The NBA Thread.

Glad Mazzulla finally figured out that Grant is pretty good at basketball.

 

Yeah if you have a guy like Tatum I’d be playing every shit talker high energy guy I’ve got. I don’t think his trash talk to jimmy made one bit of difference in G3 as far as outcome. Jaylen and Tatum are so passive you’ve got to have fighters out there in the playoffs.

 

He helps keep the ball and people moving. Tatum and Brown have bad habits of dribbling the air out, going 1 v 1 l, forcing bad shots and turning the ball over during those forces. Grant has always made the little plays that don’t show up. And he led I believe with a +15 last night

 

Almost makes you wonder why he didn’t put himself out on the court for 5 minutes or more in 8 different games during the playoffs.

 

nba coaches are prone to shorten their bench in postseason and rely on their stars to take over. Grant helped them beat Miami last year and for him to sit first game didn’t make sense to me

 

It makes sense because he doesn't know what he's doing, but it shouldn't be surprising if you keep up with the games.

 

https://bluemanhoop.com/2023/05/24/golden-state-warriors-lebron-curry-join/

Lol... this would be fun.

 

last years coach did same thing in finals. Grant went from 31 minutes v Miami to 17 minutes vs GS.

 

It's not the same thing. It's not even close to the same thing. You're the kid in the class who didn't read the book but keeps trying to answer questions. Just stop, man.

Grant played in every single playoff game last season, and the lowest minutes he played was 13 against Golden State. He averaged 30 mpg against Brooklyn, 32 mpg against the Bucks, 30 mpg against Miami, and 17 mpg against Golden State. His minutes fell off against Golden State because their primary scorers aren't forwards like every other team the Celtics had played (Giannis, Jimmy, KD) up to that point. Grant isn't as well-suited of a defender for guys like Steph.

Grant hasn't played in 5 separate playoff games this postseason. He played 4 or less minutes in 3 of the games he did play. He averaged 12 mpg against the Hawks, 13 mpg against the 76ers, and has now averaged 28 mpg against the Heat.

How you can look at those two situations and say "same thing" is beyond me. Or, well, it would be if I didn't already know that you don't keep up with the NBA.

 

You are an emotional midget trying too many gotchas.
I stated a fact, which is irrefutable. Celtics coach last year shortened the bench in the final, and Grant played 14 fewer minutes per game than in previous series. There’s no amount of paragraphs and talking about being a kid in a classroom blah blah that changes it. NBA coaches shorten benches, whether right or wrong or it works or doesn’t. Amazing you talk about how much you watch but yet have never noticed the blatantly obvious. Reg season benches are always deeper than playoff benches. Always have been and will be.

 

I'm a normal human being who can read and can't get over how much bullshit you continue to spew. There is no "gotcha" to it. You just keep posting ill-informed nonsense over and over and over, and I keep explaining to you why it's ill-informed nonsense.

"Shortening the bench" in the postseason is when you cut minutes away from guys who aren't major contributors to give those minutes to better players who can take on a heavier workload for a shortened period of time. It's a consistent thing, not something you do for one series. Udoka playing Grant less against the Warriors was not "shortening the bench." It was a match up move - the sort of thing coaches who know what they're doing utilize from series to series.

Actual examples of shortening the bench in the playoffs are Troy Brown going from 24.5 mpg for the Lakers in the regular season to 10.7 mpg in the playoffs. Or Malik Beasley going from 24 mpg to 8.3 mpg. Or hell, Grant this year with the Celtics going from 26 mpg in the regular season to 16.7 mpg in the playoffs.

Grant played 24.4 mpg in the regular season last year and INCREASED to 27.3 MPG in the playoffs. That's literally the opposite of shortening your bench.

You. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About.

 

Ok. Grant didn’t play 14 fewer minutes vs GS last year than he did miami. NBA coaches go as deep in the bench as they do regular season. Again, You are right. Whatever the [uck fay] you are arguing about. You are right.

 

That all said, if anyone would like to learn a little about NBA coaches shortening the bench in playoff time, do a google search and there will be article after article discussing the topic. They tend to rely on their top players more, and less on bench role players. There is no debate to create.

