How Brad Stevens Is Maximizing the Jared Sullinger-Kelly Olynyk Pairing
One is a grounded, undersized late first-rounder. The other is an uncoordinated-looking, seven-foot Canadian with long blonde hair. Yet, somehow Brad Stevens has the Jared Sullinger-Kelly Olynyk frontcourt working and even thriving for the Boston Celtics.
Hair color and nationality don't hold much bearing in today's NBA. To be honest, once you're in the league where you were drafted means little to anyone but your wallet.
Still, the prospect of starting Olynyk and Sullinger in a frontcourt together was an iffy proposition at 2014-15's outset. For starters, both are incredibly young and inexperienced players. Prior to this season, the duo had only played in a combined 189 games.
They also both have a series of individual issues that cause hesitation when thinking about them as a viable frontcourt.
Sullinger will continue to try and shake an injury-prone label while staying in good enough shape to remain on the floor for extended runs. The three-point shooting was an intriguing wrinkle, but hardly a valuable weapon last year. At 6'9" and with little explosion in his lower body, his defensive skills are also limited.
Olynyk submitted a solid rookie season last year, but also is far from the prototypical center. He doesn't protect the rim well at all and isn't the type of athlete that is sometimes required to defend that position.
So, given the lack of overall enthusiasm in what was to be two-fifths of Boston's starting unit, how has Stevens been able to get the most out of this duo and turn them into a passable pairing?
Well, it hasn't been a complete two-man effort to start. How Sullinger and Olynyk have been playing and able to match up with some quality NBA frontcourts can be attributed in at least some capacity to the players around them and the style in which they are being employed.
Through some experimentation both last year and during the preseason, what Stevens has done is put both players in prime position to succeed given their individual and coinciding strengths and weaknesses.
The immediate confidence certainly didn't hurt, either. In the previous Doc Rivers regime, there was a noticeable restraint from giving rookies and sophomores significant minutes. Of course, a lot of that has to do with personnel, but Stevens is taking what he has and running with it, both figuratively and literally.
By putting his full confidence in Olynyk and Sullinger early in training camp, they have been able to work together to develop chemistry and their individual games. There is no more minute-swiping Kris Humphries to be concerned with, or Vitor Faverani and Gerald Wallace potentially mucking up the works. Even Brandon Bass has largely taken a back seat in the hopes of growing something sustainable with their two young starters.
Sully and Kelly: Scoring the rock
Neither player is the most athletic specimen in the league, but they have been thriving in Boston's fast-paced style of play early on. By not overburdening them with minutes, Stevens has ensured they are able to get up and down the court with his team's quicker guards and wings. Both have also been superb at outlet passing thus far.
The benefit of them both being quality rebounders individually has helped with the second and third stages of these fast breaks as well. They have been doing a solid job of getting ahead of their ball-handler in transition scenarios. On occasion, only one of the two will stick behind to rebound, while the other starts racing to the other end.
Playing with a guard like Rajon Rondo allows them to work in a sort of wide receiver role. After a play breaks down in football, the quarterback needs to be able to communicate with his downfield receivers. Rondo has that chemistry working right now with Olynyk, Sullinger and others.
Rondo sees lanes better than anyone, and the more distance you give him, the better he can thread the needle. Of Olynyk's 33 assisted-on baskets this year, Rondo is responsible for 19, per NBA.com.
Finishing these possessions requires one more skill both seem to have developed early in their careers. Both players are showcasing soft hands and alert eyes. These traits allow them to quickly catch a hot pass and get their shot up before a defender has time to react.
Illustrative of their work in this regard, Sullinger is shooting 66.7 percent inside five feet this season, while Olynyk is right behind him at 62.2. Perhaps most impressively, Sullinger has only had four attempts blocked at this distance, per NBA.com.
| Team | Power Forward | Center | PPG |
| Memphis Grizzlies | Zach Randolph | Marc Gasol | 35.2 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | LaMarcus Aldridge | Robin Lopez | 34.1 |
| New Orleans Pelicans | Anthony Davis | Omer Asik | 33.5 |
| Los Angeles Clippers | Blake Griffin | DeAndre Jordan | 32.6 |
| Miami Heat | Shawne Williams | Chris Bosh | 32.4 |
| Dallas Mavericks | Dirk Nowitzki | Tyson Chandler | 31.5 |
| Atlanta Hawks | Paul Millsap | Al Horford | 30.5 |
| Utah Jazz | Enes Kanter | Derrick Favors | 29.5 |
| Boston Celtics | Jared Sullinger | Kelly Olynyk | 29.4 |
In total, Sullinger and Olynyk were averaging a combined 29.4 points and 5.1 assists per game, as of Nov. 17. Offensively speaking, that is a solid total from a starting frontcourt. That places them ninth among starting big-man duos in scoring per game, one tenth of a point behind Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors of the Utah Jazz.
Sully and Kelly: Window washing services
We have come this far without mentioning perhaps the most valuable aspect this twosome has brought Boston. Sullinger and Olynyk have helped with the team's new rebounding initiative in spades.
