Upon seeing DefenseWinsChamps' excellent post about the Celtics' offense this year, I remembered this thread that I started last summer. At the time, the Celtics playing like the Kings was a stretch, almost a dream, due to Rondo's ball-dominance and Jeff Green's lack of floor recognition. However, in the wake of an unexpectedly good season, I believe that the foundation has been set to be the new "Best Show on Court."
In the initial thread, a few principles were mentioned: floor spacing, ball movement, and taking advantage in semi-transition chief among them. Once again, Rondo and Green didn't seem to fit the bill.
Now, though, the personnel fits the style of play much better. Rondo's lack of shooting ability is now not a deterrent, and neither is Green's tunnel-vision or "Uncle Snooze" mode.
In addition, as DefenseWinsChamps pointed out in his post, the Celtics are among the best in the league at getting open shots (4-6+ ft. of space between defender and shooter) while taking the the least possible amount of dribbles and shooting early in the shot clock, as the C's led the league in field goals attempted per game. We can all agree that this created great looks for what was considered an undertalented team. I remember a few people saying, "If you watch the Celtics, you'd assume they have great shooters, but they really have no dangerous shooters." That, however, is a testament to the unselfishness, quick passing, quick advancements of the ball, and good off-ball action.
The kicker of the stats from DWinsChamps? The Celtics were at or near the bottom-half of the league, if not the bottom third, in field goal percentage for all types of shots. So the crazy thing is this teams gets good, open shots without having to dribble or resort to isolations, all while keeping the game at a breakneck pace and without any significant talent advantage over other teams. I see lots of room for improvement internally, nevermind potential acquisitions made by Danny.
What do you guys think? Is this connection more than wishful thinking after what happened this season, or is it still a dream deferred that I am too hung up on?