FanPost

So how are things really going since we fixed our rotation...

This team seems to have turned a corner of sorts after the shuffling of the starting lineup. On November 23rd, Brad Stevens elected to move Gordon Hayward to the bench and promoted Marcus Morris to the starting 5. This move made a lot of sense. The starting 5 was clearly not clicking over the first 20 games, and Morris had been our 2nd best all around player to that point. Hayward had also clearly not returned at anywhere near 100% capacity, and had basically played like a replacement level player through the first 20 games. While the result of that move was an 18 point victory over Atlanta, Boston dropped their next game to a surging Dallas team. I think fans over-reacted to this loss, which came on the 2nd night of a back-to-back in Dallas against a Mavs team that was in the middle of a 13-4 run (including wins over OKC, Golden State, Portland, Boston, and Houston twice). But still, you got the sense that things hadn't quite clicked.

Fast forward to November 26th, when Jaylen Brown was unavailable due to injury. Marcus Smart got the starting nod in the back court next to Kyrie, and things started working. Smart took pressure off Kyrie, and he seemed to loosen up. The starting 5 started to dominate, and the result has been a 10-4 stretch. During this 14 game period, it's worth noting that we have been without either Al Horford, Baynes, or both in all but 2 of the 14 games (wtih Horford on a minutes restriction in the last few contests). This really impacted the Cs in the Bucks, Suns, and Rockets losses, where we were beaten up in the paint and on the glass.

There seems to be a growing sentiment that the team still has a long way to go, but recent play by the guys that were struggling has been much better. Kyrie has been electric over the last 14, scoring 26 a game on ridiculous 50/46/88 shooting splits and still managing to kick in 7 assists a game. Tatum, Morris, Horford, Hayward, Brown and Rozier are all kicking 15 - 20 points per 36 minutes with solid efficiency, with Horford and Morris being especially efficient. The offense is also getting Theis, Baynes, and Timelord good looks at the rim - all three guys are scoring efficiently (if not that often). Marcus Smart seems to be both helping and benefiting from his new starting role, as he is sporting a 35% 3FG% and a 52.8 TS% (not great, but well above his career numbers), likely due to him playing a lower usage role than he plays as the 2nd unit PG.

The team has democratically spread out the play-making and rebounding duties. Over that 14 game stretch, we are slightly above average on the glass as a team (50.3 REB%) in spite of playing smaller with Horford, Morris and Baynes missing multiple games. Everyone is kicking in, with nobody on the squad with a DRB% over 20 but guys like Tatum, Morris, Rozier and Hayward picking up some of the slack. Ball movement has been key to our offensive success (we lead the NBA in OFFRTG over everyone's last 14 games) and Smart, Rozier, Hayward, and Horford are all doing their thing finding the open man while taking care of the ball (as a team, we have the 2nd best AST:TOV ratio in this time period).

Even guys who have been maligned for struggling are playing much better than we are giving them credit for playing. Hayward, Rozier and Brown have all been solid. 14/7/and 5 per 36 minutes with 40% from behind the arc and a solid TS% isn't quite what we expected for $30M a season from Hayward, but it's plenty good enough to make chatter about Hayward hanging it up after this year sound ridiculous. Both Jaylen and Rozier have been pretty close to last year's usage / efficiency (with Jaylen suffering a bit because of his 3 point shooting slump).

I don't think anybody expected to be 20-14 ,but given how poorly we started the year, I am not shocked. This team had some things to figure out, and the last 14 games look like we are figuring it out.

What does everyone else think?

PLAYER

MIN

PTS

TS%

USG%

FGM

FGA

FG%

3PM

3PA

3P%

FTM

FTA

FT%

EFG%

REB

OREB%

DREB%

AST

TOV

AST/TO

STL

BLK

OFFRTG

DEFRTG

NETRTG

Kyrie Irving

32.5

25.5

62.7

28.8

9.4

18.6

50.4

3.3

7.1

46.7

3.4

3.8

88

59.3

5.2

4.4

11.1

6.7

2.7

2.49

1.5

0.3

121.3

100.9

20.4

Jayson Tatum

30.5

17.2

57.4

22.2

6.4

13.7

46.9

1.8

5

35.7

2.6

2.9

87.8

53.4

6.2

2.3

17.5

1.1

1.5

0.76

1.2

0.8

117.3

103.3

14

Marcus Smart

29.8

8.7

52.8

12.9

2.9

7.4

38.5

1.6

4.5

34.9

1.4

1.9

76.9

49

3.1

3.5

6.7

4.5

1.1

3.94

2.6

0.1

119.2

106.8

12.4

Marcus Morris

29.1

17.8

66.5

20.5

6.3

12.2

52.1

2.6

5.8

44.3

2.5

2.7

93.8

62.7

6

3.9

17.3

1.9

1

1.92

0.6

0.3

123.8

102.7

21.1

Al Horford

27.7

13.8

61.9

19.5

6

10.7

56.3

0.8

2.3

35.7

1

1.2

85.7

60.2

6.5

5.7

16.7

3.8

1.7

2.3

0.8

1.2

119.7

101.7

18

Gordon Hayward

26.3

10.8

54.8

17.4

3.5

8.8

40

1.4

3.6

39.5

2.4

2.6

93.5

48.1

4.3

2.7

13.2

3.8

1.3

2.81

0.8

0.3

116.8

107.5

9.3

Jaylen Brown

23.7

12.6

53.6

22.9

4.7

10.4

45.2

1.1

3.6

30.6

2.1

3.1

67.7

50.5

4

3.5

11.7

1.8

1.4

1.29

1.2

0.5

106.1

105.8

0.3

Terry Rozier

23.3

9.2

52.5

17.6

3.3

8.2

40

1.6

4.5

34.9

1.1

1.3

83.3

49.6

4.2

2.5

15.1

3.3

1.1

3.07

1

0.3

105.4

109.1

-3.7

Daniel Theis

19.6

8.8

60.8

16.7

3.2

6.2

50.6

0.8

1.9

40

1.7

2.2

75.9

56.8

4.8

8.9

14.9

1.4

0.7

2

0.5

0.6

116.1

105.5

10.7

Aron Baynes

13.9

4.9

66.3

13.7

1.9

3.1

60

0.1

0.5

25

1

1.3

80

62

3.9

9.4

17.9

1

0.9

1.14

0.1

0.1

122.7

95.8

26.9

Robert Williams III

11.9

3.9

70.9

12.3

1.7

2.4

70.8

0

0

0

0.5

0.8

62.5

70.8

3.7

11.1

17.4

0.1

0.7

0.14

0.3

2.1

94

102.3

-8.3

Semi Ojeleye

11.8

5.2

54.8

17.2

1.8

4.4

41.5

0.9

2.8

33.3

0.6

0.7

87.5

51.9

2

4.3

10.9

0.3

0.3

1.33

0.1

0

99.7

100.3

-0.7

FanPosts are fan-created content and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CelticsBlog. Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.