This board is dominated by knee-jerk reactions.
Isaiah certainly does need to tighten his game to maximize our chances. To me, that means a good assist to turnover ratio and not many Kobe Bryant 6-21's. Maybe his hand is hurting his shooting, but he is playing very well including on defense. I don't think Isaiah is a chucker. He gets to the line so much. Isaiah is also not that old. He was on rotten teams until he got here. He is not 30 and a finished player like Al Horford. Isaiah deserves another year (this year) to up his game. He could be one of the greatest little guys of all time. He has ice in his veins. Everyone in the league likes him. I think we'd be out of the playoffs without IT.
We have no chance at being great unless Isaiah and Horford are great. That's how basketball works. Since they are not top five players, we need others like Bradley, Smart and Olynyk to also shine. We need a healthy and productive Amir. I am enjoying this season. We are very competitive. Teams can come out slow or cold. That's where we are or were. The Celtics are working very hard right now to turn on the switch. If we win tonight against Philly, we are only two games out of first place. We could win 15 out of the next 18 games. Then what will all this knee-jerk complaining have gotten us? Will we be supposed to forget all the whining and negativity while Al healed from his concussion? What about negativity on games we win? What's up with that?
There can be a fine line between pink hats and true fans.
Someone is claiming Jae Crowder is overrated. Is that really the best spot for our thinking to be focused?
I had become worried about Marcus Smart's shooting, but last night he only took four shots. That's good. It was also one of Smart's worst games. It happens.
The Celtics are a work in progress. So much is riding on Al Horford establishing himself as a Celtic which he is well on his way to doing so.
Players such as Smart, Rozier, Crowder, Olynyk and Jerebko are on the rise.
Players such as Horford, Isaiah and Avery need to form a Big Three.
Players such as Zeller and Green need to be ready and professional just in case.
Jaylen Brown needs to stay positive and work his way back into the rotation. He is the only one who can possibly backup Jae.
Amir needs to step it up and be the advanced stats machine Danny thought he had stolen from Toronto.
We will need to fasten our seat belts when the trading deadline approaches.
What we need most is to give this team another 20 games before pigeon-holing it as such and such.
Brad Stevens needs to tighten his game. It would have been his fault if we lost last night. His substitutions in the first half were awful and showed no consistency. Make a decision and stick to it. Don't use five bigs for a rotation. This type of experimenting leads to player doubt. Pick two between Olynyk, Zeller and Jerebko and don't look back. If it turns out a trade is needed or the guy left on the bench should replace one of the other two, then so be it.
Brad did seem to wake up in the second half with a tightened rotation. No more than 11 players should play in a game and 10 seems to be the best number for regular season games. Otherwise, there is no continuity.
Be very careful going small. I noticed sometimes players couldn't figure out who to switch to because there were too many small Celtics on the floor at once.
It looked like Brad finally woke up because he stopped playing rotation games. He should not have brought in Zeller first in the first half. He should not be playing Jerebko, Olynyk and Zeller in the same game. Didn't he learn anything from the Brandan Wright era?
A long time ago I read an article on Brad's philosophy of coaching. He said nine or ten players are a team's rotation and the others have to be good teammates on the bench. Brad needs to be consistent with his own philosophy. And he is getting there as Gerald Green has had his butt stapled to the DNP-CD section of the bench.
I have no clue why James Young was put into the game. My philosophy would be to create a core rotation and stick to it. Then all the other players become Phil Pressey. Be ready. Work hard in practice. Then when parts of the core rotation are injured or having off games, then go to the deep bench as necessary. And don't put all these players on the rotation bubble in at once. That's just asking the other team to chop into the hard worked lead produced by the starters.
If I were Olynyk or Zeller, I'd be very confused at this point. Everyone wants to feel like a part of the team and contribute, but you only need ten guys. If you keep stretching the rotation like Brad does, it starts to feel like a scrimmage.
That should have been an easier win last night. Thankfully a win is a win. Thankfully Brad Stevens does seem to be settling and about to make some tough choices.