Observations

[Adam Suchocki <Twilight@world.std.com>]

Well, I've been quiet for a while, trying to get a feel for the new Rick 
Pitino Celtics, but I figure its time to get some feedback on what I 
think I'm seeing....

First off, in general I'm very impressed...getting a bunch of young guys 
with little experience in the  league and little experience playing 
together to play competitively this early in the season is impressive.  
On defense, a core of Walker, McCarty, Billups, Barros, Mercer, Bowen, 
and Edney seem to have a good grasp of the press and the half court 
trap.  (I'm beginning to think I can put DeClerq and Minor in that 
catagory as well).  On offense, they seem a lot like Celtics teams of 
the last three years - little ball movement, little inside game, lots of 
great individual moves seperated by lots of bad shots.  One big 
improvement though (especially of late) is the offensive rebounding - 
Walker, DeClerq, Knight, Thomas, and even Bowen and McCarty appear to be 
above average offensive rebounders, and they seem   to work as a team to 
create lanes to crash the offensive boards (which really helps 
considering the lack of good offensive opportunities).  Overall, they 
seem to play well above the level most sports writers and fans expected 
from a team that most expected to develop slowly because of the youth 
and mass roster and management changes.

Now, the down side.  The Celtics flat out have one of the worst inside 
presences I've ever seen.  Walker is an all-star talent in the post and 
on the boards, but still needs to learn how to better handle the double 
and triple teams he has to face.  Right now, the referees have a lot to 
do with whether he scores 18 or 30 in a given game, depending on how 
much contact they allow down low..in a high contact game, the Celtics 
simply cannot compete in the paint.  As I said before, they do seem to 
have a very nice system of crashing the boards on offense, especially 
outside runs from the center and small forwards, who are often outside 
the free throw line when a shot goes up, and snake their way to the ball 
as it hits the rim...this leads to a lot of put back dunks, and a lot of 
fast breaks for the other team as it is awfully hard to turn around and 
get back on defense when you're flying through the air towards the rim. 
 Still, with the teams overall lack of height and bulk, this is probably 
the best trade off.  

On the defensive boards, they often get abused by the other teams 
center.  They do a good job of having the guards help in blocking out 
and rebounding, but this severly limits their fast break oportunities 
(which often means the only real fast break oportunites off of defensive 
boards are when the rebounder breaks into a dribble up the floor - 
something both McCarty and Walker love to do)... but even with this 
guard help on the defensive glass, they seem to get beat more than they 
should by the oposing center.  I credit this mainly to the Celtics big 
men using the same strategy on the defensive boards as they do on 
offense...simply put, they are often trying to crash the boards instead 
of blocking out.  The worst offenders on this one are Travis Knight and 
Walter McCarty...both will jump to the glass instead of holding position 
and keeping their man off the glass...resulting in way to many easy 
put-backs.  This has been improving, mainly with the improved play of 
John Thomas and Andrew DeClerq.  But they still are desperate for 
someone who can simply keep the oposing big man out of the paint.

The rest of the defense is hard to read.  At times they look like a well 
oiled machine, filling passing lanes with defenders and agressively 
double teaming the ball...at other times, they seem incredibly lucky, as 
teams make quick judgements under pressure and throw full court passes 
that even Rick Fox would cringe at.  Then, there's the worst of times.  
They often revert into what I could best describe as a selfish defense. 
 Five guys, each trying to make "the play" instead of helping guide the 
other team into a more vulnerable position.  I'm not just talking about 
bad judgement in going for the steal...there are too many times I've 
seen players leave their man and try and double team even though there 
is no one within range to pick upp their man...this seems to be Travis 
Knight's specialty of late.  It seems at least once a game he gets an 
earfull from Pitino for leaving his man on the block to try and help on 
someone who is trying to split a double team at the free throw line 
extended...(ask Big Country how easy those uncontested rebounds 
are)...Knight isn't alone in this respect...most of the guards and small 
forwards seem to get lost in the rotation if the oponents make several 
quick passes - now this is the point of passing on offense, but there 
are still too many instances of double and even triple teams developing 
on players far from the basket who still have their dribble, and have 
open passing lanes.

Now, I still love the pressure when it works, but recently the team 
seems to be less skilled in the traps than I first thought they were.  
Late in games, when the pace is hectic, I have often seen the center and 
both guards caught on the perimeter away from the ball, simply because 
everyone tried to o out and guard the next man the ball was passed 
too...everyone seems to want to get ther to stop the shot, and either 
they are forgetting their rotations, or they are free lancing and trying 
to save the day...I assume with practice it has to get better, but it is 
starting to look less like a system of quick rotations, and more like 
five guys all trying to get to the shooter...it's energy still confuses 
teams, but it seems to be more hustle and less execution.  On top of 
this, the referees appear to be taking too great a role in the 
effectiveness of the press...at least one or two runs will be created 
when the officials put away their whistles, and at these times the 
Celtics can often run off 3 or 4 baskets in under a minute (don't get me 
wrong, many of the steals are clean, but the same steals are whistled as 
fouls at other times).  Other times, Billups, Bowen, McCarty, and and 
Celtics center is whistled for a foul whenever they are near a man 
dribbling the basketball.  this usually results in lots of substitutions 
and a quick run for the oponents.  

