It's Becoming Undeniable That The Basketball Brain Of Brad Stevens May Have Found His Next Hidden Gem

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

OK, so losing to the Jazz on a buzzer beating OREB putback was bad. Not bad in the big picture sense, but in the immediate, pretty pathetic.

Losing to the Wizards, a team that was 1-6 and had lost 5 in a row would have been an entirely different story in my opinion. At some point, you have to cut the shit. Even if you're firmly on the pro-tanking side of things, in my opinion there has to be a baseline of respectability with this group, and losing back-to-back games to the Jazz and Wizards, both at home, is something that should never happen, even in a gap/tanking/whatever you want to call it year. 

It's what makes threading the needle this season so interesting. The Celtics barring some sort of major injury, are not going to be able to "out-tank" this shit

And for me, I've never really seen that as their path to a potential lottery pick. I've firmly been in the Play In range camp and then needing some Lottery luck like we just saw the Mavs get. If we get to March and something like that is on the table, it's probably in the Celts' best interest to make it happen.

But now? In November? You play to win. It may not work out, but that's the approach and it certainly means you can't be losing back-to-back games against the Jazz and Wizards. It sounds silly, but this was another early-season fork in the road moment for this team and what type of season they want to have. For starters, you need to stop losing at home. Then, when you're playing the worst teams in the NBA, you have to actually beat them.

While it looked a bit dicey after the first 12 minutes, the Celts took a breath, got their shit together, finally played some defense, finally made some shots, finally played with force and the rout was on. Even though you have to take everything we saw with  GIGANTIC GRAIN OF SALT considering it was the Wizards, at this point I'm not sure I give a shit. Just show me you are capable of playing winning basketball. Give me flashes from the young guys who are auditioning for a spot on this team for when Tatum returns. I don't think that's asking for much, and after dropping their last few games last night was as refreshing as it gets.

I think that's an important component of this season that's getting lost with all the tank or don't tank talk. It's JUST as important that this season produces a few young rotation pieces for the next iteration of the roster. If you're winning games with those players making legit contributions? That's good! That's a very important part of this season and for the future! 

That's what last night was. We had guys making franchise history all over the place. We had young guys making their presence felt when it came to impacting winning. Sure, there's a difference between doing it against the Wizards and say, literally any other NBA team, but this is a process. Every game, every moment, is a building block towards building something sustainable and impactful for the future. 

It's very obvious this team just needed a confidence boost, to actually see the ball go in, to actually be able to get stops, to actually be able to rebound. What they do moving forward against better teams is the question, but first let's talk through what we saw last night.

The Good

- Do you know how insane it is to be a player for the Boston Celtics and then do something in a game that no Celtic in their entire history has ever done before? We're not talking about some dogshit franchise that's never had elite talent. We're talkign about the greatest franchise in league history, filled with like 50 HOFers (rough estimate). Some of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball have played for the Boston Celtics. 

So if you find yourself doing something that not a single one of them was ever able to do, personally I consider that a very big deal. Enter, Jaylen Brown

The Boston Celtics as a franchise have played 6,191 games. At no point in any of those games did a player record 35/5/5 in under 30 minutes of play. Not Hondo, not Bird, not Pierce, not Tatum. Please just take a minute and think about what I just said. 

When it comes to Jaylen's start to the season, I'm not sure you could ask for better production. For years, he talked about playing in this #1 option role, and through 9 games it's pretty clear he's backing up everything he told us

Offensively, I'd argue that pretty much everything about his shot profile/approach has been ideal. He's taking his 3s with confidence (38.9% on 6.0 a game) which is right around the number he should be living at (5.7, 5.9 the last 2 years). He's mostly taking C&S with a couple iso 3PA when he's feeling good, and it's been great to see him not try and force things in an attempt to make up for Tatum's 10 3PA a night. He's staying true to his own game, which was definitely a concern of mine heading into the season.

While the outside shooting has been great, it pales in comparison to what we're seeing Jaylen do in the paint and in the midrange. This is why I never understand people who say the Celtics are playing the same way. Their best player is FEASTING at the rim and in the midrange, and we've seen the Celts rank in both areas skyrocket compared to previous seasons. It's not complicated, things have just shifted to the skillset of their current #1 option.

