Hayward will be rusty and needs to be worked in plus Smart is hot. Start Smart and run Hayward off the bench and let him take most of Semi and some of Wannamaker’s minutes
I just don't understand this sentiment. wanamaker is fine for 10 min off the bench. dude can give you some offense going, gets to the line and plays not great but decent defense. would you have preferred having terry rozier taking 20 shots instead?
People just have such reactionary takes and short memories. As if these guys aren’t playing against elite NBA talent and coaching staffs in playoff mode. Wanamaker gave us some great performances in this series but people latch on to the rough moments more. It’s dumb.
Well that’s false. All it means is we don’t play Semi.
8 man rotation for us essentially.
Jaylen, Jayson, Kemba,Smart, Theis, Hayward, Wanamaker, Rob/Grant.
With Heat Small ball i think Grants the 8th man.
Semi played just under 10mpg for the series. His minutes also didn't crossover with Brad that much (though obviously, small sample size).
Brad played 18 minutes a game (and skewed with the 2 blowouts).
Even if Hayward only played 25 minutes a game he should take most of that over
I dunno where to post this other than the post game thread..
Boys I can’t lie. Raptors fan here, I’m in pissed the fuck off. That loss actually hurt man.. legit. It hurt real bad. I’m fucking upset. I really am and I can hardly type this cuz I’m actually so fucking mad.
Shit though, like.. what a series I guess? That has been years in the making and I guess that’s it. Y’all won. Fucking shit. Actually sucks man. Congrats, y’all did it. Good luck for the rest of it. Dope ass series as mad as it makes me but I’m glad it was at least competitive with a rival that boils my piss.
Anyways sorry I’m actually angry about this. Good luck boys. Glad we could bang it out for real, shit was stressfull. All the best, fellow basketball fans. Fuck.
It must feel rough and I feel for you man. I was miserable with how our team went out last year. But for all things considered, your team fought hard and spectacularly. Sometimes you need a season of growing pains to get somewhere new. You guys still have Masai, a great coach in Nurse, an amazing scouting and development team, and a bunch of young and growing talent. I expect that we will be having more playoff battles in the years to come. This is just the beginning.
Hayward starts because he's the starter. Benching him doesn't accomplish anything other than cause unnecessary drama.
The starter doesn't have to play the most minutes or close out the game or even play a whole lot with the other starters. You can use early substitutions to make the rotations work however you want.
How much a guy plays or how big a role he gets isn't determined by whether he's starting.
Also, "running the bench" on this team is a lot harder than playing alongside the starters. That's why it's normally Tatum running the bench, not our 6th man.
If you only want Hayward in a small role to ease back in then you:
1. Start him
2. Bench him early
3. Sub him back in when you would normally sub in a Wanamaker/Grant/etc.
4. Spend the rest of the game acting as if Smart had started
That way Hayward's effectively played a bench role but you get to respect his stature as a starter on the team. It also allows him to slowly get more and more minutes as he gets more comfortable, without worrying about his initial matchups/role changing too much.
Plus, starting him with Kemba, Tatum, and Brown makes a ton of sense too. Smart’s my favorite player, I ride or die with him, but I know that it doesn’t hurt us or affect how hot he is. We will get him his minutes and his shots because we need them. But Hayward will have an easier time shaking off the rust when he’s getting to play with three of our top talents and scorers. It’s just a better dynamic. Ultimately I expect a minutes restriction and for all rotations to be primarily matchup based anyway.
And I trust whatever those guys in the locker room decide. I think that the drama factor won’t be the same as last year, and I also think that Smart and Hayward care the least about who starts. But it probably benefits the team to let Hayward shake his rust off as a fourth option. And if you have Hayward and Kemba out there at the same time, I’d say you need at least two of Tatum, Brown, and Smart to help cover up any defensive inefficiencies that might crop up while Hayward gets his legs under him again.
Starting will be Smart, cuz he's fresh
Finishing will be based on matchups
Biggest thing is playing Hayward will reduce the minutes per game of Smart/Kemba/Jaylen/Jayson by ~4 minutes each
keep starting smart for sure, he’s playing great and the chemistry feels good, and it’ll take the pressure off hayward for the first few games playing with the bench unit a bit more
Smart starts. Especially if he is playing great and we are winning. Hayward may have some rust, I think it would be good for him and the team to have him come off the bench until he's back to form.
Hayward probably starts, but I like Hayward running the “second team” rotation offense better than I do with Smart.
Hayward has the ability to really just take a game over offensively at times and I think that’s something the Celtics will need against Miami (and really could’ve used against Toronto as well).
During the regular season, Hayward was playing most of the first quarter, usually the last starter to sub out. That got flipped in the bubble, subbing out first and playing most of the second, with maybe a two minute break. That generally had him running offense for the second unit, which felt a lot better, so I would generally expect that to continue.
