Notes from the Underground
By Mike
In an effort to do our part to rehabilitate the possibly discredited notes column format, the FCP brings you a few notes on the Celtics recent winning streak and a few other items of interest around the league.
Wait, I thought we had an “arrangement.” Like Michael Keaton jumping off the tricycle and steaming down the home stretch past Martin Mull, the Celtics have caused many a fan to wonder what the heck they are doing over the last four games. While the team was in the depths of a historic losing streak we all were being drenched by the spilled ink over the talents of certain potential draftees. At that point it seemed clear that the Cs would continue to lose games and take crap from the rest of the league for it in the hopes of adding to the percentage chance of getting a prize in this summer’s draft. But continuing their season of contradictions, the Cs combined some decently efficient offensive outings, some strong work on the boards and the further emergence of a young star to win a few games.
While it might be time to panic due to their success, a quick look at the standings argues otherwise. The Cs remain comfortably in second lottery position, with five fewer wins than the Sixers, Bucks, Hawks and Bobcats tied at #3. A win or two down the stretch here can be tolerated, and in fact helps the sanity of many fans who wonder if the healing powers of Greg Oden will be enough to fix what ails a team that seems to make the same mistakes in every game. It would be nice to see the Gerald Greens and Rajon Rondos of the world make a few plays down the stretch of a game or two and start to show us why we believe in their promise.
He can beat you with one hand tied behind his back. Congrats to Al Jefferson for winning a well-deserved Eastern Conference Player of the Week award for his sterling inside work during the recent winning streak. Al has grown in every phase of the game over the course of this season, and now stands on the brink of establishing himself as a true force in the league.
Jefferson still has deficiencies however. The team clearly doesn’t think much of his defensive abilities against more mobile big men, even going so far as to have Kendrick Perkins guard Kevin Garnett when the three were on the floor on Sunday. Jefferson doesn’t seem to always run the floor very well, forcing the team to slow down its pace on occasion to involve him in the offense. And while not much bad can be said about Al’s feathery soft touch with his half-hook, his scoring abilities are occasionally limited by his utter lack of a left hand.
But it is this last shortcoming that actually gives me the biggest reason for believing in Al and opposing just about any trade offer not involving one of a few elite players. Jefferson is effective in the low post now, but if he ever picks up a lefthanded shot he will be even more consistent in his offensive production. I’m not talking about a Larry Bird left hand where he’s shooting three pointers with it. All he needs is a little lefty hook or something that allows him to spin to his left and not have to bring the ball back to his right hand (and the defender) to score it.
Based on the instincts Jefferson has already shown around the hoop, I expect he will find a way to add this countermove to his arsenal, and when he does I want him to be scoring those points for the Green.
Unsolicited advice. It figures that just when the team doesn’t want to win Doc Rivers finds a rotation that works.
It’s interesting that despite Rivers’ prior smallball tendencies the recent success has come while using one of his bigger lineups to start the past several games. But leaving that successful lineup alchemy aside, at some point I think the team needs to realize that focusing on a winning rotation over the last few weeks of the season is not as important as attempting to develop chemistry between the combinations the team projects to use when it again is ready to contend for something other than ping pong balls.
To me that means the team needs to find minutes for Gerald Green alongside Pierce like they did at times against Minnesota, instead of replacing Pierce with Green in the lineup as they have in other recent games. Similarly, I think Rajon Rondo needs more minutes with genuine shooters and scorers around him rather than the second unit minutes where he’s penetrating and creating openings for guys who aren’t going to take advantage.
On the plus side, while I am only grudgingly coming around to the value Brian Scalabrine provides I do feel that starting him allows Ryan Gomes to get used to what may be the role he is most suited for: a combo forward off the bench. His effective play at small forward since Pierce had the walking boot clamped on him has made the team much more flexible in its lineups. The Cs went big down the stretch against Minnesota with Gomes, Perkins and Jefferson on the front line, and they delivered with a mammoth edge on the glass. At other times they can shift Gomes over to PF next to Jefferson and still compete for rebounds while opening up the interior for Al’s post moves
Draft news. Last week I saw this post on DraftExpress.com describing proposed changes to the NBA draft schedule. The most significant of these appears to be that teams are only allowed to schedule individual workouts after the NBA’s predraft camp, which provides only three weeks for teams to have the prospects in before the draft.
It’ll be interesting to see how this new restriction plays out for the league in general and the Celtics in particular. In some ways the Cs are in good shape because their top 5 pick will inevitably be a draw for the best players, while those same players may not want to spend any of their valuable time with teams holding picks beneath their self-perceived value. Also the joint workout the Cs had with Minnesota before last year’s draft may become a model for maximizing the number of players a team can evaluate in such a short time (and vice versa), so it’s good that they may have gotten a head start on working out the kinks on those situations. Like, for example, how to direct the workout and find out the things you want to know without tipping your hand to the other club.
As an NBA fan I think the changes are a good thing. The more incentive players have to attend the NBA camp, the more efficient the process will be. And if someday the NBA camp becomes the basketball equivalent of the NFL Combine with actual game action instead of shuttle runs, so much the better.
Playoffs loom. One of the NBA’s biggest marketing problems is the recent shift of strength to the Western Conference. Last year’s WC playoffs were fantastically entertaining, with four competitive series (Suns-Lakers, Mavs-Spurs, Suns-Clippers, Mavs-Suns) that would have been a highlight of any other postseason. Of course with the NBA’s television setup overall viewership for these series suffered because all of these games ended well after midnight on the east coast, where much of the sports viewing population lives.
Unfortunately for those of you in the east this year’s WC playoffs are shaping up to be just as good. The Mavs and Suns appear to be on a collision course for a rematch, only this time both have more talent and depth than they did last year. You can’t count out the Spurs, the Jazz have pushed Jerry Sloan into Coach of the Year running and even the Rockets and Nuggets have the marquee players that could get on a roll in a short series. It’s going to be fun, if you can stay up to watch.
As for the Eastern Conference, the Wade injury has turned the spotlight on the new-look Pistons. As Marc Stein of espn.com points out, it should be an interesting stretch ahead for Detroit as they play Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in an 8-day stretch starting March 16. Should be a good barometer for where the East’s elite team measures up against the best in the West.
