Do you really believe the Celts lost the last two years due to the shortcomings of maybe their 3rd or 4th or 5th best player (Smart) and their 7-8 guy, who CJM sat on. You're putting the onus on the Omegas and not the twin Alphas? If the Js had played with the same heart and focus as Smart, there's decent chance the Celts could have won both years. Of course they also needed a coach
I think the point was more... Smart and Grant playing big roles has proven not to be that valuable, so moving them out for another guy at JB's level should be a no-brainer. He's actually embracing your "it's about the stars" point. Trade 3rd and 4th tier talents for higher tier talents, because you can backfill role players a lot easier than stars. KP is a star talent
Yeah, I think the risk of Grant being gone is that we see more Kornet on AL/TL/KP rest days, not that we're putting new load on Al.
^^^^This
Weiss mentioned that in his article on Grant's departure. This speaks to both @HomeRunBaker 's point about needing a unified and filled-out coaching staff, and also some potential addition-by-subtraction in taking away the possibility for Tatum to lobby for Grant's playing time. There was definitely some dysfunction during the Philly and Miami series with players trying to fill the (assistant) coaching vacuum by lobbying for specific lineup choices.
https://theathletic.com/4669565/2023/07/06/grant-williams-dallas-mavs-trade-boston-celtics/
Yep, good article. This confirms a lot of the speculation around here in regard to the Asst Coaching drain. CJM was operating with one arm tied behind his back based on IME announcement, timing, staff, & support.
Yea I think he'll be a nice kick-out option (along with Curry), but that team defense will be sketchy. GW isn't fixing that.
Grant has a $50 million chin.
They should play Luke Kornet a lot more in the regular season because
Nice length but still 19, figure he'll need a year in Maine. The C's will need NBA bodies to take punishment under the rim, since I'd rather have the JAYs defending on the perimeter.
Well done.
But can Walsh fully get up to speed with the “give a speech in the huddle where clearly no one is listening to you but you keep talking” piece this fast? It’s a tall task
Generally I'd agree with this, and you might be right. But...having a long wing defender around isn't a bad thing either. He'll start in Maine, but he could get more minutes than the usual 40-ish pick in the draft. If he shows the high motor everyone thinks he has and any BBIQ at all, he'd be a valuable bench guy for the 82.
Kornet is fine for 10-12 mpg on B2B, on long road trips when you go deeper into your rotation or as a guy to fill-in on management/injury days. He's an ideal 3rd big/10th man who will play hard, not bitch about minutes and be a fun locker room presence to be around.
You never really know how a player will assimilate to the NBA game and all of its defensive nuances while taking a massive step up in competition and physicality as well as an opponents mental challenges/trash talk/veteran savvy tricks....until they are out there. I always say that SL will rarely show that a guy can play in the NBA, honestly Jeremy Lin was the only player who made me believe from a week in Vegas, however it can show a players flaws (Brandon Miller?). If Walsh shows well in SL and in training camp he may earn those Kornet-like circumstantial minutes early in the year to see what comes of it.
All caveats about correlation and causation aside, I remember at least one of the team’s best stretches of last season coinciding with a lot of Kornet minutes when he was racking up blocks and butterfly celebrations before TL got back.
Dragon bender also was an outstanding case of pooping his pants in summer league. Agree it can raise concerns but it doesn't work the other way.
Ha, yup. I watched Joe Forte in the Shaws Summer League and immediately lost my excitement over the pick.
Bender is one of my proudest calls even before SL. Stiff and mechanical is not a way to make it in this league. Guy had the elasticity of a 65-year old as a teenager.
Lol he really did. I have him being posterized by Thon Maker framed on my wall.
I don't think this is true. I recall a study showing the precision for busts on the very low end of summer league was pretty good. I can't remember how they measured performance and this was maybe five years ago.
Kornet was basically used as TL-Lite for much of last season, both in terms of the games where he got the most minutes (TL sitting out) and in the plays run for him (mainly lobs to the rim). It was only very late in the season that Kornet was clearly encouraged to take that hook shot that came out of a post up.
I remember that piece too. In general, if you suck in summer league, you almost certainly suck. There are exceptions. But if you're great in summer league, it really doesn't mean shit. Except maybe that at least we're not sure that you suck.
Well he certainly had the ACLs of a 65 YO. He had one ACL tear a couple of years ago and apparently had another this year. He was averaging 18+ ppg in Spanish Liga Endesa. It's amazing but he's still only 25. https://www.eurohoops.net/en/acb/1433334/dragan-bender-acl-injury-obradoiro-acb/
Yeah, he's really diplomatic while still getting his point across.
Grant was less enthusiastic about Stevens as a coach than I expected. Ime indeed sounded like the total package.
Overall, Grant spoke positively about Mazzulla, while pointing out that Joe was more concerned with offense than Ime was. He just stated the obvious: That Joe is a promising young coach who was thrust into a less-than-ideal situation and figures to be much better as he gains more experience and had a full staff behind him.
To me, there seemed to be some negative subtext about Mazzulla in the comments. That said, as @BringBackMo notes, this season Grant appeared to fall out of favor with the coaching staff and with the Porzingis deal everyone saw he was gone so none of this is surprising.
Not picking on you but it seems like literally every member of the team has diplomatically said that Ime was a better coach than Mazzulla.
I got the sense that Ime's experience as an NBA player gave him credibility neither Stevens nor Mazzulla could match.
