit a comment about the fact that Heinsohn is a homer and follow that ground-breaking analysis with a general complaint about Celtics fans. This will then spawn a few more comments about Heinsohn, some defending him as an Oracle of Truth, others ripping him and (the smart ones, in my opinion) arguing that Hiensohn is aware of his own schtick and plays it up for entertainment value.
Hardwood Paroxysm " Graphic Offense: A Look At Usage and PER Mid-Season (Click the link for fuller description of the stats and some pretty (and pretty interesting) graphs from around the league.
There are instances where you want more of a "fuller" or "fatter"distribution. Then there are times when you want to skinny-up the offense. The Celtics probably need to skinny it up a bit. Notice #3, there? Sheed. And House. With higher usages than Ray Allen. That’s pretty damning, as is Kendrick Perkins, even with his limited offensive set, not getting many opportunities with as high a FG% as he has. But still, that’s a pretty healthy distribution chart, with two of the best players as the highest.
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Rondo definitely needs to pick up his game
not only have opposing guards been schooling him and scoring at will but Rondo has stopped creating for other guys. More often than not in the second half of games he’s been walking the ball up the floor and pounding the dribble. Occasionally he drives to the hoop but he hasn’t played a complete game in about 3 weeks. I think fatigue is an issue and he’s probably hurt a bit as well. I’m sure the hamstring is still an issue. Nonetheless the gambling D has to stop. I’ve been saying this for a while but we could really use a big guard who can body some of these players. Antonio Daniels is still out there I believe.
i’m not crazy about doc’s rebounding philosophy. too easy for the opposing team to board and get second and third shots and no c around to contest the offensive boards. in our defeats, i think we lose because of the disparity between us and them of shots off misses. i see us hustling all over the floor to cover the shooter and then losing the points after the miss. there is a logic to what doc says but there must be some sort of compromise.
Isn't the choice this????
More people banging the defensive glass and perhaps fewer fastbreak opportunties or
Less people banging the defenseve glass and thus fewer fastbreak opportunities (because the other team got an offensive rebound!!!!!!)
Choose the first option…….quit releasing so quickly for a fastbreak and have 5 guys banging the boards EVERYTIME…..and for the love of all that is holy….. BLOCKOUT!!! ….in Tommy Homerspeak…..“put a body on somebody!!!”
Fundamental basketball……it never changes……NEVER
Is it Soup Yet?
You misunderstood what Doc was saying
the ‘release quick’ is NOT from the defensive side. It is from the offensive side.
I.E – when the Celtic’s are on offense, once they put a shot up, the guards immediately release – this is to PREVENT the other team from getting fast breaks. The bigs are allowed to still fight for an offensive board if it is available, but they too should hustle back on defense.
That is what he is talking about when he talks about releasing quickly.
As far as the defensive boards go – i.e. when the Celtics are on defense – that’s where Doc agrees that we could do a little more. He definitely did not say we have a philosophy of breaking early for an offensive fast break. The raw number of offensive boards by the other team will always be high so long as our defense is causing teams to take poor shots. As long as we get MOST of those rebounds (they look like def. rebounds for us, off. rebounds for them) we are doing okay – but the more the better.
This last game, there were 47 rebound opportunities on the Portland side. We grabbed 31 of them.
There were 36 rebound opportunities on the Celtic side (we missed less often). We only grabbed 6 of those – pursuant to the philosophy that those aren’t as important as getting back on defense quickly.
When you look at those totals it looks superficially like Portland out-rebounded us (46 to 37). But that hides the fact that their high off. reb total is because we caused them to miss more shots and our low off. reb total is because we missed less often.
Doc knows that fast break possessions convert at a 60% rate. The more defensive boards we get, the more fast break possessions we’ll get. Thus boosting our conversion rate. So, yeah, on the defensive side it would not hurt to get even MORE rebounds.
It’s a bit greedy. We already are tied for first in the NBA in FG% (48.7%). If you look at where we are not doing so good efficiency wise on offense, it is actually from behind the 3-pt line where we are shooting a mediocre 34% (average for the NBA, but well below the career averages of Ray and Eddie). Statistical return-to-mean suggests that will rise in the second half.
C's need to improve thier rebounding
before heading into the playoffs.
The game is going to become more of a 1/2 court game then and rebounding will be critical.
All our bigs have to start crashing the boards and make it a mind set to get rebounds.
They are all physically built to get boards (except Baby) so I think lack of mental attention to rebounding is the reasoning for our lack of rebounding.
Also Doc has got to stop having players hang out in the perimeter waiting to get back on defense instead of getting in the low post and in position to grab boards.
How many times have we seen the C’s miss shots, then see only Perk under the boards fighting 3-5 opponents for the rebound.
It would also be nice if Danny can try to trade Scal for legit back rebounding power forward since Scal can not rebound a lick for a power forward, to give us a spot duty rebounder to come off the bench when we struggle rebounding in any games.
“The commonality in those four guards is their strength and size advantage over Rondo. He simply can’t check those players one-on-one”
In other words…
WE NEED KIRK HINRICH!!!!
Keep your "bigs" in the paint...at BOTH ends of the floor!
Limit the opposition to one shot every time they come down the floor.
+
Maximize your your own second-shot opportunities.
Doc's comments to me sound like superficial lip-service to media critics
who see the superficial rebound totals and don’t understand what Doc & Tom T. are doing on defense.
I don’t expect them to change a thing. Their philosophy and strategy are sound. The raw rebound numbers – especially the offensive rebound numbers – simply aren’t as important as shot percentage and possession efficiency.
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