The Celtics dropped their second game in a row in Las Vegas, but they had an early lead and made a late comeback to make it interesting. Here are a few thoughts from the game.
- I find it very interesting that the Celtics are using a zone defense. The Celtics have resisted playing zone over the past few years, even as the rest of the league has embraced it. So going to it at all in summer league makes me wonder what direction they're going with their defense this upcoming season.
Could it just be something summer league coach Tony Dobbins is throwing out there on his own? It’s possible, but I doubt it. I don’t think they’d waste anyone’s time by playing a defense no one is going to see during the course of the season.
I think this could be the first sign of a shift from the Celtics to add a wrinkle to their defense now that they’ve lost some of their versatility with the departures of Marcus Smart and Grant Williams. I’ve been saying over the past few days that the switching defense is no longer going to be their signature now that Smart and Williams are gone and Kristaps Porzingis is here. They're going to have to play more traditional defense than they have before.
But at the same time, you can’t just keep throwing out the same defense every possession in the NBA because offenses will figure it out quickly and torch you all night long. The Celtics can certainly switch some across the perimeter, but with Boston’s size, there will be a lot of value to going zone.
The Celtics can put Derrick White and Jaylen Brown at the top of the zone and cover a lot of ground, while a back line of Jayson Tatum, Robert Williams, and Porzingis will shut down everything at the rim.
In fact, that amount of length can make it more of a 2-1-2 zone. All three guys could play the middle and be solely responsible for anyone at the free throw line while the other two hang back and prevent backdoor cutters from wreaking havoc. The Celtics can lean into their size and basically make anyone penetrating the zone have to run a gauntlet past three great rim-protectors and shot-blockers.
Personally, I wouldn’t even call it a wrinkle. I think the Celtics should make zone defense a staple of their repertoire. Hell, they could even supersize it with Tatum and Brown at the top and Al Horford down low against suspect-shooting teams. That's a team that can cover some ground in a zone defense, make anything within 10 feet of the rim impossible, while STILL having four reliable 3-point shooters to space the floor with Robert Williams either in the dunker spot or playing high pick-and-roll or running dribble handoffs.
This could be a very interesting element of Boston’s defense. It’s almost a faux-versatility to still take advantage of the few guys left who can cover a lot of ground and be effective and maximize their size advantage.
The zone has been marginally effective in summer league, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is they're doing it, and trial runs like this are generally done for a reason.
- I can see why JD Davison is still on two-way deal while Jordan Walsh got guaranteed money. Davison had TEN turnovers in the second game of summer league. Even for summer league, that's an outrageous number.
I said heading into Vegas that as long as Davison was making the right plays, I wouldn’t care if he was throwing the ball out of bounds. Out of the 10 turnovers against Washington, I’d say a couple were excusable. We can also factor in a few turnovers just because all point guards will have them, but that still only accounts for half.
The success he had in the G League tells us he is better than what he’s shown, but his failures in summer league tell us he’s not ready for the big club just yet. Guys who are NBA-ready will dominate these games, and he’s far from that.
He's a monster athlete, though. He had two huge dunks in the game, so his explosiveness and downhill ability can keep him productive as he learns the rest of the game.
Walsh, meanwhile, continues to show flashes of why he got some guaranteed money. His shooting crashed back down to earth, which was expected after a hot game 1. He’s made some nice reads, including a behind-the-back assist for a corner 3-pointer and a very nice give-and-go where he faked out one defender and drew an and-one from another.
He’s playing way too fast, though, and will have to learn better control. It’ll probably take a while for him to calm the hype level down.
- Jay Scrubb continues to make a case for either a two-way deal in Boston or a camp invitation from a team with more opportunity. Justin Champagnie is also making a strong case for Boston to guarantee his $1.9 million. Nothing wrong with a little scoring punch potential at the end of the bench.
- The Celtics attended John Wall’s private workout in Vegas, which shows the team is interested in adding some ball-handling depth to the roster. They’d certainly only look to pay him the minimum which would make him a no-risk addition. If he works, then great. If he doesn’t, then they can cut him with only a small amount of dead money on the books for the season.
- Jaylen Brown’s contract still isn’t done. No one has indicated any worry about the deal getting done to me, so I’m still confident they’ll finish these negotiations soon.
So what could the hold up be? There could be some discussion about a player option at the end of the deal. Despite other reports, Brown is not eligible for a no-trade clause because he hasn’t completed eight years of service (he’s at seven), but his side could be pushing for a 15% trade kicker which will effectively act as one.
Normally that wouldn’t be much of an issue because the cap wouldn’t be escalating at a rate that made the full kicker possible. A guy can’t get more than the maximum allowable salary even if he has a kicker, so under normal circumstances, a Brown trade would only give him a slight bump at whatever rate the cap had increased.
However, with the cap increasing at an expected 10% clip, he’ll get that full trade kicker in a couple of seasons. So that's meaningful. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, Brown will get a one-year no-trade simply by virtue of signing the extension. That gives him a little leverage over the Celtics at the beginning of free agency next season because teams generally don’t like to wait to complete business. At this rate, Brown’s no-trade will extend past the moratorium next July.
I still expect the deal to get done, but it is becoming more interesting that it hasn’t yet.