The Weekend Greenie Bag - What's Been The Most Infuriating Part Of The Season So Far?
Still riding that Isaiah high? Me too. Let’s keep the good feelings rolling with another edition of the Weekend Greenie Bag. The past week was stressful to say the least, and it was reflected in your questions/submissions. On behalf of the full stomachs of Larry and Walter let me thank everyone who wrote in for your contribution to keeping this franchise going strong. If you are filled to the brim with a hot Celtics take, or are really fucked up and have an outrageous question, joining the fun is easy. Tweet me something with #greeniebag or email greenieceltsbag@gmail.com. Piece of cake.
Alright time to dive in. Your questions…
Pat this is really the million dollar question. Of the many areas the Celtics need to improve upon, anyone with a brain can see what is happening with their frontcourt outside of Horford and know they need help. I think their most recent performance against CHA gave us a sneak peak of maybe how Brad is thinking. First off, Zeller’s DNP-CD certainly helps you in this regard. Bless his effort but he is not stopping anybody on the defensive end. By playing Jerebko more and moving Horford to center, you aren’t really getting “tougher” but you’re forcing Horford to be closer to the basket, which has shown to improve his rim protection and rebounding.
The Celtics are never going to have someone who has the inside presence of like a Boogie, or Drummond, or AD. Personally I’d like to see Mickey get some minutes, it certainly can’t hurt. The real answer though is that if the Celtics are interested in drastically improving their frontcourt, it’s coming from someone not currently on the roster.
I do Alex, I do think they can beat the Pelicans. They haven’t yet, but it’s just a matter of time.
Trevor I don’t want to blow your mind or anything, but what if I told you Olynyk’s been as good if not better than he ever has been in his career, he’s just shooting the ball less. Might seem odd I know, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Currently getting 21 minutes per game, he is 1 min behind his career high in minutes. Kelly’s 2p% has gone up from 48 to 53%. He’s currently at a career high in defensive rebounding and has his second highest rebounding average of his career. Granted it’s only 4.4 so it’s not exactly high or anything, but it is better than last year. Also throw in his slight uptick in assists and for the most part as he’s gotten more healthy and more minutes, things have worked out.
Having said that, you aren’t entirely crazy. His problem this year is his hesitation is creeping back in, and that’s frustrating as hell. His PER is also 2 points below his career average, so you can see it’s starting to creep into his production.
Email:
Hey Greenie,
First, your blogs after every game are very impressive with their depth and I love your work at barstool. Now my question is as I see it, there are three kinds of moves that would make sense for the Celtics to go for.
1. Overpay (realistically) for a superstar like Cousins or someone of that nature
2. Acquire someone that would help with bench scoring (like if we had been able to get someone like JR Smith)
3. Acquire a good rebounder on a solid contract (like Andrew Bogut or Tyson Chandler)
Which of these moves do you think would benefit this team the most both in the short term and the long term?
Thanks! – Max
No no Max, thank you for reading. The moves you mentioned that really interest me are 1 and 3, but I don’t think there is a realistic offer for any superstar right now. If there was it probably would be made already. That’s why for me, I think getting a good rebounder on a solid contract is most important. That doesn’t mean Nerlens Noel. All I want for Hannukah is either Andrew Bogut or Kenneth Faried. That’s it. Andrew Bogut almost makes too much sense, and Faried may cost a little bit more, but he’d help just as much.
The more time that passes, the more I feel like the Celtics strategy is to try and find minimal additions that will help improve their team (like a Bogut), and wait for someone like Boogie to hit FA, or at least keep waiting while his price drops. The more I think about it I don’t see how gutting a lot of your assets for one guy brings you any closer to beating Lebron. I always took the Horford signing as the first step. He broke the mold and came here, they make a little progress with him, and then other guys follow suit.
Email:
Who should the Celtics pursue in a trade/free agency to give the Celtics a true scorer when Isaiah is out or hurt? Thanks Greenie!
- Ryan
Sadly Ryan I think if they are going to add anyone to this roster, it’s not going to be a scorer. If I were a betting man, that’s what I say they hope Rozier blossoms into. The signing of Horford theoretically helps, and if they are able to get some gigantic prayer and being in Boogie or something that would do the trick as well.
Replacing someone like Isaiah is hard no matter who you try and replace him with because it’s not easy to get 26 point per game production from just anyone.
David when I first saw this question I thought it would be easy to come up with an answer about what infuriates me the most, but I couldn’t pick just one. For example, it really makes me mad that Brad doesn’t play Jaylen, even though I knew it was coming. Brad hates playing rookies, I get it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, especially when he shows flashes. It also infuriates me how people are still doubting Isaiah when he’s not only backed up everything he did last year, but he’s improved. I don’t love one bit how they started the year not focused and lost to completely awful teams. I don’t find it fun to watch them take 40+ threes and ruin their offense. How could I enjoy watching them not give a full effort for 48 minutes against weak competition when this was an area that gave them so much success just a season ago? I can’t.
As you can see it’s hard to choose. But when it comes down to the best surprise? That’s easy. For me, it’s the development of Avery Bradley. His rebounding is out of control, and I’ve especially loved hearing on the radio how some fans try and turn it into a negative. I think he’s taken his entire game a level up, something that he’s proven do to each of his previous seasons.
I would trade for Melo under one condition, and one condition only. That Porzingis comes with him. If not, he can stay the hell away from my basketball team.
That’ll do it for your questions this week, we now shift gears to this week’s Greenie Awards
This weeks MVP: Avery Bradley
With only two games this week, it’s back to back MVPs for Avery. By far the best player while Isaiah was out, he competed his ass off against SA, and then hit some dagger threes last night.
Play of the week: Isaiah Thomas
Everything he did last night
This week’s LVP: Amir Johnson
I mentioned it earlier today in the recap, but Amir didn’t give us much the last week. Now with talks about starting Jonas more, not great times for the Big Dog.
This week’s Most Improved Player: Marcus Smart
Another bright spot from the shitty stretch of no Isaiah was the development of Marcus The Creator. I thought Marcus did a pretty good job facilitating the offense, and playing what I truly believe is his better position. Keep Terry off the ball and let Marcus create the offense. That’s what I learned from him this past week.
As always thanks to everyone who wrote in, see you all same place same time next week. Have a great weekend!