One last note on defense...I am impressed at how hard all of the Celtics 
big men try to work inside, but I'm starting to wish they would at least 
once in a while flatten the oposing center after getting bumbed out of 
the lane play after play...inside play is a big part intimidation...at 
times Ellison, Knight, Thomas, and DeClerq play with so much energy that 
the oposing big man has little chance to use brute force to clear out 
space...but at other times, they let themselves get dominated and simply 
back out of the way as they are pushed...(I like both Rick Smits and 
Bryant Reeves, but neither should be allowed to spend as much time in 
the paint as they did...we have at least 18 fouls down low, and some of 
them should be used to make the other team at least think they are in a 
battle down low...the sight of DeClerq and Knight retreating constantly 
from Reeves was depressing.

Ok, I should wrap this up soon, but a few thoughts on offense.  First 
off, a lot of the problems are simply living with 2 rookies and 3 second 
year players as the core of the team.  It takes a while to learn what is 
a good scoring oportunity, and that will come.  On the other hand, I'm 
troubled by the fact that last years team seemed to get a lot more 
accomplished by movig without the ball and cutting to the basket...a lot 
of this is probably the effect of having Billups instead of Wessley 
handling the ball, but I would really expect a team at this level to get 
more easy baskets than they do...you simply need to run a few back door 
cuts and give and goes to keep the defense honest.  More movement will 
give our shooters more room to shoot.  Again, this has to be in part the 
lack of experience of the team (especially at point), but I would like 
to see more motion in the offense in general.

Two quick pet peves on offense, and I'll wrap this up.  The first I've 
seen happen at least ten times a game, every game.  This play is costing 
us between 5 and 20 points a game, and the problem seems to rest 
squarely on Chauncey's shoulders.  In the C's normal half court set, 
they start with Billups dribbling the ball behind the three point line, 
straight away from the basket.  Whomever is playing center (Knight or 
DeClerq usually) sets up in the high post, at the free throw line, left 
side extended.  Walker sets up in low post, right block - and moves out 
slowly away from the basket.  McCarty is outside the three point line, 
right has mark area.  Depending on how well the defense is set up, 
Mercer runs through one or more picks...running down the right side of 
the court, using first McCarty, then Walker, and finally the center to 
shake his man.  His route is down the right side of the court, under the 
basket very deep, back up the left side of the lane just outside of the 
paint, and finally, cutting across the free throw line in front of the 
high post player and immediately running straight down the center of the 
lane towards the basket.  McCarty then follows roughly 8-10 feet behind 
him.  The result of this run is that Mercer is often running straight 
down the center of the lane with his man several feet behind him. 
Walker's man cannot  leave him, and McCarty's man is stuck chasing him, 
so there is only the center's man who can get involved in the play, and 
that would leave the center an open path to the basket.  So, care to 
guess what the net result of this play is the majority of the 
time...nothing.  Billups simply pounds the ball...watched Mercer go 
uncontested to the hoop and doesn't even throw the easy lob that owuld 
be a sure jam...sometimes he'll hit the second man...McCarty, but now 
Mercer's man is in the paint, and McCarty does not have a path to the 
basket.  Most often, if there's time left, Billups passes to the center 
who passes it back, because his man stayed on him...if there's no time 
left, billups drives or shoots...he simply doesn't seem to understand 
the play even though he runs it up to 20 times a night!!!!  With two 
minutes to go against Indiana, he missed Mercer uncontested under the 
basket on this very play!  he made up for it by scoring on a tough move, 
but that doesn't make up for all of the times they've missed the 
play...even though he scored, a large portion of the Fleet Center was 
screaming about Mercer being wide open....  SImply put, as I can think 
of no play they run as much as this one, why do Celtic point guards seem 
to be unaware of the wide open first option on the play?

Ok, second gripe.  The fast break.  For some reason Celtic middle men on 
the break seem unable to pass to the open man...at least a hand full of 
times a game there will be a fast break where the middle man either 
forces it himself or passes to a man with a defender on one side while 
the other side is open.  An extreme example of this happened this 
afternoon.  Walker had been knocked to the floor on a drive to the 
basket and stayed down/  Indiana ran down the floor and shot, and 
suddenly Dee Brown is leading a break back the other way.  Walker is by 
himself to the left of the basket, outside of the paint (he never ran 
back across half court on the play), and yet Dee Brown somehow decided 
it was better to try and dribble through the other team than to pass it 
ot the player who has been by himself at the other end of the floor for 
the last 10 seconds.  The team needs to learn who the open man is, and 
when to pass.  I think the shooting percentage and scoring would go up 
significantly if the passers read the court better.  Billups is a good 
scorer and defender, Barros is a great shooter and much improved 
defender, and Brown is a good athlete and good defender, but   none of 
them seem to understand who is open in a motion environment.  I'm not 
sure how well you can teach this..(Brown and Barros are great examples 
of the teaching not being too effective)...and I think the teams biggest 
need on offense may be a point guard who understands spacing and how to 
hit a man on the move.  We need help inside, but Phoenix has shown that 
ball movement and athletes can make up for lack of size...right now 
Boston has the athletes, but they need someone who can help them take 
advantage of it...someone who can give them good passes leading them to 
the basket, or even a good entry pass in the low post (the amount of 
work Walker has to do to get open enough for a Celtic guad to get him 
the ball is unreal - he needs serious help from a good passer so that 
they can punish the defender for over playing him.)....

So, lets hear some feedback (especially about the above mentioned half 
court set)...I like what the team is doing, but I'm worried by the 
recent lack of improvement.  They seem to have hit a developmental wall, 
and I'm worried about whether or not they'll get around it this year.  
Is it all just a strange learning curve, or have they maxed out on the 
current ability of the players, and now the slow teaching of new things 
begins?  

Adam
PS.  SOrry for the length of this, its a slow Sunday, so I though i'd 
share my boredom.