CelticsStrong
Celtics Basketball => Celtics Talk => Topic started by: vjcsmoke on November 16, 2017, 10:44:48 PM
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We just beat the so called best team in the NBA! What excuses will the 'experts' use now to rank the Celtics less than #1 after a gritty win over the Warriors?!
14-2 and beat the 'best team' in the league!
Oooh yeah, how SWEET it is! STATEMENT WIN! ;D ;D
Booyeah, Go Celts!!
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Lets win out the rest of the season. Anything is possible
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Lets win out the rest of the season. Anything is possible
79-3 is a disappointment!
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But, haven't you heard? We haven't really played any of the best teams and have had the easiest SOS. You just don't understand, this Cs team just isn't very good. Totally overrated...
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
If this team develops an offensive rhythm while even staying within shouting distance of their defensive numbers, look out.
Logic says that we're due for some regression to the mean, but... tonight was supposed to be the night that it started. It didn't.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
Defensively, they look (historically) elite. I don't think I've seen this good of defense since the Pistons in mid 2000s. I usually just assume good players will score, but for this team, I assume that they'll get a stop. It seems like this team can lock down any team if they really try.
Offensively, they're playing like absolute garbage. I'm hoping Hayward helps there.
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We haven't even used our DPE yet. This isn't our final form
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Midway through the second quarter Warriors up 17...smiling high fivin'..."we got these guys"
No you don't.
D wore them down....they didn't like it and got on the plane home.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
Seriously. When you realize the Celtics returned only four players, that means every lineup the team throws out is brand new this season, and many of them brand new this month with Morris having missed the start of the season. Add in the shortened preseason, the Hayward injury causing a lot of the reps to be tossed out the window, and like one practice since the season started thanks to the schedule, and this team has room for a LOT of improvement on offense.
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Safe to say we would be legit contenders with Gordon?
I certainly think so.
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What people on the outside looking in don't understand -- is the mental toughness of this team. They possess and unbelievable compete level! This Celtics team closes out games now. That's a huge improvement over last year. Our overall athleticism and length is also vastly underrated. But it's a big part of why we are the #1 defense in the league.
In the showdown of #1 offense vs #1 defense, the #1 defense triumphed. That is almost an anomaly in today's offense-driven NBA. However the Celtics, this year, have consistently topped most of the top 5 defensive categories. And it shows. The Warriors had chances in this game late, but we made their superstars - Durant, Curry etc. look very mortal.
And think about this, yes we expect Kyrie to be clutch down the stretch, which he was. But did anyone expect to see our youngest player, Tatum stepping to the line with 6.7 seconds to go and the game on the line, then very cooly knocking down 2 clutch free throws to effectively ice the game and push the lead to 4? That is very amazing to see! This whole team is just so poised and RELENTLESS when it comes to the end of games.
Because of the WAY that we are pulling off these wins, I really feel this will translate to the playoffs!
Underestimate the Celtics at your own Peril! They do have the #1 defense in the NBA, indisputably, and they ARE the #1 team in the NBA today, although I'm betting a lot of "expert" doubters still remain!
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Safe to say we would be legit contenders with Gordon?
I certainly think so.
No doubt.
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Great win for sure, but fools gold in the sense that we got a clear bias from the officials.
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Great win for sure, but fools gold in the sense that we got a clear bias from the officials.
Only Losers use officials as an excuse. You can do better than that!
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But, haven't you heard? We haven't really played any of the best teams and have had the easiest SOS. You just don't understand, this Cs team just isn't very good. Totally overrated...
Is that you, Sir Charles?
TP for mocking the haters out there, esoecially Barkley.
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Great win for sure, but fools gold in the sense that we got a clear bias from the officials.
While true, this is the nature of the NBA and something that happens to every team with star players.
I'd feel bad if GSW were some upstart team defying expectations based on their roster... Kind of like.. Us. However they are a team that has benefited from the whistle plenty of times.
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This win shuts up haters.
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Lets win out the rest of the season. Anything is possible
79-3 is a disappointment!
i could not agree more. tp my friend. ;D
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This was an awesome game; I had to leave work to catch it but I was not disappointed. A great effort by the Celtics to protect home court. I heard Houston Rockets players muttering during their game “if you wage war against ‘that’ team “it will fail(.)”” I think that’s a good sign 😉.
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So beating the Warriors , Spurs , Thunder , Raptors , Heat , Magic and Hornets does not count ?
