Weekend Greenie Bag - Are Hairstyles Negatively Impacting The Celtics Shooting?
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Weekend Greenie Bag. If you missed last week’s mailbag that’s OK you just owe me the pageview (I’m not joking, you are now required to click on my next few blogs to make up for it. Shame on you), but you can also catch up here . This week was another strong showing in terms of submissions, which I am thankful for. Remember, anytime you have a Celtics thought tell me about it. You’ll make the blog, and can finish the summer strong with some ammo to capitalize on those Barstool perks. It’s easy, tweet it with #Greeniebag or get creative and email greenieceltsbag@gmail.com
OK let’s get started. Your questions…
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Greenie my man. Let me start off by telling you that as a stoolie and a Celtics fan, you’re killing the game in the blog world and that your Celtics coverage from a fan perspective is unmatched. As a Greenie supporter I do my job in getting my friends to hop on the Greenie train and of course I bought my Isaiah DA GAWD shirt (fire emoji) . Now let me get to it, I’ve enlisted in US Marines and am going to miss the first 13 weeks of the season given that I’ll be in bootcamp and completely cut off from the world. Except for letters that is. So here’s where you come in…if a busy man like yourself can cram in some 20 thousand words in a blog week (light work), how crazy of a question is it to ask for updates of some sort via letter for our boys in green straight from the man himself? Hope you’re up for the challenge. Go Celtics.
Viva. – Kevin
Not a bad way to start. I think it goes without saying that Kevin, you my friend are a much better man than me. Glad we have such a badass on the Isaiah squad, thats reassuring. I’m happy to hear you’ve enjoyed the blogs, and I can understand how devastating it must feel to have to leave those behind. Tragic really. But there’s light at the end of that tunnel. If there is one thing I hope they put on my gravestone its that I was a blogger who was there for his readers. So we have a couple options
A) I can send you something with printouts of all that weeks blogs so you can have something that’s game by game
B) I can write up a general weekly recap
However, here’s what I will not do. I will not write shit by hand. Not because of the time commitment, but because Helen Keller probably has better penmanship than me. Sometimes I take a look at what I write down and I’m shocked I am a functioning human. It’s a disaster.
Let me know which you prefer, send along an address and don’t worry about a thing. I got you.
I can tell you Danny is hoping he found himself a diamond in the rough. It’s not as if Gerald Green is some sort of spring chicken, a young prospect with tons of potential who is uber athletic. He was that, but things didn’t take off as maybe people predicted when he first entered the league. Green has given us a body of work to take a look at, and reasonably come to a conclusion on what we can not only expect, but how he can get there.
In looking at Green’s career, I notice a trend. Green’s been at his best when he gets over 19 minutes of floor time. During his time in the league when Green is given minutes, he tends to produce within expectation. Years he didn’t play, his numbered suffered. Not a world breaking theory or anything, but that’s where you have to start when you’re going to ask about the Celtics rotations. As a rookie, Marcus Smart averaged 27 minutes per game. Evan Turner averaged 28 minutes per game last year. I think Jaylen Brown gets a crack at those 28 minutes per game to start the year. If that gets cut down, I think you start to see more Gerald Green. You could very well see second unit lineups of Smart/Rozier/Brown/Green/Mickey when they have to go small, so I don’t have huge expectations. As long as he does more good than bad, I’ll take it. Low risk since you have depth at his position, and anything he gives you is just gravy.
For the most part I like your lineup. This is where I think we’ll start to see the benefit of having a player like Horford. With this combination you utilize your three best defenders down the stretch, while still having great offensive options in both Isaiah and Al. This lineup has shooting, it has variation as you could have Isaiah or Marcus run the point, it allows them to play fast in transition, and still provides rim protection. I think it just moved.
To take it a bit further, if a team were to go big on the Celtics during crunch time, swap Marcus for Amir. Jae provides the same on ball defense who then slides into the three, and you have your two best defensive big men to match up.
I am well aware that any potential deal to bring Boogie to Boston is going to sting. It will require some serious pulls on the heartstrings of yours truly. Without knowing what those picks and role players are of course I say yes, I don’t think twice about it. So let’s pretend the trade is happening and I just need to decide between Avery and Smart. This may be the unpopular decision, but I keep Avery. I understand that Smart is younger and has a higher ceiling, that’s why I said this is going to hurt. I’ll remind you that Avery is just 25, and has improved each year he’s been in the league. I know what he is, its a proven commodity. With Smart, it could end up he becomes a better player than Avery, but right this second, he’s not quite there. A starting lineup of Isaiah/Avery/Jae/Horford/Boogie is something that interests me very much.
Laugh all you want but the 46-year-old NBA veteran is an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers who earned over $17M during his time as a player so the jokes on you.
