The Celtics Preseason Finale Gave Us Even More Reasons To Be Excited Heading Into The Year
And with that, the preseason is over. The next time we see this team play the games will count for real, thank goodness. These preseason games have been fun and all, but there's nothing like the real thing. Don't let that final score fool you either. If you watched this game you know that Tatum + the Celtics bench actually gave the Heat a game. This was only a 6 point game heading into the fourth quarter. That's actually pretty embarrassing for a fully healthy Heat team that played all their main starters close to 30 minutes. The fact that without 5 of their top 7 players the Celts were even in this game in the first place was encouraging to watch. While I sort of prefer they didn't shit their pants there towards the end, their compete level was great given the talent difference.
The important thing is nobody got hurt last night and we continue to see positive signs of growth from several young players who you would think find their way into the rotation. I feel much better about the depth of this team heading into the season after seeing what we got this preseason, and now the challenge is actually carrying over that caliber of play when things count for real. If we're being fair and balanced here, the preseason also showed some flaws and some areas where the Celts still need to be way better. That should come over time, and that's exactly what this time of year is for. Get your reps in, show flashes of development, and see where your issues are that need to be corrected.
With that said, let's talk about all that stuff.
The Good
- I don't think I'm on an island here when I say the biggest winner of the Celts preseason is without a doubt Romeo Langford. This is a player that you couldn't stop hearing was already a bust and a terrible Ainge pick. You know, a player that has played a total of 50 NBA games is somehow a finished product. That never made sense to me at the time, and after watching his preseason makes even less sense to me now
This looks like a completely different Romeo. Pick any sort of test you want. The eye test? Romeo passes with flying colors. He was may more assertive in his opportunities. The Romeo we saw this preseason was much more decisive with his movements, his shooting was legit awesome, and he was just as solid on the defensive end. In previous years he would look like a player that was terrified of making a mistake and the game seemed too fast for him to process given his limited minutes. The could not be further from what we saw from him this preseason.
You want to go just by production? OK. In 4 games he finished with 12.5/2.5/0.8 on 55.9/60% splits with 3.8 3PA a night. YOu're telling me that's not legit for a reserve wing? His corner three is no longer a prayer. In fact, I find myself in a position where I am surprised when he misses one. From everything we heard from Ime, he's walking away impressed
He's not wrong. Romeo and Nesmith are the two wild cards on this roster, simply because they are so young and mostly an unknown. Finally with a normal offseason/Summer League/training camp look at how much better they both look. There's concrete evidence to point to as to why you should be excited about what they could bring in a reserve role. Would it shock anyone if we see a starting lineup that's eventually one big and then one of Nesmith/Romeo? Given how he looks now, I think Romeo might have the inside track on minutes. You combine his defense, improved shooting, and passing ability, this could absolutely be a nice leap season for him.
- Something tells me Dennis Schroder is going to fit in just fine. I love the fact that he guards 94 feet, I love that he's a pest defensively on ball, I love how he's able to get into the paint at will, I love that he's fast as shit, and I love that he gave Bam absolutely everything he could handle last night
It just feels nice to have a reserve point guard that has NBA starter level talent. I'm interested in seeing what he looks like playing next to both Jays in certain lineups, especially if this type of passing is going to translate over into the regular season. When I think of two areas the guards on this team struggled last year I think of on ball defense and ball movement. While in only 2 games, Schroder has checked off both of those boxes so far. He didn't shoot the ball all that well, in fact his splits were gross at 38/20%, but for $5.9M he looks like he's going to outplay that contract pretty quickly.
I just cannot stress enough how important it is to have a guard that lives in the paint and can get there whenever he wants. That's going to collapse defenders which will leave the Celts shooters wide open. It will put pressure on bigs to help and then you can simply lob it to Rob. Having elite dribble penetration has been a staple of every elite Celtics offense dating back to like 2014. Think back to Isaiah, then when Kyrie played, and Kemba's first year. When Kemba couldn't get by anyone for a while, things stalled.
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- Nothing to complain about with the Celts 20 AST on 36 FGM. That's an AST% we can all live with. Four players with at least 3 AST, the one thing we can say with certainty is the ball has moved much better in these fake games. I am praying this unselfish approach carries over because it makes them so much harder to guard. I love that they are getting this approach from essentially everyone that steps on the floor.
