Olynyk is a problem

[mgent]

Oh yeah, and Zeller/Sully/Bass are defensive geniuses.

[footey]

What's worse is his offense can't even make up for his sub-par defense. If he is not shooting, he is a huge liability on the court.

this is a poor statement. He is a very good passer, ball handler for his size.  To say his only strength on offense is shooting is false.

[vjcsmoke]

What's worse is his offense can't even make up for his sub-par defense. If he is not shooting, he is a huge liability on the court.

this is a poor statement. He is a very good passer, ball handler for his size.  To say his only strength on offense is shooting is false.

Agreed.  TP given.  Olynyk has very high BBIQ and is an unselfish mover of the basketball.  In fact a lot of the coaches says Olynyk needs to shoot it more and pass it less.  He is well above average as a passing big man at the NBA level.

I'm really not sure why this thread started with the title Olynyk is the problem -- when he is coming off a recent injury and has been on the bench most of the time.

Maybe the thread title should be -- Olynyk needs to get healthy and learn to play better defense.

That much, I would agree with.  The current topic title is just inflammatory, much like the media's handling of deflategate.  Mike Reiss' article entitled - the Patriots should be held accountable.  Already causing people to make the assumption that they were guilty of doing something wrong.

[Celtics4ever]

It is really a question about skill vs talent in some of these cases.   I think Oly and Sully are skilled but lack athletic talent.   When they face athletes who can play they are at a disadvantage, but do ok against guys who are just big or just athletes.

The problem is that on a good team, these guys would come off the bench and they are forced to play outside their capacity at times.    You can only hide slow so much with schemes.  In a one on one league it is even harder than in college where you have the zone you can play.

[KeepRondo]

We will be better once we get rid of him and Sully then watch the defense improve drastically.   Trouble is Sully can score and rebound and a player of a certain caliber needs to be attained first.

In my opinion, Sully's defense is actually good. He defends the post, rotates, and attempts to challenge shots. As soon as we get a center who can contain guard penetration he will look even better. Sully has valuable skills rebounding, shooting, and very underrated skill - takes up a lot of spaces thus making it harder for opposing offense to operate. He is not a problem, but roster construction is. Once again, Sully needs a mobile center next to him - like WCS, Tyson Chandler, Noah (just to use as examples, not players to get by any means).

Finally someone who knows defense
Yes Sullinger is a solid defender much better than Olynlyk, his only problem though seems to be with defending the pick and roll he lacks the range to cover grounds.  but overall a solid D.

The biggest issue with Sully in the pick & roll is the way the C's defend it. They use the ice principle: The on-ball defender angles their assignment into the big man defender, who is typically sagging back near the free throw line extended. This is meant to force the opponent into taking a low-percentage mid-range or three-point shot, as opposed to a potential layup. If not given up a pull up jumper, it creates a switch and a mismatch for the opposing guards versus our bigs. Depending upon when the pick and roll occurs, the other 3 defenders can't help too much. It's not Sully fault but more of a defensive scheme issue.

So you would rather have the Celtics switch on picks so Sully and Olynyk could guard players like Teague and Curry straight up? You might want to rethink that. Sully would look even worse buddy.

What I am saying is sometimes when the C's ice the pick and roll and the ball handler does NOT take the jumper that the big (Sully or Olynyk) gives them and the on-ball defender does not recover to defend the ball handler which then that creates the mismatch with a C's big covering a guard. It has happen multiple times the last 2 seasons and it's not a match we want to see. For the ice to work properly the C's big needs to force the guard into taking that jumper, which isn't the best idea, or the defending guard (Bradley, Turner, Smart) has to recover to pick up the ball handler and the big goes back to covering the screener.

All the ice is doing is putting Sully 8 feet from the basket instead of guarding the point guard 20 feet away if they ran a straight switch. I still don't understand how he would benefit from a straight switch.

Either way, I prefer we get a better defender then Sully. I also think the ice is more effective at the corners and not at the top of the key. I'd rather see the big step over the pick, giving the guard more time to recover and then getting back to his man. But we all know that is way too much running for Sully.