Earlier in November, correspondent Paul Swydan published a piece for The Boston Globe, in which he details just how good the Celtics' rebounding has been with these two players on the court. With the somewhat limited playing time of youngsters, Sullinger and Olynyk posted very strong offensive rebounding numbers. Swydan took a deeper look at some advanced figures from 2013-14.
"Last season, 259 NBA players logged at least 1,000 minutes, Sullinger (2,041 minutes) and Olynyk (1,400) among them. Of them, Sullinger ranked 10th in Offensive Rebound Percentage and Olynyk ranked 29th. This was pretty important, considering the Celtics were next-to-last in the league as a team in field goal percentage. Sullinger and Olynyk gave the team a lot of second chances. They were one of just six teams to have two or more players in the top 30.
"
Swydan writes that through Boston's first six games, its offensive rebound rating placed first in the NBA. Looking at the numbers a couple weeks later, and we can see a lot of the same trends have continued.
While they are no longer leading the league in that category, the Celtics do place No. 7 with a rating of 28.3, just over two points behind the No. 1 Houston Rockets, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Leading the way for Boston is Sullinger at 13.8 and Olynyk at 9.3.
While he may not have totally found a way to nullify his squad's need of a real rim-protecting, defensive-minded big, Stevens has certainly gotten creative and aggressive with what he does have.
In recent wins over the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls, both of whom employ strong or elite frontcourts, the Celtics' combo went for 29 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists and 28 points, 19 rebounds and five assists, respectively.
The two seem to be very much in sync right now. One will stay at home and fight for position on the offensive glass before the other even puts his shot up. They know it is coming because of how in tune they are with each other and Coach Stevens' game plan.
Sully and Kelly Haven't done it alone
One important thing to remember is that Stevens is making this a full-team effort. Whether it be credit or blame you wish to bestow, not 100 percent of it can be attributed to the two starters.
In a recent 118-114 loss to the Phoenix Suns, Tyler Zeller saw his most action and had his best game of the season. After Olynyk found himself ineffective and in foul trouble, Stevens called Zeller's number. The offseason trade acquisition responded with seven rebounds and 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Remarkably, the reserve center has now hit on 25-of-29 field-goal attempts as a member of the Celtics.
Zeller played within himself and displayed a lot of the same attributes that are making Olynyk and Sullinger effective. He had soft hands, got ahead of the break in transition, caught passes in good position and was able to go right up with his shots. This shows us a bit of what Stevens must be working on in practice with his big guys.
If he can join the starting frontcourt as an interchangeable part, at least with Olynyk, that is a big win for Boston. While he doesn't provide the creativity or shooting of the guy in front of him on the depth chart, Zeller is a strong pick-and-roll player and may be a year or two ahead of Olynyk defensively.
The idea of having Jeff Green spend some time at power forward has also helped to open up Boston's offense in the frontcourt. Though it takes away from playing time for their four main bigs, including Bass, it may be necessary to maintain the chosen pace. This does work best with Marcus Smart in the game as a third guard, so it may be put on hold for a few more weeks.
The starting duo should also credit their distributors. Of course, Rondo is capable of making anyone look pretty good, but all the guards have seemed to be in sync with where their bigs want to receive ball and what they are looking to do with it once it arrives. They have also been strong at finding and targeting mismatches.
Boston's bigs have been catching the ball in advantageous positions. They are effective receiving passes either deep enough in the zone to make a one-move try, or near the free-throw line, in which their height is providing excellent court vision for another relay pass. Both Olynyk and Zeller have been impressive in this regard of late, keeping the ball high and finding open men.
Sully and Kelly: Public defenders
The question Stevens and his staff will eventually be posed with is: will the defense Olynyk and Sullinger provide be good enough in the long run.
The answer to that is: most likely no, at least as things are currently situated and with each player at their current skill level. However, there are some things to look at that could either allow them to maintain as a passable set of bigs, or continue to grow and eventually thrive.
For starters, as of right now, it is working enough. The defense that has been sacrificed so Boston's offense can flow at the pace Stevens wishes has paid off, at least statistically.
Prior to their loss to the Suns, both players held positive net ratings, per NBA.com. Unfortunately, foul trouble forced Olynyk into a horrid game and his defensive rating ballooned to 111.8, giving him a net of minus-1.9. Sullinger's still sits at a respectable plus-4.4 with a defensive rating of 107. Olynyk's defensive rating was down at 105.1 last year, so there is some precedent for close-to-average defense.
As a team, Boston's defensive rating is at 112.8, good for 27th in the NBA. However, the Celtics have played some very strong offenses thus far. Of their nine opponents so far, five place in the top nine in offensive rating this season. They have played, and lost to, each of the league's top three offenses in the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Because of the level of competition they are facing early on, an argument can be made that Boston's defense isn't quite as bad as we've seen. In particular, if the guys in their frontcourt can manage to find their way to an average rating on that end, the offense they are generating will carry them to a lot more wins later this season.
It isn't a perfect solution, but has rapidly become a working one. Sullinger is just 22, while Olynyk is 23, so neither is finished evolving as a player.
With Stevens managing them and putting them in the best possible position to succeed, Celtics fans could stand to see a lot more of this pairing throughout the 2014-15 campaign.
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