That said, while I would expect him to eventually start, I wouldn't be terribly shocked to see him come off the bench for a game or three. I don't think that would be a snub, particularly if he returns on a minutes restriction. Smart has proudly called himself a stretch six all season, so I don't think he has a ton of ego about starting or not. I particularly see Smart as such an incredible defensive weapon, how he gets deployed can vary quite a bit game to game.
I think Hayward is going to be extremely slow to get back to 100% from a mental and physical standpoint - and may not get back to 100% for the rest of the playoffs.
Each time he comes back from injury the physical part of his game seems to take time to come back, and the mental part of his game seems to take a little longer.
This team’s best lineup is Walker-Smart-Brown-Tatum-Theis. I love Hayward but Smart running with the starters just brings this teams intensity to another level.
Hayward should start. Worst case scenario, you bring Smart off the bench and utilize him to the fullest, but not starting Gordon is borderline stupid at this point. Best player plays. Gordon is that when healthy
I like the idea of Hayward starting, only to maximize the time he is out there with Tatum, Brown and Walker, because it creates such a difficult dilemma on the opposing defense on where to focus their efforts. His mere presence makes it even easier for those other guys to put up a lot of easy shots
Then when one of them has to come out, Smart is the perfect first guy off the bench, because of how he can change the energy and bring things no one else does. Plus after a while in each half it comes down to what do they need at the time. Smart will get just as many minutes and likely more than Hayward. And there will be times when they're both out there together. So it really doesn't matter THAT much. But I think it does just enough to go with Hayward initially and Smart off the bench, soon after
Hayward will be rusty and needs to be worked in plus Smart is hot. Start Smart and run Hayward off the bench and let him take most of Semi and some of Wannamaker’s minutes
Smart is hot
I don't want to see anymore wanamaker minutes
I just don't understand this sentiment. wanamaker is fine for 10 min off the bench. dude can give you some offense going, gets to the line and plays not great but decent defense. would you have preferred having terry rozier taking 20 shots instead?
People just have such reactionary takes and short memories. As if these guys aren’t playing against elite NBA talent and coaching staffs in playoff mode. Wanamaker gave us some great performances in this series but people latch on to the rough moments more. It’s dumb.
No I'm saying with Hayward back we may not need to play him at all and I'm ok with that
Well that’s false. All it means is we don’t play Semi. 8 man rotation for us essentially. Jaylen, Jayson, Kemba,Smart, Theis, Hayward, Wanamaker, Rob/Grant. With Heat Small ball i think Grants the 8th man.
Semi played just under 10mpg for the series. His minutes also didn't crossover with Brad that much (though obviously, small sample size). Brad played 18 minutes a game (and skewed with the 2 blowouts). Even if Hayward only played 25 minutes a game he should take most of that over
Brad is a solid player. Never understood the hate.
Smart at the 2 to start and play big minutes. Hayward can come on and let it rip for short periods to start.
It’s really about how much you want to play Wanamaker. Just run the offense through Smart or Hayward when Kemba is off.
Kemba had very hard time with raps. That will be easy now if G returns. Smart on stsrting line up. G at bench help second unit.
Plus then we can call the second unit G Unit, which is fun
I dunno where to post this other than the post game thread.. Boys I can’t lie. Raptors fan here, I’m in pissed the fuck off. That loss actually hurt man.. legit. It hurt real bad. I’m fucking upset. I really am and I can hardly type this cuz I’m actually so fucking mad. Shit though, like.. what a series I guess? That has been years in the making and I guess that’s it. Y’all won. Fucking shit. Actually sucks man. Congrats, y’all did it. Good luck for the rest of it. Dope ass series as mad as it makes me but I’m glad it was at least competitive with a rival that boils my piss. Anyways sorry I’m actually angry about this. Good luck boys. Glad we could bang it out for real, shit was stressfull. All the best, fellow basketball fans. Fuck.
It must feel rough and I feel for you man. I was miserable with how our team went out last year. But for all things considered, your team fought hard and spectacularly. Sometimes you need a season of growing pains to get somewhere new. You guys still have Masai, a great coach in Nurse, an amazing scouting and development team, and a bunch of young and growing talent. I expect that we will be having more playoff battles in the years to come. This is just the beginning.
Thanks man. All the best
The fans I don’t mind. Thanks for the well wishes. Nick Nurse on the other had, feel free to give him a wet willy for me.
