It's underratedly important that Brad still understood the game at a coach level when he became GM. It let him make a lot of moves that had unexpected upside because of how well they fit with Tatum's abilities and Mazzulla's eventual schemes (I think Ime was quite meh/vanilla offensively).
Yeah. Whenever I make the mistake of listening to basketball pods, it usually plays out this way.
Yeah, Ime was standard current basketball and maybe he will evolve (I didn't watch the Rockets this year so IDK). It was his first gig, after all. But, it's telling how many fans want the Ime experience. Yell at them! Challenge them! Sometimes, that is warranted but that's not really what fans are saying, they actually want this a lot more. Meanwhile, Joe is Belichickian in the press and carving up defense behind the scenes. I am curious how much Ime's assistants last year totally f-cked the Celtics. We talk a lot about how late Joe got the job but how hamstrung was he with Ime assistants who didn't get it or were never going to be on the same page?
If that’s what Ryan is saying now then his basketball knowledge has fallen off a cliff. The Boston media has never learned to be positive about anything.. I guess since the most popular names over the years have been the most negative.. or like Reiss have been positive and actually done the work of reporting and been hired away.
I think if BOS wins the championship, a lot of these JT and team questions go away. I mean you don't hear questions about Giannis even though his team has not very successful the last few years.
Situation is a bit different though, Giannis already had the personal validation (2 MVPs) by the time he won his title. Plus, he was a total monster in that finals (35/13/5 on 62% shooting, with a couple of iconic plays at the end of games to seal some wins). Typically top draft picks and young superstars will get that personal success first, but Tatum has flipped that a bit. I think the Celtics as a group will go up in everyone's estimation (if they win the title, they will rightfully be viewed as one of the greatest teams in history), but absent some really unbelievable play, I think regardless of how this year ends Tatum will start next season as no better than 8th (Jokic, Giannis, Luka, SGA, Edwards, Embiid) on most ranking sites next year. It will be BS, but I think that's what happens.
Completely agree. Tatum will not be looked upon differently by many even if they win.
Agreed 1000000%. He will have “broke through” and he will have the “heart of a champion”
This is what happens when you get to play with an economy of effort and can read/manipulate static defenses insanely well.
One thing I’ve always tried to tell people, and it’s somewhat tied into what you’ve been posting recently, is that how players are defended is far more important than most realize. And while it’s taken time, Tatum being as aggressively defended as he has been the past 3/4 years is really paying off.
It's reminiscent of the NFL taking a few years to realize that bringing 6 guys at QBs like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady was a terrible idea.
This has a pretty big selection effect though, because Boston "PnR" comes when they want to force specific matchups and choices from the defense. Eg against Cleveland, a lot of Tatum PnR was done primarily to attack Garland via White, as opposed to being the offensive staple.
Timpf went a step further on another video a day or two ago, backtracking from his "Ant > Tatum right now" take. The discussion was around who the five best players still alive are, and he had Tatum 3rd, behind Jokic/Luka and ahead of Ant/SGA. He specifically said that while he believes Ant will be better than Tatum within 18 months (not an unreasonable take imo), Tatum's defense and overall consistency mean that he is a better (or at least more reliable all around) player than Ant is right now.
I'm pretty over player ranking discussions, but I do think "would this team be better if these guys swapped places?" is an interesting one.
How about Tatum for LeBron? The idea of Tatum in purple and gold hurts my feelings in a big way and obviously that trade would never happen but a lineup of LeBron, KP, JB, DW and JH would be formidable. And I think Tatum and AD could do some damage as well.
I also abhor player rankings, All-Star selections, All-NBA popularity contests.
I think the Lakers would be better. Not sure wrt the Celtics, just because LeBron is so smart that he'd have the offense humming with other smart/decisive guys around him. He's also an iso mismatch in a way that fits perfectly with Mazzulla and the C's other guys.
