Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“It’s fool’s gold the way we’re playing offense so good.”
Isaiah Thomas with what, I think, is the most spot-on analysis of the Celtics’ struggles to start the season.
“Guys are getting more opportunities on the offensive end, so maybe that means they’re taking a step back defensively, which is not good,” Thomas said. “It’s hard to play both ends of the floor at a high level, and that’s why only a few players in this league can do that. But we’ve just got to get that mindset back of being a defensive team and then letting the offense take care of itself.
Geez. That, to me, is just a perfect diagnosis of what ails the C’s. The Celtics are, as Steve Bulpett observes, getting caught up in shootouts.
The offense is coming a lot easier to the Celtics with Horford around, but the bottom line is that it’s not coming so easily that they can coast on defense and count on better offensive execution to win night in and night out. Fact is, offense is about averages–and averages aren’t average.
You flip a coin a hundred times and it’s going to come up heads about 50 times and tails about 50 times. But it’s not going to be heads-tails-heads-tails-heads-tails. It’s going to come in streaks. Same way with shooting the ball. A team that shoots 48% isn’t going to shoot 48% every night.
That’s offense. It can be spectacular or it can be way off because ultimately it depends on how often you can put a ball in a basket by means of a process that is, statistically speaking, extremely unreliable (not quite as bad as hitting a baseball, but in that neighborhood–especially from the three point line).
Defense, on the other hand, isn’t about averages. It’s not glamorous, it requires focus and it requires effort. But it is something that can be delivered, at a team level, on a consistent basis night in and night out. There is more control and less chance on defense.
For young players, defense is also something that can be relied on. Your shot may not be falling, but you can still play good team defense, you can feel good about your contributions on that end of the court night in and night out. If you’re athletic enough to play offense in this league, you’re athletic enough to at least be a passable team defender.
Page 2: Where Thomas still gets no respect
Thomas, who ranks second in scoring in the East behind DeRozan, has seen his scoring average climb nearly four points from last year’s All-Star season, while his assist numbers are up a tick to a career-best 6.3 per game. Thomas ranks sixth in the NBA in usage rate (behind only DeRozan in the East) and is maybe the biggest reason that injury-ravaged Boston was able to keep its head above water over the first month of the season.
Thomas was not judged to be one of the nine best players in the Eastern Conference last month.
This is because he’s short. Let’s not even try to pretend otherwise at this point.
IT is, to a ridiculous number of people who are paid money to know things about basketball, nothing more than a gimmick. The idea is that he cannot possibly be good at basketball in any legitimate sense because he is not tall enough to be good at basketball.
To these people, IT’s success, thus far, is a product of smoke and mirrors and that it will only be a matter of time before he is exposed as some sort of basketball charlatan, that his ability to score was a result of cheap tricks and not talent and confidence. These people are living for their opportunity to say, “See! We told you he was a fraud!”
Now, as with Allen Iverson, IT’s career may be shortened because of how he plays, but make no mistake, he earns those points. He knows how to use his body–and his defender’s body–to create the separation needed to get his shots off. He works on his game. And he believes the next shot is going in. What part of that is not what is looked for in a good basketball player?
“But his defense…” Bah! Since when is that a measuring stick held up to other players? Nobody’s giving Kyrie Irving all-defense votes. IT may not be a good individual defender, but he’s a net positive in any Celtics combination, and that’s in part because he’s a capable team defender. Watch him defend a longer/faster guard some time. Watch how good he is at steering his man into a taller help defender and managing the passing lanes to steer the other team’s offense into the thick of Boston’s defense. Yes, he can’t switch on screens–but just about everybody else on the Celtics can, so that’s not as big of a problem as it might be otherwise.
The rest of the links:
MassLive: Boston Celtics notes: Ish Smith’s killer transition run, Al Horford’s low shot total and more
Boston Globe: DeMarcus Cousins focused on Kings, not trade rumors
NESN: Isaiah Austin Can Pursue NBA Career After Receiving Medical Clearance
CSNNE: Would Andrew Bogut be a good fit with Celtics? | DeMarcus Cousins says he’s used to the trade rumors | Danny Ainge: ‘Anticipate trade talks to heat up in mid-December’ | Blakely: Defense, not shot selection, the bigger issue
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