The Bad
- If we're being honest, I don't think Tatum played that well in this game. I know he led the Celts with 23 points on 8-19 which isn't awful, but his 6 TOs certainly were. I also didn't love that he only finished with 1 AST, but then you remember he didn't play with a single other starter in this game. He had his typical run in the 3rd quarter which showed us that when he's locked in pretty much nobody can guard him, but when you then add on his complaining to the officials (along with everyone else), it wasn't the best Tatum performance I've ever seen. I will give him credit, I am a fan of the 7 FTA, and historically Tatum has always shot the ball poorly in preseason. That hasn't limited him too much when it comes to the real thing thankfully.
- It felt very 2012-13 that the Celts were in a road game in MIA, and somehow the Heat never missed a shot without being fouled. Given the talent difference in this game I find it very funny that the Heat were still bailed out like they were. For the majority of this game they had nearly double the FTA. They finished with a 27-16 FTM difference. Jimmy Butler took more FTs than the entire Celtics starting 5. The fact that they still weren't able to pull away until late despite that was an encouraging sign but also pretty frustrating.
- Which brings me to my next point. Ime made it clear that he wants this team to shut the fuck up and stop complaining to the refs. Crying about calls may as well be punishable by death according to Ime. Well, that didn't exactly work earlier in the preseason with Tatum, and last night was another disaster with this stuff. From Schroder trying to trip Butler (which was very bad), to Tatum complaining about no calls, to Grant, who had the most egregious case of it. Let's look at that Grant play
Is that a dogshit call? Absolutely. I mean that is simply not an offensive foul. But here's the thing. Shut up Grant. Move onto the next play. Instead, he didn't, he kept bitching and was late getting back and it led to an easy Bam dunk. Ime immediately called a timeout and took him out for Juancho. Accountability. We were all curious how Ime would react to this stuff, and he's made it clear that this shit will not fly.
Now it's one thing to do this to Grant and another to a more important player which we've still yet to see, but I love that Ime isn't letting this shit slide. We just need to see the players actually follow through and change their actions.
- For the first time in a long time, I felt like Nesmith was a little out of control in this game. His shot looked fine, but it looked a lot more like early Nesmith compared to what we just saw in the Orlando game. Overall he's had a solid preseason but this was the first time watching him play where it looked like he reverted back to some bad habits.
The Ugly
- What a gross second quarter this team had. After playing so well to start, they followed it up with a quarter in which they had more TOs than FGM (8 vs 7) and shot a brutal 35/20%. That's ultimately what prevented them from pulling away and the rest was history. Hard to get too upset given the available bodies but gross basketball is still gross basketball. It's not exactly rocket science that when this team is sloppy with the ball, they get burned. Welcome to the NBA.
- I'm just going to say it. The Celtics have a Tyler Herro problem. You may not like it, but that's the truth. They never have an answer for this kid. He destroyed them. He was the best player on the floor for either side and it wasn't even that close. Herro wasn't scoring on flukes either. His three looks great, and his bag off the dribble looks to be expanding. He's explosive out of the P&R and is showing every sign of taking a LEGIT leap this year. Just look at his preseason game log. Every night is 25+ points on good splits. I don't know what the deal is, but every time he plays the Celts he goes nuclear. At this point that's not a prayer, it's a problem.
Just something to keep in mind moving forward.
- OK you know how I said the second quarter was gross? The fourth wasn't that much better. Only a 6 point game at the time, the Celts managed only 19 points on 33/25% shooting. They clearly ran out of gas, the end of the bench guys couldn't score, and a competitive game turned into a blowout before you knew it. Essentially, it was very 2020 Celtics of them.
Thankfully, we can now close the book on these fake games and start to focus on the real deal. Outside of Horford, everyone that missed the game last night sounds like they'll be ready to roll for the Knicks on Wednesday. I love having a test right away. The Knicks are going to be jazzed up, they are looking to prove last year was no fluke, and division H2H matchups are always important, no matter when they happen on the schedule.
All in all, a pretty good preseason where we saw a lot of what we were hoping to see. At the same time, Wednesday simply cannot some soon enough.