2018 Boston Celtics offseason

Apparently seizures causing violence (and memory loss of actions taken during the seizure) is a know thing. How much that played in here, who knows. It was obviously treated as both a potential domestic crime and a medical emergency.


www.epilepsy.com/connect/forums/living-epilepsy-adults/violence-during-seizure (a few related comments from an epilepsy board, FWIW)

"There never was an Aaron, Councilor"

Sorry - I shouldn't make light of the situation but I can't get it out of my head ever since the reports/rumors of that being a factor came out.

Yeah I don't know man. Maybe in the regular season depending on what you're looking for, but in the post-season you definitely need an alpha scorer and Rozier can't do that. Irving can. You need a guy who's able to take over games and there's only one dude who can do that currently in the roster (two if/when Tatum develops).

What you said would be correct if the Celtics didn't have the roster it has. Irving doesn't need to be a primary creator and ball movement isn't solely his responsibility, not in a team with Hayward and Horford who are both fantastic playmakers for their position. They also bring Smart from the bench and he's going to see a lot of time playing as 2 next to Irving. They need Irving to be a scorer, not a distributor. Look at game 7 against the Cavs last year. Once they went under every screen and packed the lane and fools couldn't hit anything long, no amount of distribution would do you any good. You need a reliable alpha scorer that at least gets the other defense jumpy. And we all loved the team effort last season, but let's be honest here, they probably would have reached the Finals with Irving starting instead of Rozier.

The Irving from last year won't allow Hayward and Horford to be playmakers, that really my whole point. I fully agree he doesn't to be the primary playmaker, but he needs to play different than last year if those two will be big time playmakers. Just to prove my point, Irving only played PG 69% of the time last year. Stevens jumping at the chance to play a guy like Rozier at PG when playing with Irving. Lets be frank I love Rozier, but right now he's probally average at running a team and getting guys involved. He shows flashes of being well above average, but he's not close to a Chris Paul type player or a Rondo in his prime. Just for refrence, Thomas played 100% PG in his time in Boston, Irving had played nearly 100% PG the last four for the Cavs. So it sure seems Stevens agrees Irving wasn't great last year at running the team and getting players involved. Irving has the ball in his hands more than anyone. As much as it would be great to make him a full-time SG, you just can't, not if you start Brown. So he needs to play team ball, start the offense and make sure everyone is getting involved. That means a ton less trips where only he touches the ball and takes a shot. He can take all the shots he wants once we run our offense. The age old saying were you want everyone touching the ball before a shot is taken most of the time. That is Steven's offense and the exact opposite of what Irving did in Cleveland and here last year. Yes we need Irving the scorer, but we need Irving the scorer playing team ball.

You can debate what Irving could have done for us in the playoffs. There is certainly games were he would have helped a ton and others were I wonder. Who really knows, maybe. Sure game 7 he makes a difference,  Rozier and Brown couldn't hit the side of a barn shooting. You just don't know if Tatum, Brown, and Rozier to a lesser extent take the large jumps they did if Irving is leading the team. It's not like Irving is just Rozier but a much better scorer. That scoring came at a cost last year. That Orlando game where he had 40 point. It was a crazy impressive display, but it highlights the problems when Irving plays that way. It was his second highest point total and he was very efficient.  We lost and the final score doesn't even do it justice. A late run when the game was over. Irving just wanting to be the man and four other guys just watching him. Basketball is a team sport and even the great LeBron can't win games without playing team ball. Gotta keep everyone engaged even if your on fire. He has the ball more than anyone, so he can't not do it. 

All that matters is this team is starting off the year better than last years team. They lost to the Cavs because they couldn’t score and they are adding one of the best scorers in the league, plus another top 20 scorer in Hayward. On top of it, Tatum won’t be as tentative like at times last year. Brown and Rozier should hopefully continue their improvements like previous years.

Sit back and enjoy. The situation Kyrie or any of these guys will be playing in is drastically different despite basically the same team returning. The majority of the players we are talking about as proven guys were basic unknowns last season and early on were just along for the ride feeling it out.

Couldn't disagree with umass more. On top of that I will say that Kyrie has been instrumental in Roziers development based on what Terry has said.

Marcus Smarts mother died... sad day. I know she’s been really sick and struggling but losing your mom this young just isn’t right. Pray for Marcus 🙏

I don't think that's a statistic than means anything. Position designations in stat databases, more often than not, are based solely off the height of the players on the floor. Thomas was obviously the shortest guard on the Celtics whenever he took the floor (and so was always designated at the PG), but that wasn't true for Irving, who is taller than Rozier and Larkin. As such, whenever he played with those guys, he was nominally designated the SG even though he probably handled the ball and ran the offense more often than those guys did. 

Here’s the ESPN top 100. It differs a lot from the SI one. Sports Illustrated does have some of the worst NBA coverage around right now, unfortunately.

82 -- Terry Rozier
55 -- Marcus Smart (unranked by SI)
40 -- Gordon Hayward
37 -- Jaylen Brown
34 -- Al Horford


Tatum and Kyrie are clearly both in the top 30. Will be interesting to see where they fall. 7 top 82 and 5 top 40 ain’t bad.

Jimmy Butler has officially requested a trade per Shams/Woj/Others. Woj reporting that he's told Minny that he'd prefer LAC/BRK/NYK.

Changed to the reflect the spirit of Woj's tweet (originally was that he'd give a list of 1-3 teams he'd be willing to sign an extension with. When the 3 came out, it was "preference").

How can't Thomas not play off the ball? He's a great shooter. Sure he's more effective with the ball, but Smart plays SG and even a bunch of SF. There isn't a single part of Smarts game that is that of a SG offensively.