Every week…ish, former Celtics Town contributors Thomas King (@celticstown) and Jordan Higgs (@EreJordan) watch a game together and discuss the state of the Celtics. In the second edition of ‘Two Guys, One Column’ the pair will take a look back at the Boston Celtics 108-98 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Jordan Higgs: After an up and down start to the season the Celtics are finally rolling and on a 52 win pace, even surviving a bit of injury trouble. Of course, none of this is a surprise when you look at how their all-star offensive savant has been playing lately. Thats right Tommy, I’m talking about Kelly Olynyk!
Thomas King: Isaiah Thomas had another bonkers fourth quarter to hold off the pesky Hornets, but I want to take a moment to talk about Kelly Olynyk for a few reasons. First, Thomas has been putting on such insane performances this season that it’s not even news anymore when he does something crazy, like hitting seven three-pointers and dropping a cool 17 points in the final frame, As Olynyk said after the game, “I’d be surprised if he didn’t do it” at this point.
But when Olynyk scores 9 points, grabs 5 rebounds, and drops 3 assists in his first eight minutes of action, it deserves mention. Amidst Thomas’ historic heroism, Olynyk has quietly been providing a big two-way boost off the Boston bench. The sweet-shooting seven footer has reached double figures in four of his last five games, following up his 26-point effort against Atlanta with 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. During that stretch, Olynyk is posting averages of 14.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3 assists per game while shooting a scorching 63 percent from the field and 11 for 15 from distance. He’s even shot some three-pointers without pump-faking or hesitating beforehand!
With Olynyk and Marcus Smart, I’m confident the Celtics have one of the best bench duos in the league, yet overall, the bench has been a big liability. It seems every second quarter, the game becomes damn near unwatchable when coach Brad Stevens goes to his bench-heavy unit. In the playoffs, however, coaches almost always shrink their rotation. If Stevens does shrink the playoff rotation to eight or nine guys, who makes the cut with Olynyk and Smart? Rookie Jaylen Brown had some big plays for the Celtics last night, do we think he’ll be seeing significant playoff minutes?
JH: Alright first of all, I’d like to thank Isaiah Thomas for showing us what it would be like if Linsanity had been so dominant and gone on so long that it became boring. He’s so good we don’t even want to talk about the dude, his heroics have become routine!
Second of all, I can’t believe you and the rest of Celtics nation have let Olynyk trick you AGAIN! Don’t get me wrong–Olynyk was great, even dominant at points, last night against the Hornets. Haven’t we seen this before though? Every season Olynyk puts together a few stretches like this and Celtics fans think he’s finally turning the corner. He never turns the corner! He always gets injured or exposed or forgets to shoot and not just pump fake. Kelly Olynyk is like the onion ring in your order of french fries, a nice surprise but not something I’m going to count on.
And I love Jaylen Brown but nothing I’ve seen so far makes me think he’ll be in Brad’s rotation come playoff time. He made some great plays last night and I’m happy to see him get some run, but his decision making and consistency on both ends of the floor is still lacking. I don’t think Brad trusts him, for good reason. He needs to keep getting run but he’ll have to show some major growth to carve out a spot in the rotation come playoff time. I think we’re looking at a Smart-Green-Jerebko-Olynyk bench come playoff time–if Brad cuts down the rotation which I don’t think he will.
TK: Stop ruining my hard-won optimism, Higgs! Olynyk even threw down a power dunk (even though I was terrified he took off from too far out and was going to come up short), THE BOUNCE IS REAL! But you’re right, that’s always the question with him. When he gets punched in the mouth and sees his own blood, will he throw in the towel and back down…or just sit out the next five games due to injury?
I think you’re also right on Brown. Last night was a perfect example of why he can’t be trusted in big games, despite flashes of brilliance. Brown had two incredible, athletic finishes to close out the first quarter on a high note. On the first play, he took the contact, paused in mid-air for a photo, and banked in the layup for an and-one. Then, on the last play of the quarter, he busted out in transition, dribbling right to the rim and laying the ball in smoothly over Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. So how does he start the second quarter? By taking two ill-advised pull-up mid-range jumpers that are all but wasted possessions. Couple that with what we’ll generously call a lack of defensive awareness, and it’s easy to see why Stevens has a hard time trusting the rook just yet. He has a bright future ahead, but still needs time to learn the ropes.
