The Weekend Greenie Bag - Sunday Scaries Edition
Hello and welcome to the first ever late night Sunday Scaries edition of the Weekend Greenie Bag. Had some things come up so I figured the perfect time to help prolong the weekend a little bit would be once football starting winding down and that Monday morning started to become more real. Many are saying I’m a hero but I won’t go that far. Just doing my job. If you would like to help make this job easier, you can tweet me all your basketball thoughts the second you have them with #GreenieBag or you can email them to greenieceltsbag@gmail.com.
Now, your questions
Mr. Lebowski brings up an interesting point about realistic expectations. I’ve started to see things all over the spectrum when it comes to this team, one one hand they added two top 15 players so they should be better than last year, then others say that you know what, not making the ECF wouldn’t be that big a deal. It’s all very very confusing to me, but I digress. When it comes to expectations of the new Celtics frontcourt, I am putting the bar so possibly low I don’t think they could get more realistic.
Just. Be. Better. Than. Last. Year.
On the surface that doesn’t seem so hard, but what does that even really mean?
Well to start, let’s understand what that tasks even means. Your beloved Boston Celtics, with all their excitement and promise, were painfully bad in the art of rebounding. A stellar 48.5% rebounding rate put them 27th in the NBA, and their 75.3% on the defensive glass had them at 27th as well. Oh incase you didn’t realize, there are 30 teams in the NBA. Why does this even matter? Well, when you can’t rebound, especially on the defensive glass, you give your opponent extra possessions. Wanna know what the Celtics aren’t that good at? Not giving up second chance points. Last year, they gave up 13.9 second chance points a night, which you guessed it, put them 27th in the league. Basically anything even slightly related to rebounding, the Celts were among the worst in the NBA at it, so I wouldn’t say it’s unrealistic to hope they can be slightly below average instead. Finish 19th or 20th in these areas instead of the bottom 3, and you’d be surprised what an impact that will make.
But when you look at the roster, there are just so many question marks. Sure we know what Horford will give us, around 6-7 rebounds a night, and Baynes rebound% gives me a half chub, but after that it’s all unknown. Can Morris actually have a better rebounding% than 10%? And I’m not even talking about when he played next to Drummond. Can Yabu actually contribute? Will we see Marcus take a rebounding jump like we just saw Avery? I don’t care what offensive talent this team added, you cannot tell me they addressed one of their BIGGEST flaws from last year. Instead they got rid of all their 7 footers and replaced them with a shit ton of 6’9 hybrid guys. This is why I still think they don’t match up well with CLE. Who checks Love/Thompson on the glass?
Which brings me to my next question
Email:
Hey Greenie, I know names get floated around a lot but who do you think fills in the last spot for the C’s. Also, if the C’s get the Lakers pick who do you think would be the best fit out of the top prospects like Porter/Bagely/Doncic etc? – Ryan
Who do I want to fill the last spot? It does not really matter to me as long as it’s a big man. I’ll take Thomas Robinson and his untapped potential, and I’ll take Andrew Bogut and his proven but injury riddled production. This team needs more size, and they need guys that will put an effort to get to the glass. Period. End of discussion.
If this Lakers pick does convey, I really don’t think the Celtics can go wrong with any of the top guys we’ve heard about. All of them fit a need, and I’d be happy with absolutely any one of them. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself
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To some degree is Avery our biggest lost? And why does it seem people don’t think that’s more important losing IT? Isn’t he the one that has always allowed us to give GSW a hard time? – Jimmy
There may not be a player whom the Celtics will miss more next season than Avery Bradley. Isaiah hurts, but Kyrie SHOULD give us similar production. Tatum’s offense makes me already not care about not having Olynyk there for the second unit, Hayward covers Jae, and no I do not miss Tyler Zeller, Jordan Mickey, etc.
What sucks is the timing of this whole summer. The Celtics basically had no choice but to trade Bradley in order to sign Hayward, so it’s not even like they could have done the Kyrie trade first, and then been able to keep Avery. In looking at the Celtics salaries, there was really no other combination that made sense. Sure you could have used Jae’s $7M, but you’d still be short, which means you’d have to get rid of two players just to be able to bring Hayward in.
For me, Avery will go down as a Celtic that never truly was appreciated in the way he should have been. A player that improved every single year he was on the team, he’s only 26 and was coming off the best year of his career. His defense is obviously what people think about first when it comes to him, but don’t sleep on how much his offensive game developed. Now this was more important on last year’s team because the Celts didn’t have that secondary consistent scorer which they now have with Hayward, but there’s no debate when it comes to how much Avery helped up against teams like GS that have elite guard play. This isn’t to say that Smart can’t fill that defensive role, but even if it’s improved next year, his offense will not be at the level we just saw Avery at, so you are a little worse in that regard.
It also should be mentioned that Avery was the type of player who was not afraid of the big moment. Dude beat CLE on two separate occasion with ice cold big testicle threes. I’ve long said, while Isaiah may have been our best player, Avery was always their most important in my mind. It’s going to hurt, and I am not looking forward to it.
Email:
Greenie,
First, long time reader, really appreciate your work #teamIsaiah
How come nobody is talking about how scary the Lebron and Isaiah pairing is? Isaiah’s fourth quarter scoring is exactly what Lebron needs. With the other talent that the Cav’s have on their roster, Isaiah is going to have open lanes and threes that he never saw in Boston. A healthy Isaiah and Lebron pairing has been scaring the shit out of me. – Ian
Nope. Not doing it.
That’ll do it for this week, hopefully you had a great weekend and enjoyed your day of football, beer, and wings. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, see you all next weekend!