The Weekend Greenie Bag - Making Sense Of The Playoffs So Far Plus Some Yabu Dominance
If you’re like me, you are an absolute mess. I don’t know how many times I can look at the clock in anticipation for Game 4. As a result, I decided to move the weekly Greenie Bag to Sunday this week in order to help kill some time before the Sox/Bruins which will help kill more time before tip. Safe to say a lot of the questions came in before the GM3 win, but what just because things have changed slightly doesn’t mean I won’t use it. Remember this is a place for the stoolies, you have a thought/rant/theory I want to hear about it and I’ll use it. Joining the fun is easy, tweet me whatever with #GreenieBag or email greenieceltsbag@gmail.com. Don’t be shy.
Now, to your questions!
Frankly I think it’s a little annoying that if a guy is within your organization at any moment, you can’t move things around to get him on your active roster. Clean that up Adam Silver. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Celtics could certainly use the domination that Yabu has shown in China and the D-League. The rebounding, the scoring, the dancing, we could use all of it. Sadly NBA playoff rosters are locked on April 14th, so there is no possible way for this to happen.
But this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some Yabu highlights!
Email:
Greenie,
I understand the Celtics are getting exposed right now and it is pretty embarrassing for a 1 seed to get worked like this by an 8 seed, but can we take a step back and call it what it is?
The Bulls have a solid veteran presence in Rondo and Wade along with a superstar in Jimmy Butler. With the exception of game 1 Mirotic is usually a solid starter for them and Portis has been other worldly so far. On top of that, nobody on the Celts will step up and get anything done other than Isaiah. Despite their regular season woes, I feel that the Bulls are a much better team than anyone gives them credit for. At the beginning of the year, nobody had them finishing as an 8 seed, barely squeezing into the playoffs. Nobody had the Celtics as a 1 seed either. This could have easily been a 4/5 or 3/6 matchup. I feel as if people are getting too caught up in the seeding and not paying attention to the actual matchups. Do you think the reaction would still be “ohh they need to blow up the team” if this was a 4/5 seed matchup.
Now I’m generally pretty optimistic and I know fans of other teams get pissed off about that, but what did people really expect from this Celtics roster? They still haven’t cashed in their assets for anything so once they do that, whether it be a stud draft pick or a superstar via trade, I think we will be in a much better position to start judging the future of this team. This roster is not its final form, so I find it ridiculous that people are blaming Danny/Brad and saying we have to blow up this roster if they lose to the Bulls. – Mark
Mark makes a lot of good points here, some I agree with and some I don’t. I do agree that the Bulls have played this series better than their record showed. It’s pretty unusual that an 8 seed has a series best overall player. A lot of the hoopla over the first three games has been all about that 1/8 matchup as if it were GS/POR. The overreaction of wanting everyone fired and the team blown up is what happen when you have games like those first two.
But I disagree that this team should be let completely off the hook just because their rebuild isn’t over yet. I don’t care if we haven’t even begun to reach the end of this rebuild, that does NOT excuse the effort we saw in the first two games. Those things don’t have to be related in my mind. Personally, I don’t think the decisions this team makes this summer have ANYTHING to do with how this postseason run turns out. They could lose in 5 to the Bulls, or lose in 7 in the ECF, and I think Ainge & Co still approach the offseason the exact same way. For example, let’s say Olynyk goes on a tear for the next three weeks, I don’t think that has any impact on his future with this team one way or the other. If they can make this team better with the cap space/assets they have, they will. Or at least they’ll try.
Email:
Al Horford is on the verge of becoming the David Price of the NBA. He’s not worth every penny like you say he is. He doesn’t make your team a title contender. He’s not even worth half of his dollars. And his sister is so insufferable. She thinks everyone has to fall in line with her overrated brother’s skillset. I’m not joking when I say that if they lose this series, they should seriously consider moving this soft trash can and his stupid ass sister out of our winning town.
Again, you and Anna Horford are smoking that K2 that Aaron Hernandez was allegedly smoking if you think Al fucking Horford is worth $113 million. – Mayur
This take is almost too hot to touch. Instead, let’s just rewatch Horford’s GM3 and you tell me Mayur if you think this makes a difference.
