2019-20 Boston Celtics Season

People forget he was projected as a lottery pick for a while before slipping late. Really hope he stays healthy because other teams haven't faced us with him playing consistently and he has set the tone early in both games so far.

I agree but I don’t want to put that above the fact he was the main play maker during the comeback. He had 3 assists on Smarts buckets and another one in the 4th (should have been more)... Toronto threw its D at him and he used it to the teams advantage, then still stepped in and helped put the game away with a couple key buckets (FTs and that huge 3) down the stretch. He was so open on that 3 because of all his passing before that. He just had to look at Kemba and the defender bit so hard he was left wide open.

Getting to the line will be a huge part of his rise as a scorer (8 FTs a game adds to the scoring average), but his play making for others is what’s going to make him that MVP level guy.

There was a good breakdown in the Athletic on how Stevens challenged Tatum to get into his move right away last night. He likes to take his time but you can’t do that against Toronto. By him doing that he was able to get by his guy and then the double couldn’t get there in time and that caused a lot of fouls. His fouls were all legit.

It’s nice that he’s hungry to learn and smart.

I think he's always been a gamer when it comes to the big 3s. Just percentages over the last 2 seasons have been better than the first 4. He's always been able to get hot for stretches (wasn't he a 40% shooter in the first half of his rookie year?), but maybe the difference is that now if he gets hot for 5 in a row and misses 1, he stops shooting. I think that in his first few seasons he would have turned a 5-5 4th quarter into a 5-10 4th quarter, whereas in this game he stopped after 5-6 if that makes sense.

His shooting is just icing on the cake. Defense and credible playmaking are enough for me. When his shot is off he almost always makes up for a miss with a ferocious play on D. But my goodness did he shoot them back into the game yesterday.

I hope the Heat can pull the series out. Wacky ending to a good game for them. I feel a lot better about a Celtics-Heat series than Celtics-Bucks. Probably premature, but Giannis could be the Harden of the East. He has all the individual accolades and stats in the world, but his game is too limited to win in the postseason as the #1 guy. Not having home court is killing them though.

In the end, I think the Bucks are more talented than the Heat. They also have bigger bigs who are harder to deal with than Miami's frontcourt machup-wise. The Heat have good players, but the C's have a bigger star power advantage against Miami than Milwaukee. I think that the C's perimeter defense does more to stifle Herro and Crowder than Middleton.

I have mixed feelings about who’s a worse matchup. They are both really good teams. Giannis is obviously the X factor as far as pure dominance goes so I’d have to say he’s the scariest for the Celtics especially since rebounding can be an issue for this team. That size along with Lopez and Middleton likes to kill us when we pack the paint. I’m also going to be upset if the Celtics aren’t in the finals and neither are the Bucks. I really don’t want Giannis to leave the Bucks. I want him to be there long term - I would hate to see him in Miami or LA. If he left for Dallas, that’d be ok, but I’m sick of the same teams getting the FAs and Id like a smaller market to be relevant for a long time.

Yeah I agree. I can see why both sides were upset at their call, but the defenders need to be smarter. Why is Dragic going vertical so close to Middleton that there's contact on the landing? And Giannis knows that the last close call went the Bucks way, so why is he trying to block a 24-foot turnaround in the corner that's already contested?

The better matchup for us is easily the Heat, they are very similar to the Raptors. Our D stopping transition and guarding their three point shooters works out perfectly. We still don't have anyone to stop Giannis, Tatum is a few years away from adding enough muscle to truly guard him.

Yet shame on the Bucks, they really hurt that team not resigning Brogdon. They are starting Mathews at SG and last game Lopez took the most three's. While it's not the Thunder shipping out Harden, it could lead to the same end result. The lost the lethal three point shooter and playmaker they truly needed over money. I also question the rotation that coach is using against the Heat not playing Donte who I love more. That just isn't the same team. Some teams get better when you crunch rotations and some get worse, the Bucks are clearly worse. Without more shooters you just fill the paint and play some zone and it limits space for Giannis. First time they've had that problem in the playoffs in two years.

Letting Brogdon go was like letting Smart leave because you worried about Brown and Tatum's deals down the road. Yet resigning older guys instead. It's actually kinda funny watching this.

He’s smart enough with positioning and doing the little things like picks, sealing the paint and reading rebounds and he’s strong enough that he can overcome all his short comings if he becomes an above average 3 point shooter.

All those short comings will hold him back. My expectations on him are as a great bench piece. Not as a starter.

In the future I don’t see him much different than a Kanter as far as usability goes. Kanter, hasn’t touched the floor against Toronto. In most matchups around the league, if he develops that 3 point shot, I could see where a Williams, Williams, Tatum, Brown and a good PG let’s just say Kemba is still really good in 3 years is a great starting lineup.

So when i say not a starter, I mean it in the same sense of a Kanter in that you don’t want them starting in an ideal world. You wouldn’t want to build your team with them starting.