Late game execution has killed Boston the past two seasons, costing them dearly in the NBA Finals two seasons ago and the Eastern Conference Finals this past playoffs. It was obvious something had to change, and initially it seemed like a new scheme and some internal improvement might have been the way to go.
Not for Brad Stevens, who quickly moved to get Kristaps Porzingis, fresh off his most efficient season in the NBA. Now, the new scheme involves a new option for second-year head coach Joe Mazzulla.
“The addition of him allows, one, the matchups to be a little bit different late game,” Mazzulla said during a media day interview with NBCSports Boston. “And two, allows us to change our play call frequency to get those hard twos, to get to the free throw line, to get Jayson and Jaylen open catch and shoot threes because Kristaps is posting a smaller guy. And so, it really just comes down to can we organize our space, and can we fight for space, and really get those free throw line opportunities, get those hard twos. And I think that'll change the dynamic of our late game offensive package.”
Porzingis was 16th in the NBA in post up frequency, making him the rare player who spent a fair amount of time with his back to the basket. He spent 16.6% of his offensive possessions posting up, and he was only second amongst those frequent post up players in points per possession (1.18 per game). That comes off scoring 1.12 ppp the season before in Washington, up from a meager 0.98 ppp while in Dallas.
“I looked at, when I was in Dallas, I looked at my numbers and my post ups, the situations I was in, and kind of analyzed, and I had like a reality check,” Porzingis said after Boston’s Tuesday morning practice. “(I) realized that I need to get better, I need to get better to be able to use that part of my game at a good level. And that's what I did. I looked at the things I was not as efficient with the things where I was more efficient, and then just constantly kept working on it and developed that post game.”
How the post game fits in Boston’s overall offense is obviously very much a work in progress. This is officially day one of the 2023-24 season, and everyone is filled with optimism. Guys like Porzingis are looking to show why teams traded for them and justify the anticipation. At the same time, he’s coming to a team with two All-NBA players ahead of him in the pecking order. These guys need to figure out who eats and when.
“Of course you have to have patience,” Porzingis said. “We are going to need a little bit of time to get everybody on the same page, every practice, every game but I'm impatient in that sense. I want things to be working right away and be very self-critical and how I can do things better and do what the coaches want me to do and little things I can get better at. I'm very critical and impatient with myself but patient with the process.”
The departure of Robert Williams in the still-not-fully-finalized trade for Jrue Holiday puts pressure on Porzingis to step up as a defender. He’s not going to do the things that Williams did, but that doesn’t mean he can’t anchor a good defense, regardless of how Boston decides to use him.
“I think he’s shown that he can be up (defending pick-and-rolls),” Mazzulla said. “He’s shown that he can also be back. And I think he's one of the better drop defenders in the league. If you look at some of his stats, he's actually fared well as a center against switching. He has to be able to come here and play defense in different layers, to do different things. And we'll use his flexibility on the defensive end to do some things differently that will give our defense kind of more looks as we go throughout the year.”
The main focus for Porzingis, though, is how he impacts the Celtics offense. He’s obviously a stretch-5 with a quick release who can hit from 25 feet. He’s going to have an impact on the perimeter, drawing defenders away from the rim and giving Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown room to cook. He’s going to have chances to hit open jumpers when the defense collapses and killed opponents for their overreactions.
But the most noticeable impact he might have comes from an old school concept recently shunned in NBA circles … most notably by his old coach Rick Carlisle in Dallas. Back in 2019, he said “a post-up is not a good play anymore. It’s just not a good play. It’s not a good play for a 7-foot-3 guy. It’s a low-value situation.”
Now it’s a high-value situation for Boston. They're going to need him to make those plays late in games, and he’s finally comfortable enough to make them.
“With experience, with years in the league, I developed one, two, three things that I just keep doing over and over again and they just keep working,” Porzingis said. “So I look forward to keep improving on those things and possibly adding more counters and more things.”