And yeah, let’s ship a guy out of “our winning town” because in Boston we only care about winning titles right? Who cares that this team won more games than last year and was a top offense in the league with Horford. Who cares that he essentially helped turn Isaiah into a fucking offensive monster, none of that matters if you aren’t raising the trophy at the end of the year. You want to know why other fan bases hate Boston? That mentality right there. The Celtics have ONE title since 1986, but let’s get rid of any talented player that doesn’t bring a title by himself. Because unless your name is Lebron James, that happens all the time. Smart idea.
Email:
Sup Greenie love the blog,
I still have some confidence left that we can make this a series and after watching the Celtics for the last 15 years this gm2 was one of the weirdest of them all. Isaiah usually LOVES his high pick and roll 3s but seemed too hesitant to take that shot which is usually one that falls. I think Isaiah was aggressive and gave good effort but even I think he wasn’t looking for his jumper enough. Personally I would run him more at 2 and let Crowder pass it to him and Bradley running off screens most of the game when all starters are in. What do you think
Second, MORE ROZIER PLEASE – Nick
I want to give Nick some credit here. He sent in this email on April 19th at 10:36am. As we turned the page to GM3, I almost think this was Brad disguesed as Nick because this is almost exactly what we saw. We saw Isaiah play off the ball more, and while his shot didn’t fall in the first half, he did finish the game shooting 4-8. We saw those confident FUCK YOU threes which we have all grown to know and love early in the third. For Bradley we saw him get back to coming off down screens and either hitting jumpers or finding the open man on rotations.
But more importantly, Nick got his wish of more Rozier and boy did the man deliver. In fact, I bet he gets close to 20 minutes in GM4 as well. He’s played his way into the rotation because at a time in which the Celtics NEED their bench to give them any sort of production, I don’t care who plays as long as they come through. Right now that’s Rozier so I say ride with it.
Since Rondo is out I want to change this up a little bit because I think this same idea still applies to how CHI will handle their PG duties moving forward. If they for some odd reason go back to Grant/MCW, this would be my approach. Make MCW show he can beat you by actually shooting a jumper. If it’s Wade/Butler who do most of the ball handing, you have to pick your spots. Definitely can’t ever give Butler space, but Wade? I’d rather live with him taking jumpers than getting to the rim by playing too tight. If I had to guess, I think we see more Wade at PG, Jimmy Butler coming off screens is too big a part of the Bulls offense, and I trust either Aver/Marcus in that postion.
Email:
Why didn’t Jaylen Brown play?
Idc Celtics win! – Daniel
Yeah this was a little weird for him to get a DNP-CD, but I think it has more to do with how good Rozier was. Jaylen’s minutes have actually gone down each game, and you can’t say with certainty that he’s earned the minutes over Rozier thus far. Terry has come in and made an impact, you ride that until it stops happening.
We now move to the Weekly Greenie Awards!
This week’s MVP: Isaiah Thomas
How could it be anyone else? What Isaiah has been able to do with all of this shit going on is nothing less than amazing. 23/4/5.7 with 45/31% splits so far this postseason, he’s been every bit as advertised. I could use fewer TOs, but after his GM3 that looks to be in control. This was a big postseason for Isaiah heading in, so far so good.
Play of The Week: Isaiah Thomas
Just when you think Isaiah has shown you everything, he wins a jumpball. Gawd.
This week’s LVP: Amir Johnson
This just isn’t the series for him, at least not currently down 1-2. The Celtics need to go small to help space the floor and drag the CHI big men out. He wasn’t stopping Lopez when he did play, so you simply have to adjust and move on for the moment.
This week’s Most Improved Player: Terry Rozier
I am not interested in knowing where this production came from, I do not care how it got here, I am just thrilled to see it. Confident Rozier is such a different player. When he plays in control you can see his potential. The biggest surprise has been the outside shooting. Rozier has always been able to use his athleticism to get to the rim (and not finish but that comes later), but his ability to knock down the outside shot (57%!!!) is something I don’t think any of us predicted.
And that’ll do it for this week. Hopefully this helped you kill some time and calm your nerves as we prepare for another gigantic game. Thank you to all that wrote, keep it coming. Whatever you’re feeling after today’s game, I want to hear about it.
Have a great Sunday!