Its all skill and excellence if Cavs win
Its only lucky if Celtics ever win .......according to Barkley and his beloved Lakers fans .
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
Right now, it’s looking like a lot. But let’s wait and see what happens when IT suits up for the Cavs.
It seems hard for me to think he won’t make a substantial difference and catapault them back into the elite.
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Durant had 24, but I thought Jaylen really defended him well all night. Made him earn it. He is really becoming an elite defender. This will get overlooked because of his offensive explosion in the 3rd quarter.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I am a bit nervous about this.
I believe that Kyrie Irving will settle into the offense as the year goes on and we will become much more dangerous. Morris will also settle into a big role and that should help the offense as well.
However, while Irving has done a terrific job answering questions about his defense, he has yet to prove that he can lead an elite offense. In Cleveland the Cavs struggled offensively with just Kyrie. He looks unselfish and hes shown a crazy ability to just take over games down the stretch, but hes not shown an ability to run a crisp and elite offense. I personally believed that he would be able to do this, coming over from Cleveland and still believe he can. I dont think that The first 16 games of this season after losing Hayward and injecting Morris in after 9 games provides a meaningful dataset to really make any conclusions on this front. Especially as Irving has been so brilliant in so many other ways and the team has been winning.
I just hope that the offense begins to click sooner rather than later. Irving has been fine offensively in takeover time, but he has not shown an ability to dominate within the flow of the offense. Big hurdle for him to clear before this MVP talk that is getting bandied around gains any sort of merit.
Now, if he can figure it out, and MOrris settles in...
Then watch out.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
This.
Imagine if we could hit a jump shot.
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We just beat the so called best team in the NBA! What excuses will the 'experts' use now to rank the Celtics less than #1 after a gritty win over the Warriors?!
14-2 and beat the 'best team' in the league!
Oooh yeah, how SWEET it is! STATEMENT WIN! ;D ;D
Booyeah, Go Celts!!
The Warriors are the best team in the NBA. No need for the quotes.
They have 2 legit MVP type players, and 2 other stars. They dominated the league last year and are doing so again this year.
This was a great win against the best team in the league.
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I'm not all that concerned about the offense. Boston is 26th out of 30 teams in shooting % at .433, but subtract Smart's abysmal shooting and Boston rockets up to 18th place at .450—which is not great, but also not terrible. If Smart would just shoot less, and Kyrie gets a bit more comfortable in the offense, I think the team O will be fine.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Whoop whoop! We got Roy back!
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
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We beat the Warriors last night to win our 14th straight game.
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I'm not all that concerned about the offense. Boston is 26th out of 30 teams in shooting % at .433, but subtract Smart's abysmal shooting and Boston rockets up to 18th place at .450—which is not great, but also not terrible. If Smart would just shoot less, and Kyrie gets a bit more comfortable in the offense, I think the team O will be fine.
yeah, I'm not really worried about the offense long term. They're still getting it together. If they keep working, they will be better in April than they are today.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
Except you can't really say that the C's got a lot better unless you know what Thomas and the BKN end up like.
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i like stephs interview post game. paraphrased...........the cavs have won the east the last 3 years...we have to prove we can get past them........but i hear the weather is nice here(boston) in june.
i think he is taking us seriously but i agree we have to beat the man if we wanna be the man in lebrons cavs. that is the bottom line.
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Just wait until this team starts shooting well ... Still currently under 43% and 34% from three...
I expect 46% and 38% by end of year ...
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
Except you can't really say that the C's got a lot better unless you know what Thomas and the BKN end up like.
Well, I think you can.
Right now Boston is struggling offensively, but dominating with their defense. This is something I certainly didn't anticipate, and I can't help but feel that one of the biggest reasons for our defensive improvement is replacing IT with Kyrie.
Irving has always had the physical attributes to be a decent nba defender, as he's pretty tall for a PG and also pretty quick with his first step. The question for me has always been his effort and desire on that end of the court, but so far he's arguably playing every bit as hard on defensive as anybody else on the team.
Love IT, but I can't help falling that if we had a healthy IT in Kyrie place right now we'd be scoring a little bit more then we are now, but we'd be a LOT worse defensively.
Of course it's not all on Kyrie. Horford has been amazing so far, Brown has developed into one of the better defensive wings in the league, Baynes has given us the informer we've always needed, Tatum has been playing better D then a 19 year old has any right to, And Rozier has also made huge strides defensively...so it's a team effort.
