Re: Thoughts on the disappointing Celtics

[opi@unesco.org]

Very informative post. I don't know, you may be right Alex and it won't be a
first.

But certainly 55% shooting sounds far preferable to Zo's 8-12 and 9-11 games
against us thus far, or Shaq's 13-20 with 17 freebies at the line (forget about
Duncan's numbers).
No NBA team today has the lowpost weapons of the Celtics in the 80's, yet teams
like Philly and Detroit and the Lakers played us straight as their base defense
even if it was "suicidal". You'd see Mo Cheeks or someone else swooping down
like a gnat to steal Parish's first dribble.

 Once the ball is lobbed over him, no amount of mismatched help defense short
of a foul is going to prevent the easy layup. I don't think anyone on the list
is advocating letting the Celts play nothing but straight man-to-man. But why
not double down or even "front" before the pass with a smaller man to squeez
off any lateral mobility by the center once the ball gets down low? At least
make Shaq and Zo work harder for it next time around and take contested shots.

This could very well be "suicidal", but how much worse could it be? It would be
hard to get much worse. I'm not exactly complaining without waiting for a
little evidence. Pitino has to adopt to the personnel he has. If we are going
to stick to fronting, I'd say we'd get better results starting freaking Waltah
(long arms and hops) at center. Vitaly has short arms and fronting negates the
strength advantages, so basically he's as good as squat.

But I would hesitate to trade our starting center straight up for fully 10 of
the starting centers on the current 16 playoff team rosters. If all those teams
all have mailing lists, I'd bet that up to a dozen of them are focusing on how
crappy their starting center is. It is myopic to assume our guy is really that
much worse than the others out there on better teams.

And blaming the Celts .470FG% allowed on our lack of athletic defenders is as
surreal as blaming the "Charge of the Light Brigade" on having horses that ran
too slow. You're barking up the wrong tree. At some point we need to stop
blaming the enlisted men. It's incredible how earnest and try-hard these guys
have been this year, despite BSG's dissertation that it is a lack of heart not
talent compared to Pitino's first year.

But anyway Alex I found your post very informative as usual.

Joe

****

Alex Wang wrote:

> > > A note on one of the more common criticisms. There have been
> > > quite a few people who believe that fronting the post is a bad
> > > coaching decision. In fact, the Miami Heat who have great inside
> > > defenders in Mourning and PJ Brown front the post (and subsequently
> > > trap) almost always, according to Hubie Brown and Jack Ramsay, as
> > > well as what I've seen of the Heat on TNT/TBS. It's not some sort
> > > of weird Pitino innovation, it's really a standard defensive move.
> >
> > Oh c'mon Alex. Mourning and PJ are uncommonly mobile and quick athletes -
> > two the quickest pound for pound. They are the exact opposite of
> > Potapenko, who carries at least 30 extra pounds of muscle than those
> > guys. If you make Potapenko switch and trap, he will look at his very
> > worst and he'll continue to give up those 8-10 or 15-20 games to the
> > Shaqs and Mournings of the world. But if you ask Vitaly to try to use
> > leverage to body up and deny ideal position in the paint (without
> > reaching in or grabbing too much), at least he can say "yeah coach, I can
> > do that!" and have a fighting chance. In this sense, Potapenko is not in
> > the right system presently.
>
> Miami is one example of a team that does this well because of their
> superior low post athletes, but they are certainly not the only
> example. My point is that fronting the post is a widespread defensive
> technique in the league. I am not talking about 3/4 fronting and then
> getting behind the man, I am talking about "pure" fronting and relying
> on the other interior player to trap if they lob and the perimeter
> players to rotate (which doesn't require as much quickness and
> mobility for the big man). If the trap isn't great and the rotations
> aren't great, the opposing team will rotate the ball for an open shot.
> This happens to Miami too - just not as often as it happens to the
> Celtics, because their defensive execution is superior.
>
> Most people seem to have the opinion, "Just play straight up
> man-to-man defense, no traps and rotations, no fronting. Big man
> defenders play behind their man and defend them with no help." I think
> that under the new rules disallowing the dislodging of the man (which
> Potapenko was skilled at), this is often suicidal. I would guess that
> most decent low post players, including Antoine, score at a 55% or
> better rate when given good low post position, with the man beneath
> them and no help coming. Of course if you can prevent the low post
> player from establishing good inside position, keep him out and play
> behind him. Maybe Potapenko can do that sometimes, but that's often
> not possible. If the other player gets inside position, maybe through
> transition, maybe through screens, you have to front him nowadays,
> because you can't shove him out. Either that or you have to trap down
> from the perimeter when the pass goes down. It's just not optimal to
> allow any decent low-post player operate without harassment one-on-one.
>
> Now do the Celtics execute the front and trap well?  Some games they
> do, and many games not well at all. That is the problem (and the
> coach bears responsibility for it), and not the fact that they front
> the post like just about every team in the league. "Play good
> man-to-man defense behind your man without help" is the sort of
> easy advice that sounds reasonable - what coach wouldn't like to
> be able to tell their players to do it? It's a lot easier than
> implementing all this trapping and rotation. I just don't think that
> it actually works in today's NBA (without superior personnel).
>
> Alex