JR and Kedrick

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

FWIW, I give JR credit for apparently working on that 
lefty shot throughout his DNP-CDs. 

I remember Bremer in his earlier appearances this year as 
having a distinct flaw in his shot. The ball came off 
flat, and with a low release point in front of his body 
that looked blockable or alterable with tight NBA 
defenses. 

(His FG% coming into the weekend attests to that problem.)

One thing Bremer is is a natural pull-up shooter. He can 
get to a spot and get that shot off. And it comes off his 
hand as smooth or smoother than it does on a catch-and-
shoot.

Another strength for Bremer is how aggressive and 
successful he has been, from day one really, at getting 
all the way to the hoop. He's pesky and hard to stop. It 
takes great confidence to drive that length against the 
quick hands and long arms of NBA defenders, since you 
have to beat two defenders. When Walker used to try the 
same stuff, it usually ended in a block.

I'm not too worried about defenses adjusting to Bremer, 
as much as his game eventually cooling off. I'd say 
exactly the same thing, though, about the presently stone 
cold Shammond Williams (who put on even more memorable 
dribbling and shooting performances than Bremer earlier 
this season). 

Every roster player in the NBA seems to have a great 
night at least once per year. But I hope this is the 
start of something good. The comparisons with a young 
David Wesley seem very apt. Both are strong kids for one 
thing.

I'm still not convinced he's an NBA pointguard in any 
sense other than his listed height, but a lot of assists 
can come out of his staying aggressive and, hopefully, 
shooting lights out. We really need it. He made excellent 
reads on several plays that led teammates toward the 
basket for scores. I can't say I've seen much of that 
from either Shammond or Delk this year. 

As for the Houston game, I'm telling you there was 
something really wrong with the boxscore.

Apart from a brief stretch early in the fourth, the 
Celtics were the more aggressive team rebounding and 
boxing out on our own end, against the #2 rebounding team 
in the league. This kept us in the game.

In that sense, Boston must have had more than 21 
defensive rebounds in that game (plus a solid 12 
offensive boards). That has to be a season low in 
defensive boards. 

Also, I've commented that several recent boxscores made 
Antoine look better (or less mediocre) than his actual 
play. But in the Houston game, I felt Antoine must have 
been reasonably close to a double double or triple 
double. 

Instead he showed only 6 rebounds (3 assists). I don't 
trust the official scorekeeping on that. Time and again 
Antoine was a magnet to the loose ball. He's had 10 
rebound nights where he was much more invisible in that 
facet of the game. 

Overall Antoine played his best shot-selection game in a 
long time. Also, its been a while since Paul Pierce hit 
75% of his trey attempts, or we had three guys score over 
20 points.

These performances were wasted, because we allowed 50% 
shooting. 

You can throw all the other secondary reasons out for the 
loss IMO, although at some point Chris Wallace will have 
to address a bench that shot us out of the game (3-20 
shooting).

I have a very, very hard time believing Kedrick Brown was 
ever in his life a 40+ shooter on three-pointers, 
regardless of the propaganda we've read and his published 
college stats. 

He's wide open when he clanks them. Its like there is a 
little invisible devil on his shoulder telling him not to 
shoot, just before he releases the ball. 

Of course JR Bremer was also 2-18 on treys coming into 
the San Antonio game. But he was not a good jump shooter 
as an amateur, whereas Kedrick was.

We're going to need Kedrick to shoot that shot with more 
confidence...and accuracy. Or not shoot at all.

And maybe dribble the ball once per game, when no one is 
looking.

Vin Baker and Battie probably dribble the ball more often 
in a game than Kedrick. And at least Battie's 3-point 
attempt looked like it had a 25% chance of going in. 

Kedrick looks like he couldn't make 2 out of 10 in an 
empty gym. He shoots like he's never attempted the shot 
before in his life.

I don't care how good an athlete you are, there is no way 
this kid could have averaged 10-15 points per game in CC 
or any other amateur level (much less 23 ppg), unless he 
was much, much more assertive creating shots for himself. 
It just wouldn't happen. Too many lesser athletes are 
more than happy to hog shots. The Celtics team needs him 
to be more assertive, whether he realizes it or not.
 
Joe H.














 


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