After watching just an open practice scrimmage and one preseason game, one thing can be determined about Marcus Thornton: he will shoot. With or without notice, with or without a defender guarding him, he will launch. Last night it felt like there were two of him out there, even the JumboTron operator was fooled. Ball movement you say? Missiles Marcus understands that as “shoot the ball, making it move towards the basket.” This is not a completely bad thing, but it does highlight an inherent problem with the current configuration of this roster.
Before Tuesday’s practice, the Boston Celtics veteran was asked if every coach has given him a green light like Brad Stevens intends to.
“Nah, not really,” Thornton said. “I’ve had a couple of them. Brad, Paul Westphal. Just a couple of them to name. But nah, a lot of them haven’t been like that. Now I feel like I have no pressure on me. I just got out there and play my game.”
Thornton smiled as he discussed the thought, as if daydreaming already about all the 3-pointers he will launch this season. During Monday night’s preseason win against the Philadelphia 76ers, the 27-year-old drilled four triples en route to netting 14 points. He took 13 shots in 14 minutes, but won’t hear many calls from the sideline telling him to rein it in.
“You play a role and his role is to score in bunches,” head coach Brad Stevens said. “That’s a great role to have because everybody likes it, right? But that’s what he does well. And we’re going to have to continue to have him do that. It’s tough (to coach a player like that) if he doesn’t make any. But he’s got the green light because he can get hot.”
The above clip is taken from Jay King’s practice report. I get it. Brad Stevens is not messing around by attempting to make Thornton something he isn’t. Thornton is like that guy you play pickup with that will jack up shots all day no matter what. Except in this setting the coach is fully on board and demanding that he does it.
Coming off the bench and providing a quick burst of scoring is essential for any team that’s trying to win, trying to establish themselves as a playoff team. But is that what’s best for this Celtics team? Part of the problem in analyzing this team is that, much like last year, there’s still an odd mix of veterans and young guys.
Is it more beneficial for them to give lots of minutes to guys like Thornton, Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace, Brandon Bass, and to a lesser extent, Evan Turner? Or is it better to force guys like Olynyk, Sullinger, Zeller, Smart, Young, closer to 30+ MPG? Therein lies one of the biggest themes of this season: figuring out who is on that proverbial bus for the long term. Right now, they need to play the veterans a bit more than they’d like, just to build up any trade value even though the league is well aware of what they bring to the table. Still, they have to be active.
So maybe Stevens is giving the green light to do exactly what he did with Jordan Crawford last year: build up enough value to get something (which, by the way, is a minor miracle since Crawford is out of the league and barely played for GSW last year).
The current limbo state of the team will be maddening at times, but hey we can all enjoy an all-out shooting spree by Thornton when he puts up 14 shots in 14 minutes. After all, when Danny Ainge was a TV analyst for TNT, he would always first point out the FGAs as his first stat that stuck out to him. Keep launching those missiles, Marcus!
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