So far this season, Jaylen is 23-48 (47.9%) from midrange. It's reaching KD levels of automatic and I'm only half kidding. At the rim? Jaylen is shooting an INSANE 84.8%, which tells me his knee/health is finally feeling normal again. In the paint (non-RA)? A more than solid 20-37 (54.1%). Jaylen has been so good at not only getting to his spot, but also then not rushing once he gets there. He takes his time, gets his legs under him, and when you watch him shoot, you are seeing such an improvement in his lift compared to last season which is what makes this so noticable. His injuries last year clearly robbed him of his explosiveness.

Oh, and he's also averaging a career best 6.2 FTA a game while also shooting a career best 78.6%. I think anyone who's watched Jaylen's entire career understands what a welcome sight that is. 

The role Jaylen took over this season required him to backpack this very flawed roster. So far? That's exactly what he's been doing.

- As I said in the top of the blog, a VERY VERY important part of this season is seeing which young unproven minimum salaried players can play their way into being hits. Given how expensive the Celts roster is going to be, that's pretty much non-negotiable. And while it's only been 9 games, it feels like we're starting to see one of those young unproven minimum salary guys take a step forward, and that player is Josh Minott

Not only has Minott solidified his spot as the starting 4 for this roster, if last night was a sign of what's to come. it's fair to say he's also solidified the backup center spot. While it may leave them a little small, his rebounding has been legit and it gives the Celts a different look for those minutes without Queta. It's very obvious none of the other reserve bigs are playable, so I loved this adjustment by Joe last night. It's no surprise that once they made the switch in the 2nd quarter the game exploded, and with each passing game we continue to see Minott give you more and more reasons to think he can be a real rotation piece moving forward.

It's not just the production, but also the skillset and how he reads the game that intrigues me. Take a play like this for example

Pretty simple right? Well, anyone who has watched the Celtics knows how important a play like this is. Minott's ability to read the spacing and defense perfectly, finding a pocket in the dunker spot making the lob an easy read for the point guard. We JUST watched the Celtics win a champinship by doing this shit. Off ball work, cutting, those are all things this roster needs more of, and you can see Minott start to figure out those reads in real time. When he does, look at what happens.

Remember, everything this season is about "can this player play with Jayson Tatum?" when it comes to the young guys. Through 9 games, it's pretty clear that Minott is going to thrive playing next to Tatum. For years this team has been searching for a young athletic wing that can play the 3/4, make open 3s, and is super athletic. 

Is that not exactly what Josh Minott is doing? Add in the fact that he makes $2M next year as well, and this has all the signs of a homerun signing by Brad Stevens. Yes, he did it again.

- A lot of talk early this season about how Payton Pritchard isn't living up to his role as a starting point guard, and for my money that might be one of the dumbest takeaways a person could have when it comes to talking about the start of this year. In reality, I'd argue that Payton Pritchard is doing exactly what the starting point guard needs to be doing in this system.

People took a shooting slump as evidence that Pritchard isn't good enough to start. It's bananaland stuff really. 

Did you know Payton is 21-25 on those little paint jumpers? Did you know he has an AST/TO ratio of 4.27, which is better than guards like Trae Young, SGA, Maxey, Brunson, LaMelo, Cade Cunningham, Jamal Murray etc?

He's giving you playmaking while never turning it over. His 2pt production has been great. He's getting to the line more than ever. The only part of Payton's season that's struggled, is his outside shooting and guess what? That's already starting to come back. 

You are watching extremely solid point guard play, the Celts ORTG is a solid 120 when Pritchard is on the floor, and dorpps to 113 when he sits. The defense also gets much worse, from a 112 rating to a 117. 

By almost no metric can you conclude that Payton Pritchard is not fufilling his duties as the starting point guard. It should be fairly obvious to anyone who watches….and yet.

- In EuroBasket, Neemias Queta looked like a completely different player and someone who was poised for a monster season given his new opportunity. While that was fun, you always had to keep in the back of your mind that the NBA is very different from EuroBasket, so it was hard to know how much of that production would translate.

The early returns? All of it.

Not to be dramatic, but Neemias Queta has been awesome to start this season. He's not perfect, there are flaws that creep up at times, but remember to keep perspective. Queta's challenge this season was to prove that he was ready to elevate his spot on the depth chart. Could he go from being the 4th/5th big to a 2nd/3rd big on a team that's serious about competing for a title?

