How Different Will The Celtics Play This Year? (staff Roundtable)

I still have a lot of unanswerable questions bouncing around in my head about the Boston Celtics and thought I’d go to the smartest minds in the game for answers (our staff)!

The first question I had was about play style: How different will the Celtics play style be next year with Jaylen Brown gone? (If at all)

Below are the staff’s answers.

Ian Inangelo

I really don’t see the play style changing much without Brown next year. In my mind I think Boston will have a similar play style with Tatum just stepping in. Tatum will be the driving force of the offense and do most of the creating with Payton Pritchard, Paul George, and Derrick White as back up options. Three pointers might increase more with Brown’s departure as he was known for his midrange game but it shouldn’t change the offense that much. The defense shouldn’t take a step back either, making that a priority on top of rebounding which should be improved thanks to the addition of Mitchell Robinson.

Trevor Hass  

I think the play style will be very similar to this year, with Jayson Tatum sliding back in as the alpha and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard handling the ball even more in Jaylen Brown’s absence. I do think they’ll attempt fewer 3-pointers per game next season and try to diversify their arsenal. More paint touches and post-ups for Tatum would be a welcome addition.

Steve Hooper 

I’m not sure right now. The fact that we still have so many young wings on the team I would hope the the pace will be high and similar to the regular season last year. If the pace is slow, I think that is bad news for Boston. If the ball isn’t zipping around the key and finding paint touches, we might be in a for a long year.

Jake Issenberg

Last season the Celtics started to scratch the surface of maximising their advantage in the possession game. They did this by emphasising offensive rebounding and continuing to minimise their own turnovers. Then Brad Stevens doubled down. He sent out Jaylen Brown who was the one weak link in the turnover aspect of their identity. The Celtics also signed one of the best offensive rebounders of all time in Mitchell Robinson. The final piece of the Possession Maxxing identity for the Celtics is forcing their own turnovers when on defense. Paul George and Robinson are elite in this category as well. I expect Mazzulla to crank up the ball pressure in a way we haven’t seen during his tenure until now.

Nate Moskowitz

Offensively, I don’t believe the personnel changes are drastic enough to force a major shift in the way they look to attack. To amplify Mitchell Robinson and Paul George’s skill sets I think we can expect them to lean into some additional pick and roll possessions along with more pull-up threes, but they ranked high in both of those categories already.

The biggest change that I envision is on the defensive end. I feel confident about that being a real strength for this group. They could benefit a lot from turning up the pressure and taking a few more risks each game. They have young wings that can get into ball handlers and make them uncomfortable, and then there’s the off-ball defensive playmaking of White, Tatum and George. Pair all of that with rim protection from Queta and Robinson and you’ve got a versatile and disruptive group. They’ll miss Jaylen’s point of attack defense against some of the top perimeter options, but that’s the role you’d ideally like to thrust Hugo and Walsh into anyways.

Grant Burfeind

I think this is the first time we’ll really get to see Tatum with the keys to the car. We’ve seen flashes over the years, but this is the first season where there’s no debate about whose team it is. I’m really curious (and optimistic) about what that does for him. My hope is we get the best version of Tatum yet. More usage, more responsibility, and a legitimate MVP push.

Beyond that, I think this team is going to wreak havoc defensively, and I am HERE for it. Brad may not have gotten the rim punisher he was looking for in PG, but he got his rim denier in Mitch Robinson. Between Mitch and Queta down low coupled with White, Tatum, and George on the perimeter, I think the Celtics will guard their yards, dominate both ends of the glass and give themselves a chance to win a lot of ugly games.

Jeff Clark

Last year when Brown was given the opportunity and burden of being the number one option, he had his most productive year, but (as many have pointed out) some struggles with efficiency. At a high level, I could see Tatum going through some similar struggles as his usage increases and he can’t hand things off to Brown anymore. Jayson is more than capable of carrying the offensive load, but that can also wear you down over a full year as well. The good news is that Tatum is a more naturally gifted passer and play-initiator than Jaylen is (though he made strides every year in that department). I wonder if that takes enough burden off of Derrick to help him regain his shooting touch. It will be also interesting to see how many “layups and dunks” we can get out of our rim attacking bigs out of the pick and roll.

Defensively I could see them leaning even further into having waves of young and athletic wings to throw at teams with multiple looks. I’m pretty excited to see the center rotation now that they’ve added Robinson to the mix as well.

Robby Fletcher

As much as outside voices love to bash Boston’s tendency to fire from beyond the arc, I don’t think they’re quite prepared for how much more 3-oriented they’ll be without Jaylen Brown.

Brown’s mid-range scoring was instrumental to last year’s offensive success. Boston as a team was fifth in the league in mid-range attempts, mostly generated by Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard before Jayson Tatum returned. Between the addition of Paul George, an excellent 3-point shooter, and Mitchell Robinson, a dominant offensive rebounder, I’m expecting Boston to continue working its rotation-forcing drive-and-kick game to attack from distance and look to generate extended possessions through their improved frontcourt.

Ryan Paice

I’m of the same mind as Robby; Boston’s going to lean even more heavily into its already 3pt-heavy offensive approach. But not by design. One of the Celtics’ weakest aspects since losing Jrue Holiday has been its lack of a strong tertiary playmaker who can reliably beat an opponent’s defense off the dribble when the first options can’t. Unfortunately, one of the results of that weakness is a higher number of desperation 3s. Even more unfortunately, I think that weakness gets even worse this year without Brown.

Now, to be fair, Tatum is a better primary playmaker than Brown. And Pritchard will slot in as a decent secondary option, as he did behind Brown last season. Nevertheless, I think Brown’s a superior #2, and I’m not sold on White and George as tertiary playmakers — especially White. It was tough watching him struggle to gain an advantage on offense against the Sixers in the first round. Maybe George can excel as a tertiary playmaker in the C’s system, but his lack of availability has been a huge concern in recent years. If White continues to struggle from 3pt range and George struggles to stay on the court, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the team launching more last-minute, desperation 3s than anyone would like to see.

Mike Dynon

If Jayson Tatum returns to point forward duties, probably not much different. Still expecting plenty of threes, because that’s the league now. I do hope the Celtics ramp up the pick and roll, because with Mitchell Robinson joining Neemias Queta, Boston now has two legit high fliers to get up and throw it down.

Rich Jensen

I’m hoping that the ball is a bit less sticky. Two years ago, in his last full season, Jayson Tatum’s averaged 3.71 seconds per touch, less than Jaylen Brown’s 4.17 seconds that season, and even more significantly less than his average of 4.34 seconds per touch this past season.

The C’s were better at passing the ball this past season than the season before, but they were still pretty pedestrian when it came to passing and generating assists. I’m hoping that a lineup of Jayson and Friends will move the ball a bit more freely than last year’s lineup of Jaylen and Friends, based on Jayson’s larger toolkit as a passer and facilitator.

Your Turn – How would you answer this question?