 

Oh look, to the surprise of no one, ssmiff isn’t reading the posts again.

Grant Williams, victim of playoff bench shortening last year while playing MORE minutes per game in the playoffs than in the regular season. Brilliant.

He wasn’t a good matchup against GS, so he played less in that series. You sound like a clown.

 

Well this clown researched and saw article after article about NBA coaches shrinking the rotation for playoffs, including with Hauser and Pritchard now with the Celtics, so maybe read and stop claiming coaches don’t.

 

This is painful. I don’t know how to help you here. Should I number it out for you? Here:

1. “Shrinking the rotation”/“Shortening the bench” in the playoffs is absolutely a thing.

2. At no point have I denied that in this thread. In fact, I provided examples of it.

3. Grant Williams has played less games and minutes this postseason as a result of Joe Mazzulla “shortening his bench.”

4. I claimed that that is an example of Mazzulla being a bad coach / not knowing what he is doing.

5. You claimed that Ime Udoke did the "same thing" last season (shortening his bench by limiting Grant’s minutes) as a way to try to support your idiotic stance that Joe Mazzulla isn't a terrible coach / knows what he's doing. You pointed to the GS series, specifically, where he played less minutes than the 3 other series.

6. I’m telling you that you are wrong for two reasons that should be incredibly obvious:

• Grant’s average minutes in the postseason last year INCREASED from his average minutes in the regular season. You can’t be a victim of a coach “shortening his bench” in the postseason if you play more minutes, on average, in the postseason than you did in the regular season,
  
  
• He played less against GS, specifically, because he was not a good match up against them. GS did not have a dominant scoring forward like the previous 3 opponents (KD, Giannis, Jimmy), which meant Grant's skillset was not as useful against them.

7. So no, Joe Mazzulla handing Grant random DNP-Coach's decisions throughout the entire playoffs this season is not the "same thing" as Udoka strategically limiting Grant's minutes in 1 out of 4 series last postseason because he wasn't a good match up against a particular team. One coach is throwing shit against a wall and hoping something sticks, while the other is making conscious, strategic decisions based on the match ups laid out in front of him.

You're just wrong, man.

 

Two things can be true at once. Coaches can generally shrink the bench in the playoffs, and there can be circumstances (seasons) where they don't.

 

Coaches DO generally shrink the bench in the playoffs. No one is arguing with or debating about that statement. Every single coach/team shrinks his bench in the postseason every single year. It's a general act of taking minutes away from lesser players to give those minutes to better players.

Ssmiff is trying to claim that Ime Udoka played Grant less minutes last season as part of "shrinking his bench," and that Joe Mazzulla has done the "same thing" with Grant this season. That statement is 100% incorrect, for the reasons I laid out, most notably that Grant played MORE minutes per game in the postseason than in the regular season. Udoka played Grant less against GS because of match ups. That's a specific act of recognizing that a specific player does not match up well with the specific opponent, and limiting his minutes as a result.

Mazzulla has played Grant less because Mazzulla is more offensive-minded and cares less about defense. His focus on offense rather than defense is how their team has gone from one of the best postseason defenses of all time last year to what they are this year despite minimal roster changes.

Grant's main value add is his defensive flexibility. He can knock down corner threes and add some value on offense as well, but he primarily adds value as a wing defender who has enough size to also stand his ground when a bigger guy like Giannis tries to back him down.

 

I haven’t said anything about Mazullas coaching abilities. Not a word. I simply:
-refuse to blame any first year coach for “ruining a players game” as the player sets career highs in several offensive categories.
-said Grant should be playing multiple times and on Celtics twitter as well. Coaching error for not playing him
-and pointed out how it’s not just Mazula who makes those errors in judgement while overthinking and shrinking the rotation.

man’s you argue for pages and pages with yourself about something never said. Never said Mazulla was a good or bad coach. I also don’t blame the coach for every thing that happens on the floor, as you do Indy. You should know that by now.

 

I made a mistake, I'm not getting into this.