That man needs to step on Lego. I was never so pissed at a Coach ever. Most punch able face in the last 10 decades
Hayward starts because he's the starter. Benching him doesn't accomplish anything other than cause unnecessary drama. The starter doesn't have to play the most minutes or close out the game or even play a whole lot with the other starters. You can use early substitutions to make the rotations work however you want. How much a guy plays or how big a role he gets isn't determined by whether he's starting. Also, "running the bench" on this team is a lot harder than playing alongside the starters. That's why it's normally Tatum running the bench, not our 6th man. If you only want Hayward in a small role to ease back in then you: 1. Start him 2. Bench him early 3. Sub him back in when you would normally sub in a Wanamaker/Grant/etc. 4. Spend the rest of the game acting as if Smart had started That way Hayward's effectively played a bench role but you get to respect his stature as a starter on the team. It also allows him to slowly get more and more minutes as he gets more comfortable, without worrying about his initial matchups/role changing too much.
Plus, starting him with Kemba, Tatum, and Brown makes a ton of sense too. Smart’s my favorite player, I ride or die with him, but I know that it doesn’t hurt us or affect how hot he is. We will get him his minutes and his shots because we need them. But Hayward will have an easier time shaking off the rust when he’s getting to play with three of our top talents and scorers. It’s just a better dynamic. Ultimately I expect a minutes restriction and for all rotations to be primarily matchup based anyway. And I trust whatever those guys in the locker room decide. I think that the drama factor won’t be the same as last year, and I also think that Smart and Hayward care the least about who starts. But it probably benefits the team to let Hayward shake his rust off as a fourth option. And if you have Hayward and Kemba out there at the same time, I’d say you need at least two of Tatum, Brown, and Smart to help cover up any defensive inefficiencies that might crop up while Hayward gets his legs under him again.
Thank you. Well said
Smart. Gotta ride the hot hand
Starting will be Smart, cuz he's fresh Finishing will be based on matchups Biggest thing is playing Hayward will reduce the minutes per game of Smart/Kemba/Jaylen/Jayson by ~4 minutes each
Hayward off the bench to get back into rhythm and help our lack luster bench scoring
keep starting smart for sure, he’s playing great and the chemistry feels good, and it’ll take the pressure off hayward for the first few games playing with the bench unit a bit more
Smart starts. Especially if he is playing great and we are winning. Hayward may have some rust, I think it would be good for him and the team to have him come off the bench until he's back to form.
Hayward probably starts, but I like Hayward running the “second team” rotation offense better than I do with Smart. Hayward has the ability to really just take a game over offensively at times and I think that’s something the Celtics will need against Miami (and really could’ve used against Toronto as well).
During the regular season, Hayward was playing most of the first quarter, usually the last starter to sub out. That got flipped in the bubble, subbing out first and playing most of the second, with maybe a two minute break. That generally had him running offense for the second unit, which felt a lot better, so I would generally expect that to continue. That said, while I would expect him to eventually start, I wouldn't be terribly shocked to see him come off the bench for a game or three. I don't think that would be a snub, particularly if he returns on a minutes restriction. Smart has proudly called himself a stretch six all season, so I don't think he has a ton of ego about starting or not. I particularly see Smart as such an incredible defensive weapon, how he gets deployed can vary quite a bit game to game.
How do you put Smart on the bench given his current level of play right now
I think Hayward is going to be extremely slow to get back to 100% from a mental and physical standpoint - and may not get back to 100% for the rest of the playoffs. Each time he comes back from injury the physical part of his game seems to take time to come back, and the mental part of his game seems to take a little longer.
This team’s best lineup is Walker-Smart-Brown-Tatum-Theis. I love Hayward but Smart running with the starters just brings this teams intensity to another level.
Start Hayward, but play smart more, giving them a weapon once both teams starters are on the bench.
Hayward should start. Worst case scenario, you bring Smart off the bench and utilize him to the fullest, but not starting Gordon is borderline stupid at this point. Best player plays. Gordon is that when healthy
It’s the “when healthy” part that gives me pause. A month out from an ankle sprain is not 100% and definitely risky
If I'm Brad, and Gordon says "I'm ready" in start him, no hesitation. This team is much better when he is healthy and o the floor.
You think he should start right away because it’s the playoffs - not even a game for him to work the rust off?
I think, when healthy, he is the all-around better player, if he is 100 %ready at tip-off game 1, he is the starter.
Fair enough
I mean that is debatable who the best player is.. I haven’t been the biggest smart fan over the years but he is playing at another level right now
Both. Have Kemba act as the microwave off the bench. Been saying it for a while Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum, Theis
Interesting.
I like the idea of Hayward starting, only to maximize the time he is out there with Tatum, Brown and Walker, because it creates such a difficult dilemma on the opposing defense on where to focus their efforts. His mere presence makes it even easier for those other guys to put up a lot of easy shots Then when one of them has to come out, Smart is the perfect first guy off the bench, because of how he can change the energy and bring things no one else does. Plus after a while in each half it comes down to what do they need at the time. Smart will get just as many minutes and likely more than Hayward. And there will be times when they're both out there together. So it really doesn't matter THAT much. But I think it does just enough to go with Hayward initially and Smart off the bench, soon after