6 Things the Boston Celtics Must Achieve During 2015
2015 isn't about winning games for the Boston Celtics, it's about finding direction for a franchise in the midst of its first multi-year rebuild in a long time.
With Rajon Rondo gone and several other veterans potentially on the way out, the C's are in flux, so the point of this season has become building for the future instead of playing for the present.
The 2014-15 Celtics have had their impressive moments, but they are a deeply flawed team that needs not only an injection of elite talent, but also to fix some serious rotational kinks.
Luckily, the pressure to win games is off for Brad Stevens, and he has the freedom to tinker and try to give his young guys burn instead of using those minutes on older players.
However, for that to happen several changes have to be made this year to how the team plays and who sees the floor.
Without further ado, here are six things the Celtics must achieve in the new year.
Get Brandan Wright More Minutes
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Brandan Wright might be Boston’s best long-term center, but you wouldn’t know it from how little run he’s gotten since joining the Celtics.
Obviously part of that is Stevens’ hesitance to rely on a player with little knowledge of his system, but as the season goes on Wright must see the floor more.
In Boston, he’s averaging just 3.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.6 blocks on 57.1 percent shooting in 10.8 minutes per game.
While with the Dallas Mavericks this season, he notched 8.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.6 rejections on 74.8 percent shooting in 18.7 minutes per game.
Tyler Zeller has been playing incredibly well, but he doesn’t have the same upside or rim protecting ability of Wright.
The 33.2 PER he posted as a center for Dallas was a bit of a fluke, according to 82games, but he is certainly an above average big man.
Obviously Boston doesn’t run as sophisticated of a pick-and-roll offense as the Mavs do, and Wright isn’t a polished post scorer, but he should at least have more opportunity to run the floor.
The C’s are invested in Zeller and Kelly Olynyk so Wright won’t ever get huge minutes, but Boston should try to get him up in the 20 per game range in the near future.
Even if they don’t see him as a permanent piece, this would only up his trade value and give Boston a shot at dealing him for something of real value at the deadline.
Iron out the Late-Game Mistakes
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This will be hard with the C’s young core and inconsistent point guard troop, but improving Boston’s late game execution would be huge this season.
Even with Rondo in the lineup the Celtics struggled to get good looks in crunch time, and that hasn’t gotten any better with him gone.
Per NBA.com, Boston is shooting just 35.6 percent in the clutch, and posting an assist-to-turnover ratio of just 1.12.
Since the trade, Boston has lost tight games against Orlando, Brooklyn, Chicago and Charlotte, often struggling to hold leads.
They’ve been experimenting with different closing lineups, and really struggle with the lack of a reliable post-up option.
Hopefully, as the young players grow more accustomed to playing with one another and being on the floor in crunch time the late game errors will be solved somewhat.
Or the team will start tanking and the close games will just turn into blowouts.
Find a Home for Brandon Bass
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This one is as much for the C’s as it is for Brandon Bass himself, who has been languishing on the bench this season.
In 2014-15, he’s averaging 8.4 points, 3.5 boards and 0.9 assists on 47.3 percent shooting in 17.9 minutes per game.
He’s still posting a decent 15.6 PER at the 4, too, per 82games.
The problem is that Boston’s frontcourt rotation is crowded with young, unproven players that the team is trying to assess, and the 29-year-old Bass has simply already reached his ceiling as a player.
He isn’t a part of Boston’s future, but he’s a talented enough third big man who could help a contender coming off the bench.
As MassLive’s Jay King noted, Bass has been a consummate professional despite the decreased minutes, but it cannot be a good situation for the 10-year veteran.
The Celts may not be able to fetch a long-term piece or more than a second-rounder for Bass, but it’s worth exploring trade options that could send him to a contender and clear up a few more minutes for young players.
Don’t Sell Low on Jeff Green
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Rumors are now swirling about Jeff Green potentially landing with the Memphis Grizzlies, but the Celts shouldn’t get rid of Green at the first available opportunity.
Green never lived up to his All-Star potential, but he’s still averaging 17.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
He’s shooting just 43.4 percent from the field and 30.5 percent from deep, but Green’s a useful player on both ends and a gifted athlete.
His $18.9 million, two-year contract doesn’t look great, but it’s hardly a crippling number.
The obvious incentive to trade Green now is that the C’s could get more for him with an extra year on his deal, but he’s not a superstar player like Rondo and the long-term salary might actually hurt his value.
Still, the market is out there for an athletic combo forward like Green.
Playoff bound franchises like Toronto, Portland or Atlanta could all use a little extra forward depth, and might potentially be willing to part with a first-rounder guaranteed to fall in the late 20s for Green.
Just because Memphis is the first team to show serious interest this season doesn’t mean Boston has to hammer out a deal now.
The C’s should see if Green can regain his shooting stroke a little bit (he’s a career 34 percent three-point shooter), and if that could net them a slightly better haul.
Transition Marcus Smart into a Lead Role
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Right now Boston is still bringing Marcus Smart along slowly, letting him come off the bench and not asking him to do too much with the ball in his hands.
He’s clearly their point guard of the future though, and it’s worth giving him a more ball-dominant role to see if he can thrive.
So far as a rookie Smart is averaging 6.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.5 dimes while shooting 38.2 percent from the floor and 34.3 percent from distance.
His minutes haven’t spiked appreciably since the Rondo trade, and he’s now splitting time with Jameer Nelson and Evan Turner at the point.
He hasn't shined yet as a starter, averaging just 3.7 points, three rebounds and four dimes, but that's in just 24.7 minutes per game, and for a lot of that time he's working without the basketball.
Smart is already an elite defender, with an uncanny ability to avoid picks and terrific hands, but he needs to learn how to run an NBA offense.
It’s nice to be able to pull Smart out of games if he makes poor decisions or fouls too much, but the C’s best investment for the future is to give him 30-plus minutes consistently and let him learn on the job.
Boston is slowly but surely falling out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture (if that’s even possible), so it’s not like they’re sacrificing much letting him play.
Find James Young a Spot in the Rotation
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James Young hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunity on the court, but he has made the most of limited chances.
No he wouldn’t keep up the 25.96 PER if he starts playing regular minutes, but he’s a gifted, athletic scorer with the potential to be a mainstay for Boston.
Young impressed in 18 minutes against the Charlotte Hornets, notching 13 points and drilling three three-pointers in the Celtics’ loss.
In six games, he’s shooting 66.7 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from distance, but take that with a grain of salt.
More telling are his D-League numbers for the Maine Red Claws, where the Kentucky standout is averaging 22.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists while canning 4.4 threes per game at a 47.9 percent clip.
Young was one of the more consist players on Kentucky last season, and he’s shown poise in his D-League roll.
At just 215 pounds he desperately needs to bulk up to play the 3, since forwards will be able to abuse him on the block, but he has the lateral quickness to be a strong defender in the NBA.
The C’s have a logjam in the backcourt right now, but if they keep losing it won’t make sense to give rotation players like Marcus Thornton or Jameer Nelson minutes over Young.
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