Celtics Notebook: Finding a flow between Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, & Jayson Tatum

Among the many jagged edges remaining to be sanded down on this Celtics team is the flow between Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. There have been times when it has looked great, but there are others when it has looked choppy. 

“We just gotta find a way to be a little bit more consistent as a group,” Walker said after the team’s Saturday evening practice in Houston. “Just figure out really who we truly are. We have nights where the ball is popping and we just look great. We have times where we don't. We just have to find that balance and that consistency a lot better. We gotta do it fast."

Where they are and where they need to be was on display Thursday night in Brooklyn, where the Nets ball movement off the attention paid to their stars stood in stark contrast to Boston’s isolation-heavy attack. 

“We were great offensively in those last four games before the break, so I don't want to overreact necessarily to this game,” Brad Stevens began, “But, listen, I think we've got to do a better job as a team of helping Kemba, and I've said that several times this year. I think that it's really important that we put him in a position to have success and play to his strengths.”

Walker, according to Stevens, is “so unselfish that he will defer, but we need him to be the guy that he can be; scoring, keeping defenses on their heels with actions for him, and secondary actions for him, or when a play breaks down, getting the ball on the second side is really important.”

Walker has said in the past that he needs to be the one who figures it out, but maybe him it out doesn’t mean sacrificing his own offense. Tatum and Brown are the top options, but Walker’s natural scoring ability can help peel defenders off his All-Star teammates. 

“I think I can hunt shots a little more. I think watching film of some of the games, I think I turned down a few shots, a few opportunities,” Walker said. “Spot-ups – I could take some more spot-ups when my guys give me the basketball. So yeah, I think I’ve just got to hunt shots a little more, be a little bit more aggressive.”

At the same time, hunting shots with Brown on Tatum on the floor leaves two All-Stars serving as floor spacers a tick too often, which brings us back to the initial question of how Boston fixes the flow of the offense between the three of them. 

“It can be a tough balance, especially when other guys really have it going,” Walker said. “We just gotta find a way to be aggressive, to take the shots that I need to take. But it's all about how the game is going as well, or about how the defense is playing me, playing our other guys. Things just change game-to-game, to be honest."

That they do. What Boston has to try to avoid is game-to-game offensive breakdowns because it turns into three guys taking turns running the pick-and-roll while others watch. 

MARCUS SMART’S MINUTES

Everything seems to be going well for Marcus Smart after his first game back from calf strain.

“He felt good, so he did a light workout yesterday when we arrived,” Stevens said. “(He) practiced today, should be good to continue along this progression.”

Eventually, he’ll work his way back into his normal 30-plus minutes per game. That’s going to take a little time, though.

“It's whatever the trainers said, whatever Marcus and the trainers, when they come up with their plan of attack minutes-wise,” Stevens said. “The purpose in minutes restriction is, obviously, to make sure that you ramp back up appropriately with muscular injuries, but it's also because you're not able to play longer stints because your conditioning is not where it will be when you're 10-15 games in."

DIGGING IN ON DEFENSE

Guarding the Nets is an impossible task for any team this season, but Boston saw some persisting lessons hammered home after that loss.

“We have to impact the ball better,” Stevens said. “That’s been the case with this team the last two years - we’re at our best when we can really impact the ball. That’s the most important thing. There were some great examples of that in the Nets game. There were some examples of that where we really defended and they scored. And then there were some, where we were just too far off of the ball, too little impact.” 

This has been a consistent issue for the Celtics, now the league’s 19th-ranked defense. If that holds, that would be the worst defensive team of Stevens’ tenure, worse than his first season when the rebuilding Celtics went 25-57.

Defenses have taken a pounding this season, which is a function of the crazy schedule. Right now, the Los Angeles Lakers lead in the NBA with a 106 defensive rating. The Milwaukee Bucks led the NBA last season with a 102.5 rating. Five years ago, the league-leading San Antonio Spurs defense posted a 98.2 defensive rating. 10 years ago, a 106 rating would have been a middle-of-the-pack defense.

So some of Boston’s defensive deficiencies might just be part of fluky circumstances. But even in a weird year, the Celtics are still among the league’s not-so-great defenses. 

“We obviously got scored on, on some of those plays that we would consider unsolid catch and shoot plays,” Stevens said. “We looked at those, and hopefully we will defend those actions and those plays better here as we continue forward. But I was encouraged by some of the things we did. I thought the last two days we went back to some of the things we did - that you do in training, because we actually had two days to do that.”

ROTATIONS STILL IN FLUX

Stevens’ use of his bench has been among the bigger complaints for fans aiming their ire at the coach. Some of the issues have been a function of trying to navigate an unusual season and trying to take advantage of matchups. Some have just been head-scratchers. Regardless of the reason, it won’t be changing anytime soon.

“I don’t think anything will be set in stone for a little bit,” Stevens admitted. “Certainly Smart is coming back into full minutes, and that’s a big part of being able to manage through that. ... As far as who is going to get the majority of our minutes, with the four guys who have played those minutes, certainly that’s decided. Then it’s a matter of how we rotate those guys to get the most out of them.” 

That has been the primary objective for Stevens. Which guys in which combinations best compliment their core-four players. At the same time, Stevens can’t burn out those players trying to find those combinations.

“(We need to) manage Jayson’s minutes, Kemba’s minutes, Jaylen’s minutes so that we can maintain our best level and who complements those guys now that we’re for the most part back,” Stevens said. “I have a pretty good idea, but there will be one or two guys who inevitably play more than they have recently as the season goes on, which is the way that works. I’m looking forward to seeing who separates themselves.”