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Been reading the blog for a while and I saw something on reddit that has me stumped. Watch this video and try to tell me you’re not convinced (you don’t have to watch the entire 11 mins but you get the point). I know it’s totally pulled together like a cheap conspiracy theory video, but i can’t stop thinking about it. Especially because we have players like Smart, Brown and Young who’s shot MIGHT be effected. Am I going crazy? name some of the best shooters of all time – Ray Allen – BALD, Reggie Miller – BALD, MJ – BALD, J-Kidd – BALD Jason Terry – BALD, Kobe – SHAVED THE FRO
Now it doesn’t work with everyone, because I know some shooters have hair, but at the same time this Jimmy Butler/Justise Winslow hairstyle hasn’t been around forever. Has there ever been a GREAT shooter who rocked a fro/flat top/ big hair? And do you thing Marcus should shave his head to get the stroke back? – Swanny Sec 309 Row 15
Bravo Swanny, bravo. This is how you know it’s August and I love it. Not a terrible theory given this very convincing and foolproof video. Very scientific. I want to address each part of your question separately. The list of greatest shooters of all time you provided is accurate, but you made one very common mistake. In your brain you see them as how they finished their career.
For example, Reggie Miller rocketed a fairly high flat top early in his Pacers career, and he dominated from the minute he stepped on an NBA floor
I’m not going to lie, this took some time to think through. The problem is the generational gap. Great players from decades ago didn’t do the type of shit these guys pull off, so this is as good as I could do off the top of my head
A young Glenn Rice had 45%/39% splits
A young Dominique had 45%/30% splits and averaged 27 a game
A young Robert Horry turned in a 45%/38% season
When it comes to the Celtics, I’m kind of with you. I 100% buy into this theory and it needs to be addressed immediately. That means trips to the barber for Marcus and Jaylen and Gerald. I’m not really sure how this is debatable I mean did you see that breakdown on Marcus’ jump shot? His hand is clearly higher, and it’s leading to a lower percentage. Keep your eyes peeled on this as we get closer to the season and don’t be surprised if we see something different.
UPDATE:
It’s already happened!! Breakout year on the horizon, book it
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Hey Greenie,
Huge fan of the blog, hope you get in barstool full time soon!
I was curious about why you think Ainge let Sully walk at such a low price tag for one year? I was thinking he was sick of waiting for Sully to get in shape and didn’t want to waste minutes on him that could go to other guys that will contribute more in the future, but at a one year deal I wasn’t sure if it was worth losing all those rebounds. Thoughts?
Thanks – Mike
I used to think Jared Sullinger was the most useless player on the C’s last year until it dawned on me that he was our most effective rebounder. Now I’m having nightmares (literally can’t sleep) over the fact that the Celts are gonna be overpowered on the glass at both ends. Talk me off the roof of the Garden here, Greenie. How is Boston going to fill the void? Because second and third chance points are gonna kill, especially if our offense is as “dynamic” as last years.
- Sugar
I’m grouping these together because Mike, Sugar and myself all share a common concern, and that is the rebounding hole left with Jared Sullinger’s departure. I think a few different things played factors into Ainge’s decision to move on from the young forward. The obvious reason being they could add a player like Horford. Now I’ve always been a Sullinger guy, I think he got a raw deal because of one bad series against Atlanta, but for where he was drafted Sully provided great value. Danny and Brad obviously felt that based on how they want to play, and after giving Sullinger every chance to prove he should be a piece moving forward, they had seen enough and went in a different direction.
On the surface you might be thinking it’s no big deal. Sulinger averaged 8.3 rebounds last year and Horford 7.3. Not a huge difference. But those numbers are deceiving. Here’s what I care more about, and thats rebounding percentage. Last year Horford had an offensive rebounding percentage of 6.3%, Sullinger 10.6%. On the defensive side Horford had a defensive rebounding percentage of 18% and Sullinger 27%. This tells me that while their totals are similar, Sullinger is a much better rebounder. He asserts himself much better. Something that has plagued the Celtics during the dark years was their inability to defensive rebound, and you just lost your best defensive rebounder and replaced him with someone who historically is not as good. That’s somewhat nerve wracking.
The hope is that Jordan Mickey can come in and make up some of the difference in the rebounding department, and you may not have seen him much this summer, but I’m not ready to fully dive into that way of thinking. Mickey has the potential to help, but he needs to be more aggressive and you know….actually rebound.
This question doesn’t have the hashtag but you know what when you get your own mailbag you can make the rules. Jon, I do think I could keep up with the entire NBA in a similar role sort of like a Barstool Basketball. Basically just waiting for someone to say go. Had some general early conversations about it, but if this is something stoolies would be interested in, shit don’t just tell me on Twitter, let Dave know, tweet at Erika, send mail, call into the Dave Portnoy Show and demand it I dunno stoolies can be creative. Help me help you kill time at work.
And with that we end this week’s Greenie bag and if you’ve made it this far you are a true friend. If I didn’t get to your question I’ll probably use it next week so don’t let it ruin your weekend. To all that wrote in thank you, and let’s have ourselves an outstanding Saturday.