I’d say more than likely it was the result of an agents trade request and OKC was more than happy to oblige as Muscala wasn’t a part of their future plans.
The second round pick OKC got in this trade this year won't be the Celtics pick, that was traded long ago.
FWIW, I think they'll make the playoffs. They have a top ten NTRG, a superstar guard, and a nice set of up and comers who all have room to improve. They significantly underperformed their expected W-L so far. I expect them to have a big second-half. They're above average defensively and offensively and they play hard. Even without Muscala, they'll be very competitive.
I did chuckle at “even without Muscala” which may have never been said about him during his NBA career. The Thunder acquired Saric from the Suns and he’ll slide into his role fine. This really does smell like a player/agent request to me.
Yeah, kind of a silly opening clause to that sentence... but you know what I mean!
A lot of things have recently been said about him for the first time. Like "Technical foul, taunting."
yea, it read unintentionally funny
Yeah, I mean thinking about the guys the Celtics have tried out at this stretch position the last seven or eight years -- Jerebko, Olynyk, Theis, Kornet-- all of who had strengths and flaws -- I like Muscala as much as any of them.
It caught me by surprise that Theis was pretty much the worst of the bunch.Yeah, I mean thinking about the guys the Celtics have tried out at this stretch position the last seven or eight years -- Jerebko, Olynyk, Theis, Kornet-- all of who had strengths and flaws -- I like Muscala as much as any of them.
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The defense is nice, but the Celtics already have a better option in that regard in Kornet as a back-up. The biggest thing is he gets his shot off way more (trying to avoid any more unintentional comedy and failing...) than anyone else in that group. In fact, his per-36 3PA the last three years, which have been around 9 to 10 (!!) would lead this Celtics team. That's a huge boon to our offense, which already was such a juggernaut... so maybe the Thunder might not survive without him...
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Classic case of a guy who does a bunch of things very averagely. He can roll to the basket, a little. He can shoot threes, a little. He can guard out on the perimeter, a little. He can protect the rim a little. He can follow the rules of verticality, a little. He can avoid fouling out, a little.
Muscala has really figured out his short-minute, bench role. He'll light up bench 5s from the perimeter (like he has the last 2.5 seasons)Yeah, I mean thinking about the guys the Celtics have tried out at this stretch position the last seven or eight years -- Jerebko, Olynyk, Theis, Kornet-- all of who had strengths and flaws -- I like Muscala as much as any of them.
View attachment 61471
The defense is nice, but the Celtics already have a better option in that regard in Kornet as a back-up. The biggest thing is he gets his shot off way more (trying to avoid any more unintentional comedy and failing...) than anyone else in that group. In fact, his per-36 3PA the last three years, which have been around 9 to 10 (!!) would lead this Celtics team. That's a huge boon to our offense, which already was such a juggernaut... so maybe the Thunder might not survive without him...
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Theis was at his best when he became a Gortat/Snake Screen setter for Tatum.
The JT, JB, Smart, AL, TL starting lineup might log its second appearance of the season, in game 60.
This is why I think Mazzulla is getting very short-changed by the "he just inherited a team that had learned its identity under Ime" narrative.
Ime helped them figure their shit out in a lot of ways, but Joe taught them offense and leveled up their confidence in a huge way.
That tech was actually for screaming "AND ONE!" at the ref after dunking. Which was a legit shout by him.
That makes sense, I don't anyone else in the NBA ever shouts that.
How about Hassan Whiteside? He's a free agent. Great stats last season, but still unsigned. And he's kinda a poor man's Time Lord, stylistically.
Interesting that that whole discussion on the offense doesn't mention either Tatum or Brown.
The Celtics' two worst high-volume 3pt shooters were missing for some of Feb
Interesting article, thanks for posting. Because of the math, I suspect that teams making 20 3Ps at a high percentage win most games even in the playoffs. However, it seems to me that it would tough to keep that up through four playoff series but what do I know (other than that we'll have more than one game thread where everyone is futilely imploring the Cs to stop shooting so many 3Ps)?
It does widen our variance quite a bit. I'm a bit worried about going into a deciding playoff game and having a poor shooting performance like the 2017 Rockets vs. Warriors. Hopefully the Cs have enough in their bag to score even when that part of the offense is disappointing.
But we could get him for the minimum, and if we did, he's probably the #2 center. Better defender than any other backup big guy. Would take Kornet's minutes. Muscala is probably more in a Horford role, trying to pull a big outside the paint with his outside shooting threat, moreso than having a bunch of rim-protecting responsibility.
It's more subtle than that. He clearly dislikes 3PAs that come without attacking for the full shot clock, and he mentions that need for multiple attacks and setting the offense early a couple times.
I love a case built on numbers, but I'm in the Hogan camp on this one. Whiteside is subtraction by addition. Kornet and Blake are content in their roles and good chemistry guys. Guy has been on four teams in four years for a reason.
This comes quite close to describing Derrick White, just replacing "a little" with "a lot."
True, but that's where having someone who can score effectively in 10 different ways like Tatum comes in. In the larger picture, I also think that White, Brogdon, Smart and Brown (to a lesser extent given his occasional handling mishaps in traffic), have the court sense to push the offense into the paint more if the 3s are all going to shit. Which, in turn, should have the effect of making the 3s even *less* contested. I *think* that's Mazzulla's point. As lovegtm says, the idea is to make the 3s as less-contested as possible. Sure, if they then miss a metric fuckton of wide-open 3s, it's going to be a problem. But I have a hard time seeing *all* of their quality 3-pt shooters doing that.
I was a Whiteside on a minimum fan in the pre-season as TimeLord insurance. @HomeRunBaker posted, at the time, about his bad locker room reputation.
Understand that JMazz's offense is trying to create open to wide-open 3P looks and does a really good job of that when things are humming.
I'm for more sweeps as a hedge against losing
I never really thought of it that way. The big picture is that Stevens has built a team that is great in many different ways. But you're right, it's also particularly effective against the weakness of their biggest EC rival.
the sands in the hourglass are in overdrive
Having Brook/Giannis waiting at the rim with Jrue relentlessly trying to strip the JAYS made Pritchard/Granite Game 7 heroes
Wow I had forgotten that Boston launched 55 threes in that game including 18 from Grant Williams.
The normal sense of "variance" actually is maximized at 50% shooting, I think what we are talking about in this thread is more streakiness or something like that, which might not even be streakiness in shooting skill but more just variation in how efficiently the offense is generating good looks.