So far, the answer to that question is yes. That's been my biggest takeaway from Neemy, though 9 games. He's absolutely playing at a 2nd/3rd big level, which again, is MASSIVE for the future of this roster. Everyone knows center is a giant hole, and finding good, cheap centers that are actually playable is virtually impossible. 

He's playing hard as hell, his rim protection has been great, the screening has been solid, and once we can figure out how to rebound late in games, now we're cooking. To think where Neemy started to where he is now, it really reminds me of the Luke Kornet leap. He went from basically being unplayable to one of the best backup centers in the NBA. Why can't that be on th table for Queta with this new opportunity? It certainly feels like that's where he's headed.

- I don't care what anyone says, I will never be able to quit Jordan Walsh. Especially after seeing his impactful minutes last night. From basically being a DNP-CD all season long to immediately doing shit like this

I don't know if I'm the only one left on Jordan Walsh Island, but I'm never leaving. There are signs of a real player in there somewhere, and if he plays like he did last night Joe is going to have no choice but to play him. The rebounding obviously stood out most, but he was active defensively, he hit his open C&S 3PA, and I'm not even being sarcastic when I say this was probably the most positive impact Walsh has made in an NBA game in his entire career so far. 

If there are 10 minutes available and it's between Baylor or Walsh to get them, I'm ready to see what Walsh can do with that consistent opportunity. Even if he fails with it, let's just see it. We've been waiting for 3 years to see Walsh get some sort of consistent run, and this is the perfect year for it. Again, you really need young, playable cheap wings for the future, and the Jordan Walsh we saw last night has the potential to fill that reserve role moving forward.

- Funny what happens when you don't miss every shot you take. Imagine that! 

The Bad

- Given what took place against UTA, it was pretty annoying to see the Celts start this game off once again being absolutely horrific on the defensive glass. This is a team that should never allow 37 points to the Wizards, yet that's exactly what they did in that first quarter. A large reason why? They allowed 13 2nd chance points in 12 minutes.

The Wizards for the season…..average 13 2nd chance points for an entire game.

Nobody had any interest in boxing out. Once Neemy went out, the Garza minutes were a disaster. And while it ultimtely didn't matter after the first quarter, that's because the Wizards stink. As we've seen, being so poor on the defensive glass DOES matter when you play teams with a pulse, and the Celts are still really struggling in limiting OREB/2nd chance points. Of their 9 games, last night was like the 5th or 6th that they've allowed at least 20 2nd chance points. That's losing basketball.

- It's starting to feel like Sam Hauser has caught whatever the hell Derrick White/Payton Pritchard had to start the year when it comes to his outside shooting. Just another 1-8 (1-6) last night, Hauser is now 2-14 over his last 2 games. Going back a little further, he's 5-21 over his last 4. 

Given he's a lifetime 40% shooter, this is no big deal, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a struggle. Considering most of his looks are pretty damn open, that drop in production has really hurt the 2nd unit in terms of scoring. Especially if Simons isn't going to be all that efficient either. History tells us Hauser will snap out of it at some point, but it's been a brutal stretch for him no two ways about it.

The Ugly

- Look, when your largest lead is 33 and you win in blowout fashion, there's not much that fits this section.

But one thing I can't get past is how poor things look defensively with Simons/Garza on the floor. I mean, it's just not sustainable.

The box score tells you Simons had 18 which is nice, but I didn't love his game all that much. He's trying defensively so I'll give him that, but the whole experience is leaving me more frustrated than encouraged. New team new system etc, but at some point things need to start looking better on a more consistent basis.

With Garza, I don't know what you do. He's the only other 7fter besides Queta, but outside of a few OREB here and there, he seems to be doing more harm than good. Elite screening I guess which is nice, but he's not providing rim protection, he's not really rebounding on the defensive glass, and he's way to slow footed to guard in space, which is what teams are doing to him. I just don't know what you do other than just not play him and play Minott at the 5, because neither Tillman or Boucher are the answer either.

This is what I mean when I say the Celts roster is flawed. This isn't a coaching or system issue, it's a talent issue.

But hey, in the end for a moment the Celts finally gave us a performance that resembles the team they can and should be. Now let's see them do it against a team that isn't destined to win 15 games, and the 2 game set with ORL will be a nice challenge. A tough physical team with size, but also one that can't shoot. It's a good test for the areas the Celts struggle in (shot creation, rebounding etc), and I'm excited to see how they do. If it goes south, oh well! That works too.