But I feel like what allows each of those guys to excel so much defensively is that we don't have one major crack in the armor that teams can target / exploit defensively. Sad as it is, iT was exactly that for us last season, as was whoever we had at the second big spot.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
Offensively. Defensively, there could be regression to the mean.
Seems more likely though that they improve since they are still a bunch of strangers who have been playing together for a month and a half.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
Yeah, I find Clev irrelevant.
What matters to me is that IT was going to walk. Look at our defense with a guard who isn't overmatched. Even with Kyrie still getting comfortable on offense, we are dominating. This is with guys who have only been playing together for a month and a half and without the FA the made us have to let Olynyk and others walk.
If IT helps Clev, great for them.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
Except you can't really say that the C's got a lot better unless you know what Thomas and the BKN end up like.
Well, I think you can.
Right now Boston is struggling offensively, but dominating with their defense. This is something I certainly didn't anticipate, and I can't help but feel that one of the biggest reasons for our defensive improvement is replacing IT with Kyrie.
Irving has always had the physical attributes to be a decent nba defender, as he's pretty tall for a PG and also pretty quick with his first step. The question for me has always been his effort and desire on that end of the court, but so far he's arguably playing every bit as hard on defensive as anybody else on the team.
Love IT, but I can't help falling that if we had a healthy IT in Kyrie place right now we'd be scoring a little bit more then we are now, but we'd be a LOT worse defensively.
Of course it's not all on Kyrie. Horford has been amazing so far, Brown has developed into one of the better defensive wings in the league, Baynes has given us the informer we've always needed, Tatum has been playing better D then a 19 year old has any right to, And Rozier has also made huge strides defensively...so it's a team effort.
But I feel like what allows each of those guys to excel so much defensively is that we don't have one major crack in the armor that teams can target / exploit defensively. Sad as it is, iT was exactly that for us last season, as was whoever we had at the second big spot.
But you just don't know what this team would be like with IT, Crowder, Zizic, and the BKN going forward. Until you see that, you can't make a definitive statement on the trade one way or another. The team is no question playing well and without IT would be a lot worse at this point (though maybe Hayward doesn't get hurt), but you don't win or lose a trade on the first 16 games, you win or lose a trade on the ultimate outcome and in the ultimate outcome IT and BKN are huge factors.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
Offensively. Defensively, there could be regression to the mean.
Seems more likely though that they improve since they are still a bunch of strangers who have been playing together for a month and a half.
what mean? do you refer to a league average mean? if so, i doubt it. this team is playing above league average, some one has to. ;D
do you refer to the "celtics mean" on defense? well, what exactly is that? only 4 players back from last year, so we cant use last year as a bench mark.
all we can say is that currently, this team is playing great defense and until it drops, this is the magical "mean" you are referring to.
next, on the point by Hobbes on the difference between IT and kyrie. i get your point and in a narrow context it has merit, no doubt. but you seem to refer to IT as if the last year of IT is the normal IT, the IT that would appear in the future year after year.
i dont think so. i think IT played a career year last year and his future will not be as bright as it was then. in that context, the trade was definately for a better player going forward.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
I haven't been on here for a while, but I have to ask - are you feeling any better about the IT / Kyrie trade now?
I hope Kyrie has earned some of your appreciation, as he's impressed (and surprised) the hell out of me with his unselfishness and his incredibly hard nosed defense so far.
I'm starting to very seriously wonder how much of the Cavs' success the past three seasons was actually due to Kyrie.
I feel better about the trade. I still don’t think that the gap between Kyrie and IT is worth what we paid, but a lot of my concerns are proving not to be all that worrisome.
I was worried about chemistry, which hasn’t been an issue at all. We had a great locker room last year. We have a great one this year, too.
I was worried that Kyrie would be offensively lesser to IT, and defensively equal. So far I’m at 50%. Kyrie’s defense has looked above-average, especially when compared to most all-star guards.
I worried that we had 2.5 stars before the trade, and 2.5 after. Well, Horford has made that 3.0 stars,and Tatum looks like a future star, as well. With Tatum and Brown playing like good starters already, concerns about how we will add impact players are mitigated.
If the Nets pick turns out to be 6th or below, or if IT struggles, I’ll tip my cap to DA.
Pretty level headed response.
One question though, and this is kind of a philosophical one...
You are going to be grading this trade on the results of another team. If IT struggles, or if other teams picks turn out good or bad then its a good trade?
The only thing we can control after a trade is how well our team plays. We made the trade to make our team better.
