The Official NBA Season Thread: Player Option Day

[moe200069]

i hate that i can hear mark jones saying “he went federal on ‘em” in my head even though it’s about the dumbest thing

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Tatum had a quiet *** 34. You woulda thought it was 22. In his slight defense they ain't getting **** from their role players. Horford look washed again. Smart ain't doing nothing. He not slowing down these Heat guards.

 

[ill steelo]

In every Celtics loss during this run, Al Horford is somewhere in there

Mazzulla guaranteeing him 30+ minutes just doesn’t make sense.

 

[Kierris]

By all accounts, the heat have an inferior roster to the Celtics especially with Dipo and Herro out... Spo is a prime example of what good coaching is and what it can do for a team. We gotta stop downplaying how important coaching is in the NBA.

 

[ill4eva]

This too... Brown and Tatum are both too streaky for their own good. Whenever they both go crazy together, Boston's but for some reason it's very rare that they do that. It's usually one beasting while the other takes a backseat.

When Tatum is off, he’s still playing defense, still able to make good reads. Sometimes he coughs it up, but for the most part, he’s trying to make the right pass.

When Jaylen is off? Oh boy. He does more harm than good if he ain’t scoring.

 

[651akathepaul]

Reposting my post from earlier

If I try to get my teammates involved and they the bed while I'm being double teamed all game... Of course I'm gonna start chucking in the 4th. He spent the first half of the 4th trying to get the teammates involved then started shooting... Also he scored the last 5 Celtics points in 4th. Idk where it's coming from but the Tatum hate is getting corny. Man is his team's leading scorer and passer. Jaylen Brown is a all NBA player, he needs to show up. Tatum is doing his job. Also as Bill Simmons and many other Celtics fans have been echoing, the Celtics coach is terrible especially in close games/the 4th quarter. Deducing the losses to "Tatum shoots too many jumpers" is a lazy take.


Edit: Let me clean up my post a bit. He isn't a terrible coach but I do think he's getting carried a lot and I stick by what I said about him being bad in the clutch.

When you can draw a straight line between the only 2 points on the court where Tatum will score, it's a problem. You lean towards blaming coaching, I lean towards blaming the player. The answer is probably in the middle.

I just believe it's unacceptable. All superstars at this point are the focal point of the opposing defense. At some point, the player needs to say "f it" and take over, a la Jimmy and so many before him. That's the issue for me and the reason for my stance - because I've seen it so many times at this point in the postseason. Sure, it doesn't help that Brown is ghosting his team, but at some point, Tatum needs to start backing dudes up in the paint and breaking out a repertoire if they wanna win. It's like he's waiting around for others to step up or for the coach to draw up the perfect play every time...just get after it already.

 

[pmatic]

Coaching is just like players. You have your handful that make a positive difference, your handful that are a harmfully negative and everybody in-between is largely indifferent.

 

[IATT]

By all accounts, the heat have an inferior roster to the Celtics especially with Dipo and Herro out... Spo is a prime example of what good coaching is and what it can do for a team. We gotta stop downplaying how important coaching is in the NBA.

 

[lawdog1]

The thing that has impressed me most about this Heat run - other than Jimmy’s individual greatness - is their consistency in approach. Always play with max effort (or close to it), stick rigidly to their principles/schemes and don’t ever get rattled (or very, very seldom). And also rarely make totally dumb mistakes.

 

[Maximus Meridius]

 

[Kierris]

When you can draw a straight line between the only 2 points on the court where Tatum will score, it's a problem. You lean towards blaming coaching, I lean towards blaming the player. The answer is probably in the middle.

I just believe it's unacceptable. All superstars at this point are the focal point of the opposing defense. At some point, the player needs to say "f it" and take over, a la Jimmy and so many before him. That's the issue for me and the reason for my stance - because I've seen it so many times at this point in the postseason. Sure, it doesn't help that Brown is ghosting his team, but at some point, Tatum needs to start backing dudes up in the paint and breaking out a repertoire if they wanna win. It's like he's waiting around for others to step up or for the coach to draw up the perfect play every time...just get after it already.

Jaylen Brown is averaging 19 points and shooting under 40% this series.... It's just very weird that y'all are directing all the negative takes towards the one Celtics player who is showing up. Everybody has there spots whether it's Kobe, KD, Bron, MJ etc... Tatum is no different. Y'all can type til you're blue but you're not about to convince me that the guy averaging a 30 point double double and outplaying his teammates by a large margin is the reason they're losing... It's kinda ridiculous that Tatum of all the Celtics players is the one y'all are saying needs to step up. The only player outplaying him on the court is Jimmy.

 

[Kierris]

When Tatum is off, he’s still playing defense, still able to make good reads. Sometimes he coughs it up, but for the most part, he’s trying to make the right pass.

When Jaylen is off? Oh boy. He does more harm than good if he ain’t scoring.

Yeah... Outside niketalk, there's actually a narrative that exists that says Brown is better than Tatum. I like Bully and Tatum but one is clearly better than the other. All I know is that the Celtics better show up next game, if not, it's curtains.

 

[651akathepaul]

I'm not trying to convince you...or anybody, really. I thought we were having a discussion.

 

[Kierris]

Tatum's only problem to me is consistency... But like ill4eva said even on his bad shooting nights, he makes up for it in other areas.... The coach is average and his supporting cast is giving him nothing. If he goes out and plays hero ball y'all will call him a chucker, if he defers and tries to get his team involved y'all will say he's being too passive. Dude's in a no win situation with some of you. I do have my criticisms of Jayson but dating back to game 7 of the last series dude has been doing his thing.

 

[aepps20]

Coaching is just like players. You have your handful that make a positive difference, your handful that are a harmfully negative and everybody in-between is largely indifferent.

I think there are a ton of bad coaches out there. Talent is masking a ton of problems with the coaches coaching top teams

 

[B Sox]

Brogdon/JB/JT/Timelord 4 man lineup is a +15 net rating in the playoffs. This really shouldn’t be that hard. The fact that Mazz can’t figure out lineups is very alarming.

 

[aepps20]

Brogs needs the ball in his hands more. He has been so good that the Celts should run the offense through him when JT and JB don't have it going.

 

[allergic2broke]

Can Celtics win 4 out of 5 with 3 games on the road ?

Dicey

 

[freeze]

Can't wait til around 1:30 when we'll get footage of Bron prepping for tonight in the empty arena shooting unlimited jumpers, they tell us he's been there for 7 straight days, no food no water, head full of hair , with no sweat on him.

 

[freeze]

Shout out to a-friend 'this is why they play the games'

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Bam and Joker right now are dominating their opponents

 

[BennyIll22]

Tatum's only problem to me is consistency... But like ill4eva said even on his bad shooting nights, he makes up for it in other areas.... The coach is average and his supporting cast is giving him nothing. If he goes out and plays hero ball y'all will call him a chucker, if he defers and tries to get his team involved y'all will say he's being too passive. Dude's in a no win situation with some of you. I do have my criticisms of Jayson but dating back to game 7 of the last series dude has been doing his thing.

I don't think anyone is even criticizing him that hard to be honest with you. Every superstar is gonna get some flack when they don't deliver at the end of very close games. Objectively, that is what is happening here. Seems to me the coach is getting more then him.

I think he really needs to step outside his comfort zone as a player personally. I get that his game is his game, but he's too easy to shut down in high leverage moments. They know what's coming from a mile away.

 

[B Sox]

Bam was getting worked by Timelord yesterday. Coach then decided that wasn’t something that would be beneficial to the team.

 

[elpablo21]

The extender is a crazy nickname

 

[lawdog1]

The extender is a crazy nickname

Crazy accurate.