The new-look Celtics have more ways to beat you than ever before

Boston Celtics trainer Joe Mazzulla is not striking his scouting studies the place everyone can see them anymore, however he is been lovely clear about how he needs the group to make stronger this season. In Mazzulla’s view, Boston used to be no longer versatile sufficient final 12 months.

That is a method to provide an explanation for why the Celtics, who completed 2d in each offense and protection within the 2022-23 common season and had the league’s perfect level differential, had been strangely shaky within the playoffs. After falling down 3-0 within the convention finals in opposition to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat, then getting blown out in Game 7 at house, the entrance place of business replied by way of buying and selling for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. And, to listen Mazzulla inform it, the training workforce replied by way of opening their minds, maaaaan.

“Probably the thing that I learned the most last year was: Even though you have a really, really, good fastball, you need one or two other things,” Mazzulla told reporters during training camp.

What ‘different issues’ will they have of their arsenal?

On the primary ownership of the preseason, the 7-foot-3 Porzingis swished a catch-and-shoot 3, offering a preview of the impact he will have at the Celtics’ offense. Throughout this period, they have got been ready to play 5-out and toggle between one-big and two-big lineups, however they now not have to sacrifice spacing or talent for measurement.

Simply having a large who shoots this briefly and correctly will give Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown more room to function. Porzingis is way more than a ground spacer, regardless that. He can catch lobs, act as a high-post hub, and, crucially, ranking one-on-one when video games get dirty.

“When you look at the game in the fourth quarter, when you look at the game in the playoffs, it’s essentially the same thing,” Mazzulla told NBC Sports Boston at media day. “We’ve had great players, we’ve had great stuff here, but we haven’t had the ability to change the dynamic of offense late in games, whether it’s with post-ups, whether it’s with nail ISOs on mismatches.”

Porzingis, Mazzulla mentioned — each to NBC Sports Boston and to JJ Redick on “The Old Man and the Three” — represents a “curveball.” When Boston is having hassle discovering its drift offensively, it could merely get him the ball across the loose throw line and let him cross to paintings.

Like former MVP Dirk Nowitzki and present MVP Joel Embiid, Porzingis is unhealthy on the nail as a result of it is tough for fighters to double-team him there. He can shoot over fellow bigs, so non-bigs have hassle affecting his shot with out fouling. And whilst Porzingis does not have the popularity of a dominant post participant — blame his slight construct, his loss of Hakeem-esque footwork and a 2019 Rick Carlisle press conference — his contact and excessive unlock level made him probably the most league’s perfect scorers within the post final season. 

This offers the Celtics a counter to switch-everything defenses. It additionally offers their fighters, who will in most cases handiest have one massive at the ground, a choice to make each time Porzingis stocks the court docket with Al Horford. Last season, Porzingis noticed various mismatches when paired with Daniel Gafford.

Mazzulla loves 3-pointers and likes math, however he instructed Redick that Boston will every so often want to “make really hard shots” — i.e. tricky 2s — within the playoffs. This is a part of what feeding Porzingis is ready, however additionally it is about discovering more ways to get two defenders at the ball, so they may be able to create simple ones. Ideally, the Celtics will “get Jayson and Jaylen open, catch-and-shoot 3s because Kristaps is posting a smaller guy” past due in shut video games, Mazzulla instructed NBC Sports Boston.

So it is all about Porzingis?

It’s all about choices, in the case of who is taking part in, what performs they are operating and the way they may clear up postseason issues. Now that Holiday is within the image, the Celtics successfully have six starters, giving Mazzulla the facility to mix ‘n match along with his ultimate (and perhaps starting) lineups relying on what the location calls for.

Holiday’s utilization charge (24.4% final season) will most likely fall now that he is taking part in with Tatum, Brown, Porzingis and Derrick White, however he will additionally make performs for all of the ones guys. He has a post sport and a midrange sport, and, on this context, that stuff must be more environment friendly than ever before. Opposing groups have to put their perfect perimeter defenders at the Jays, and, particularly when White and Payton Pritchard are at the bench, Holiday will have probabilities to punish smaller, weaker gamers. He is keen on doing that.

‘The addition of Porzingis and Jrue and the entire guys that we have and our spacing will permit us to cross to the ones post-ups, check out to get to the loose throw line,” Mazzulla told reporters. “But on the finish of the day, if you have a look at our roster, there is [opportunities to get two defenders on the ball] all over the place the ground. We have to take the most productive conceivable shot, and if that may be a 3, that is nice. When it does not cross in, we have to crash.”

Together, Porzingis and Holiday will make Boston much less predictable. Porzingis is big however can shoot from past 30 ft and force closeouts like a wing. Holiday is a guard who performs bully ball, and I wager he will be used as a screener on this offense. Tatum and Brown will stay the celebrities of the display, however, on any given ownership, the opposing protection will have more to concern about, be it Holiday crashing the offensive glass, Porzingis chopping to the rim or Horford screening considered one of them open. Early within the 3rd quarter on Tuesday, they made the New York Knicks scramble far and wide to stay alongside of their stunning ball motion …

… and, the following time down the ground, Holiday merely wormed his manner via New York’s protection for an and-1:

So it is all about offense?

Just because the Celtics need to be similarly at ease operating lovely units and searching favorable matchups, they would like to be similarly happy with a couple of defensive coverages. Switching has served them neatly for years, however they have new group of workers and a brand new philosophy. 

“You have to be able to go to something different during the game that change the momentum,” Mazzulla instructed Redick. “And it’s really, really hard to just switch, switch, switch all the time. It puts a ton of pressure on your team.”

Porzingis is maximum at ease in drop protection, however he “has to be able to come here and play defense in different layers and do different things,” Mazzulla told reporters. Sometimes, he will have to arise to the extent of the display and drop again. Sometimes, in all probability in late-clock scenarios, he will have to swap or blitz. Zone protection is a method to stay a rim protector shut to the basket, and additionally it is the best way to alternate the rhythm of a sport. Mazzulla said that probably the most causes Boston’s training workforce experimented with zone at summer season league in Las Vegas used to be to determine how to train it.

The Celtics have been drilling a full-court press, too, they usually used it time and again in the second one quarter in opposition to New York. It appeared menacing with Holiday and White at the entrance line:

Mazzulla instructed Redick (and reporters at media day) that he did not communicate to the group about protection sufficient final season as a result of he concept its significance used to be glaring, however he plans to emphasize it more going ahead. He used to be proper all through 2022-23, regardless that, when he time and again stressed out that offense and protection are hooked up. The Celtics’ turnovers early within the convention finals doomed them, however they may not have dedicated such a lot of if that they had been ready to get more stops and assault before the protection used to be set. (Chicken-and-egg conundrum: They may have been ready to get more stops if that they had dedicated fewer turnovers. One virtue of old-school iso ball is that it has a tendency to prohibit fighters’ speedy breaks.)  

This season, Mazzulla needs to pressure more turnovers, in step with his dialog with Redick. Given that Boston ranked twenty sixth in opponent turnover proportion final season, it’s an achievable objective, in particular if the workforce empowers Holiday to be as competitive as he’d like, realizing that Porzingis is at the back of him. This is a metamorphosis within the Celtics’ defensive way, however additionally it is some way to diversify their offense, identical to the beginners’ post-ups and isolations. The level is to depend much less on Tatum and Brown making magic occur within the halfcourt, which must ultimately make it more uncomplicated for them to accomplish that.

It all is going again to Mazzulla’s favorite word: flexibility. If that is the 12 months Boston fulfills its championship doable, it will be for the reason that group has ready itself to win in several ways.