We are playing extremely well, infact much better then anyone predicted. This to me means we won the trade, regardless of what happens to other components now on other teams.
So, why rely so much on how the other components turn out? When the most important part of the trade is How Much Better Did the Celtics Get? The answer is we got a lot better, and we are clearly better now then we would have been before the trade.
Yeah, I find Clev irrelevant.
What matters to me is that IT was going to walk. Look at our defense with a guard who isn't overmatched. Even with Kyrie still getting comfortable on offense, we are dominating. This is with guys who have only been playing together for a month and a half and without the FA the made us have to let Olynyk and others walk.
If IT helps Clev, great for them.
Completely agree. In theory, the purpose of a trade is for both teams to win. So I am not worried about what happens with Cleveland because we don't know how things would have worked out here. Seems likely DA didn't want to pay IT. Whether Clev does or not is up to them. So what he does in Clev doesn't really matter. What they do with the assets is certainly not what the Celts would have done with them.
On our side, we got a [dang] good player who is 25 years old and a multiple time all star already. We also made space for Tatum and Brown by moving Crowder. Again, the trade is about the Celts not the Cavs.
As for the Nets pick. Who knows? I think it will end up around #5 which is fine with me. We have too many picks as it is and need to shift to win now mode.
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This is crazy. They’re not even playing their best basketball.
Offensively. Defensively, there could be regression to the mean.
Seems more likely though that they improve since they are still a bunch of strangers who have been playing together for a month and a half.
what mean? do you refer to a league average mean? if so, i doubt it. this team is playing above league average, some one has to. ;D
do you refer to the "celtics mean" on defense? well, what exactly is that? only 4 players back from last year, so we cant use last year as a bench mark.
all we can say is that currently, this team is playing great defense and until it drops, this is the magical "mean" you are referring to.
Let's just say that we won't be able to hold the Golden States of the NBA world to .400 from the field every night.
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Yup...whether
Barkley and his lame Suns D league team like ot or not.
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All the regression to the mean talk is a bit overstated. Yes, there are certain factors that may come back down to earth- after all, we're not going to with 80 in a row.
But, a couple of things:
1) It's very hard to define what the "mean" is with a group of players that have never played together. Irving, Tatum, Morris, Baynes, Semi, Theis, Yabusele all brand new. Brown is a significantly expanded role. Horford being used differently. Yes, if opponents appear to be missing more shots that they should that matters, but it can also be the new normal when practically everything about the team is new.
2) All the focus seems to be on our overachieving defense, and then how our offense isn't that good. Our defense might get worse, but our offense is just as likely to get better. Do we really think Smart is going to shoot 27% all year? Irving is going to shoot a career low from 3PT? Morris has only played 7 games. Rookies won't improve? Rozier is going to shoot 35%?
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All the regression to the mean talk is a bit overstated. Yes, there are certain factors that may come back down to earth- after all, we're not going to with 80 in a row.
But, a couple of things:
1) It's very hard to define what the "mean" is with a group of players that have never played together. Irving, Tatum, Morris, Baynes, Semi, Theis, Yabusele all brand new. Brown is a significantly expanded role. Horford being used differently. Yes, if opponents appear to be missing more shots that they should that matters, but it can also be the new normal when practically everything about the team is new.
2) All the focus seems to be on our overachieving defense, and then how our offense isn't that good. Our defense might get worse, but our offense is just as likely to get better. Do we really think Smart is going to shoot 27% all year? Irving is going to shoot a career low from 3PT? Morris has only played 7 games. Rookies won't improve? Rozier is going to shoot 35%?
I think that Al and Tatum (offense) will regress to the mean. Maybe Jaylen too. Of course, so will Kyrie, who I think will only get better based on his past.
As for the defense, completely agree. If anything, more time will help team defense (though teams will get better offensively too). I don't think it's an accident that the Warriors were held below 90 points and we're known as a good defensive team.
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1) It's very hard to define what the "mean" is with a group of players that have never played together.
It's not particularly hard to conclude that at this point this group is probably playing above its average level of defense. How much higher is tough to say, obviously, but some level of dropoff is almost inevitable.
Do we really think Smart is going to shoot 27% all year?
No, I'm afraid he's actually going to go lower than that, based on his shot selection.
Rozier is going to shoot 35%?
Looking at his career so far, yes, it's fully realistic that this is where he might end up, give or take. In terms of play style, he's Smart redux with a less horrible three-pointer and minus the premium defense. That's why they are such a particularly horrible pairing in the back court.