Our good friend Jimmy Toscano has some interesting analysis regarding the Celtics scoring in the paint.
Celtics desperate for inside scoring
So just how bad is it? Well, the C’s are averaging 22 shots at the rim per game (9th most in NBA), while hitting just over 13. That puts them at 60-percent from under the basket, ranking 25th in the NBA. That percentage is based on dunks, layups, tip-ins, and baskets of that nature. But what if they step back a bit, say 3-9 feet away from the basket? Has the production been better there? Nope. Worse. The C’s have all but abandoned the low-post game it would seem, and you can’t really blame them. Not only are they attempting just nine shots from 3-9 feet per game (25th in NBA), they’re hitting on average just 2.7, putting them at a 29.9 percent success rate. Only one team shoots a worse percentage than that, the New York Knicks.
So how do you fix this? I haven't a clue. All our best big men are jump shooters and if Rondo goes to the hoop any more than he already is, he'll be in traction by March. Maybe we just need to play to our strengths and hope the jumpers fall.
0 recs | 6 comments
Chris Kaman might be unhappy in N.O.
:)
Celticsdude - January 26, 2012
Guys, a little offtopic here..
Why not batum, gordon or even hibert with those two, if we can squeese them in 20 some mil instead of chasing uninterested howard. they are RFA on the end of the season, am i right. Or they are too expensive for us at the moment, because, we wouuld be needing some releases but that’s rebuilding all about.
Toni Dželalija - January 26, 2012
It's not really a surprise.
It’s pretty obvious even from last season that they do not have an inside game. Whatever little inside game we had last year, it’s significantly even less this year.
We really need some semblance of an inside game to just even compete. Boston can’t rely solely on a perimeter game and hope those jumpers fall. It isn’t a winning formula in the playoffs. Just ask the Phoenix Suns during their run with Nash, Amare and Marion.
Now I don’t have a clue on how Boston can solve that. But having some sort of an inside game is critical for Boston’s success.
LarryBird33 - January 26, 2012
actually, last year they were among the league leaders in share of scoring at the rim
and that is a huge reason why they lead in FG% and other shooting stats.
However, that did tail off when they no longer had Shaq and probably more seriously when BBD became a poor outside jump shooter that defender’s sagged way off of. Rondo’s injuries late in the year didn’t help. Nevertheless, we still finished at the top in these stats.
This year, as we all know, our FG% has been … horrible. And it has largely been because of scoring inside the paint. Our 3PT shooting has been outstanding so for our FG% to be so poor in so many games, that’s indicative of poor conversion inside the arc. We are not generating as many good looks at the rim down close and worse, even when we have, we have been just plain missing a zillion easy baskets.
In theory, the crew of bigs we have right now – Jermaine, Wilcox, Bass & Stiemsma – all represent a better set of scorers than any crew of bigs we’ve had to work with KG because they all can finish at the rim and they all can make some sort of jumper consistently. The latter means that they should be able to force defenders to stay with them, keeping big-man doubles off of KG and opening gaps for our slashers.
However, I’m not seeing us do very good execution to get them good looks at the basket. In particular we aren’t doing a good job of passing to the open big out of the doubles and it seems that consistently we are late with either our picks or our slashes off the picks.
Other than when we had Shaq healthy last year and basically were unstoppable, we haven’t really had a power scoring big man inside (Rasheed would show flashes but as we all know, Doc had him playing more as a stretch big). In each year we’ve had the Big 3 we’ve been able to score inside even with a poor scorer like Perk at the 5 through play execution using KG, Ray & Pierce’s ability to spread the defense combined with hard screens and crisp passing.
I believe that the players we have right now should be able to do this, but our play execution on offense is way out of wack – probably due to the inconsistent roster. Early on, we were missing Pierce who obviously is our best slasher as well as a huge factor with stretching the defense. And lately we are missing Rondo’s smart passing and ability to collapse the defense and instead are using Pierce to run plays from the elbow.
I think that eventually guys like Wilcox who have proven ability to score in the paint (that’s really his specialty and what has kept him in the league all these years) are going to start showing success. But as has been obvious all along this season, we need to execute as TEAM in order to get this going. I don’t believe we are going to solve it with the magic bullet of some trade.
mmmmm - January 27, 2012
It co
KG21 - January 27, 2012 via mobile
48 points in the paint tonight.
Army_of_One_Nation(Celtic's Nation) - January 28, 2012
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