Though Olynyk’s mentality may prevent him from ever taking the next step as a player, he remains an extremely valuable bench player, and Marcus Smart is a coach’s dream who makes AT LEAST one jump-out-your-seat hustle play a game (last night a double-dive steal where he batted the ball to Brown for an easy score). But who will be that crucial third man off the bench in the playoffs? As you said, it’ll probably toggle between Jonas Jerebko and Gerald Green, depending on whether Stevens needs offense or defense. Don’t you wish we could just combine Jerebko and Green into one two-headed bench monster? Jerebko does everything on the floor except shoot with consistency, while Green can fill it up, but is more lost on defense than Brown. Can’t we just get some geek at MIT to make this happen? Is that legal under the new CBA?
JH: The more I stew on this the more it feels like this is where Ainge should be focusing his efforts. A trustworthy wing for the bench (and perhaps a replacement for Amir Johnson who is trustworthy but uninspiring, the anti-Olynyk) would go a long way towards rounding out this roster for the playoffs. I’m sure the Celtics hoped Jaylen Brown could be that eighth man a la rookie Marcus Smart, a player who made enough key plays to make up for his shortcomings, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. Jaylen Brown has about a month to convince us otherwise.
I feel like we’d remiss if we didn’t talk about the Hornets a bit. The Celtics have now beaten them three times this season, and as of tonight they’re sitting in 9th place. Do you think they’ll make the playoffs? How do you feel the Celtics would match up with them?
TK: The Celtics have beaten the Hornets seven out of their last eight tries, so I think it’s safe to say it’s a good matchup for the guys in green. Kemba Walker has grown into one of the better point guards in the NBA and he’s another fourth quarter killer like Thomas, but Charlotte doesn’t have anybody on that back line that is in any way physically imposing or protects the rim. I mean, the Celtics actually out rebounded them last night, which is about as rare as a solar eclipse these days. I do think Charlotte will jump into the playoffs because they play hard, they have a good coach, and they have good team chemistry, but they need a better bench or a rim protector to make any noise.
But we’ve avoided the topic long enough, Isaiah Thomas was an absolute beast last night…again. That step back he drained in the corner after toying with Cody Zeller with the handles was downright mean and nasty. Can he continue at this ridiculous pace? As absurd at this sounds, is Thomas actually UNDERRATED? I feel like if he was 6-foot-4, people would overlook his defensive flaws. Westbrook, Harden, Lillard all suck on defense, how come that doesn’t affect their superstar status. I mean this guy has a case for best point guard in the East, right? It’s probably Kyle Lowry but I think I’d take him over Kyrie Irving or John Wall. Am I just a homer?
JH: You’re a homer. That aside, I think Thomas’ consensus superstar status is being held back by the perception that his defensive shortcomings are insurmountable and not an effort problem. None of those guys you mentioned bring it defensively on a nightly basis but I think they are all at least competent when they are engaged (except Lillard). I never get the impression that Thomas isn’t trying on defense, more often than not he’s in the right place and his man just shoots over the top of him. So for the time being I think Thomas is properly rated. He’s consistently in the second tier of the MVP discussion and putting up massive numbers both overall and in the clutch. For him to rise to the top of the East point guard discussion he’s going to have to do 80% of this in the playoffs while not appearing to be a giant defensive negative—which may (unfairly?) just come down to how well Brad hides him. I’m rooting for that ascension, I think Isaiah Thomas has been unfairly maligned for his playoff performance these past two years but given that he’s shattered all expectations for how he’d perform in the regular season I expect he’ll be able to do the same come April.
TK: What more can we say? Words cannot adequately describe what he is accomplishing for this team. It has to be seen to be fully believed. All hail The King of the Fourth!
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