Thanks to a new identity, a top team
The Boston Celtics played far below their possibilities last season and at the beginning of the current season. Boston has been performing like a top team since January and now looks like a serious title candidate for the coming years. How did this sudden changeover came about?
Before this season, those responsible and the Boston Celtics players agreed: This season has to be a more successful season than the past. This had ended in a disastrous first round after the Celts had only made it into the playoffs with difficulty over the play-in. The past year revealed the blatant weaknesses of the Celtics: inadequate ball movement, too many complicated isolation plays and one -off, weak throwing selection and quota resulting, which made the team of the then head coaches Brad Stevens too easy for the opponents.
In order to tackle these problems, ime Udoka came to Boston as a new head of the head coach. Stevens took over the general manager's job for this. It is Udoka's first engagement as a head coach, previously he was active as an assistant coach of Brooklyn Nets.
Udoka stands for a style that the Celtics did not maintain before: tough defense and team Boston. After a weak start of the season and 21 defeats from the first 38 games - which can certainly be booked as a familiarization period of the new coach and as an introductory phase between this and its players - the Celtics switched up several courses and closed the regular season with a considerable balance of 51 -31 in second place in the Eastern Conference. The reasons for this positive transformation are complex.
functioning defensive concept
The Celtics created an outstanding defensive identity during the season. This is closely linked to the name of Udoka, who was already known as a defensive fanatic before his station in Boston. If you look at the squad of the traditional franchise, the basic requirements for a functioning defense are always given.
Marcus Smart as a freshly baked "Defensive Player of the Year" forms the heart of the Celtics Defense. The two stars of the team, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, are excellent “Two-Way players”, they can dominate at both ends of the field (offensive and defensive). And the two Big Men Al Horford and Robert Williams III are also known for their qualities at the back of the field.
Boston usually plays a defense in which the players are constantly switching and not tied to a permanent opponent. The Celtics players can defend different positions and thus give coach Udoka a certain flexibility. As a team's center, Williams takes on a very special task: he is often not the primary defender of the opposing center under the basket, but is mostly near the opponent near the triple line. If necessary, Williams is immediately on the spot for a teammate as a Help defender in the zone and can at least make the opponent's throw or at least make it difficult.
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With 106.2 points of the opponent per 100 ball possession, Boston made the best defensive rating in the main round. Tatum praises the defensive philosophy installed by Udoka and his coaching staff, which was initially new territory for the Celtics players: “I think that a new coaching staff can be very helpful. We were not used to the defensive philosophy at the beginning. I was a little skeptical at the beginning because I only knew another game idea from the previous years, ”the franchise player told Boston Globe in early April.
But not only the strong team defense that Udoka installed shows that the Celtics took a big step forward.
The rethink of the stars
It also made “click” in the offensive game, and should be mentioned above all Tatum and Brown. Last season and also at the beginning of the current season, the team offered was hardly reasonable for the team for the Celtics fans. Tatum and Brown constantly got involved in complicated individual actions. This resulted in complicated throws that often did not fall.
Isolations hardly belong to the Celtics philosophy. On the one hand, this is due to Udoka, on the other hand, above all on the two stars itself. Tatum finally understood to involve the entire team more during the ball lecture instead of wanting to shine through hero ball or only through his scoring. If the 24-year-old has a weak scoring evening, he is now becoming more and more convincing as a strong playmaker and assistant who includes his teammates into the offensive game.
Like Tatum, Brown has become more mature. His actions now work well, in important phases the 25-year-old now keeps a cool head and often makes the right decision.
This not only applies to the two still relatively young stars, a considerable development has also taken place at Smart. The best defender of the current season has been defensive for years over any doubt, but question marks were created by his offensive. In the meantime, Smart also plays the clever Boston at the offensive end, which Udoka imagines. As a positive example of Smart's development, many Celtics fans will probably immediately think of the last campaign in the first game of this year's first round series against Brooklyn Nets, in which Smart kept an overview and provided the Assist for Tatum GameWinner.
A few months ago, Smart might have taken the litter itself with just a few seconds on the clock, but the Celtics have gone through a ripening process in recent months that has a positive effect on their own game.
Due to the team -related game of the stars, the different strengths of the other players come into play better. Three specialists such as bank players Grant Williams or Payton Pritchard often receive open throws from the triple line, the Big Men Horford and Robert Williams often come into good positions under the basket.
matching trades
In order to match the strengths of the players even better, Stevens became active as a GM shortly before Trade Deadline in February and acquired Derrick White from the San Antonio Spurs and Daniel Theis from the Houston Rockets. In return, Boston made Josh Richardson (to the Spurs) and Dennis Schröder (to the Rockets).
One or the other Celtics fan frowned with their forehead on these deals, but White and Theis fit into the Celtics squad. In addition to the ball dominant Tatum and Brown, White is the much better fit compared to Schröder, who has its strengths more on-ball than off-ball. As a strong defender, White also fits the Udoka defensive concept extremely well. Only the threesome (30.6% 3FG in the main round for Boston) has to be even better.
Theis, who was already under contract with the Celtics from 2017 to 2021, is a clever transfer because the German already knows the franchise and most of his teammates well. The 30-year-old is glad that he is back in Boston and emphasizes the differences compared to his short stays in Chicago and Houston: “I've always felt comfortable here in Boston, but you get a different perspective when you get in between In a situation in which this is not the case, ”Theis told SPOX.
The two deals were also a direct hit with regard to the contract structure, since White and Theis (like the other important players of the Celtics) have long -term contracts and thus the core of the team for the coming years. The contracts by Schröder and Richardson only ran until the end of the season, without a trade, the Celtics would have had no equivalent in summer. So Stevens was able to get the optimal out. The newcomers quickly integrated into the working team structure of the Celtics and make Boston one of the best teams in the NBA.
promising future?
The promising starting situation was not only underlined by the strong second half of the regular season, but also the impressive sweep of the Celtics against the Nets in the first playoff round. The strengths of the Celtics once again became clear: a very well -functioning defense that even keeps an offensive monster like Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving, and a liquid offensive game that often ends with the right play.
In the first game of the second round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, however, the Celtics pulled the shorter. The Bucks beat the Celtics with their own weapon, namely a functioning team defense. Against Giannis Antetoukounmpo, Jrue Holiday and Co., the two Celtics stars Tatum and Brown hardly came to the train. Coach Udoka is now required before the second game to develop a good match plan against the reigning champion. It will need it to turn the gap against Milwaukee and keep the championship hopes of the Celtics supporters alive.
Because in Answer the fans of Banner number 18 and the status dream as the sole record champion in front of the Los Angeles Lakers. Why not? The appropriate prerequisites for winning the title are not only given in Boston in this, but also in the coming years.
Tatum showed this season that he can definitely be the superstar of a contender and will be elected in one of the three all-NBA teams at the end of the season. In addition to Tatum, Brown crystallizes as a suitable number two after some critics asked before the season to open the young star duo and trade one of the two "Jays". The defense works perfectly under the direction of Smart. The 36-year-old Horford seems to be experiencing his second spring towards his old days, and Robert Williams does exactly the positive development that Celtics hoped for in his contract extension (four years, $ 54 million) before the season. The other players also generate plenty of relief from the bank and thus give the stars their urgently needed breaks.
The squad has been compiled appropriately and the existing potential is currently optimally exhausted, Stevens and Udoka have done convincing work as newly in their positions. And so the chances of the Celtics are good to fulfill the goal of before the season: to forget the last season and to ensure a promising future.
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