Post by jmost on Mar 19, 2023 18:55:32 GMT -5
Joe M admitted that he probably made a mistake by keeping D White on the bench for the whole fourth quarter of the Utah game. This is the second time, just on this trip, that he's made the same mistake, and both times he owned up to it, but the worrisome thing is that he didn't learn from the first time.
I get that sometimes, if everyone is healthy, a good player is going to be the odd man out. If you want to play two bigs, say Al and Rob, to go along with the Jays, that only leaves one spot among Smart, Brogdon and White. But when Rob and Al are both out, and Smart too, how can you not play White - who by almost any statistical measure has been among the best Celtics this year? It's from another sport, but I always remember what Dustin Pedroia said about Shane Victorino when he joined the Red Sox that "he's a winning player". A winning player ... that's what White is. He needs to be on the court during winning time and Joe should be seeing that. Instead he opted for size, even though the big guys he put out there aren't nearly as good players as White is.
The margin is often small in the playoffs and knowing who to play, and who to play with whom, can make the difference. Is our coach up to it? Does he need an experienced bench coach to help guide him?
Edit: Saw Ainge quoted this morning as saying that he thought Joe M would be a great coach. That he would make mistakes but learn from them. Said the same about Will Hardy. I hope he's right.
Also saw that Scal said the main problem the Celtics have is that they only play hard some of the time. They think they'll be able to turn it on when they need to, and he agrees, but also that bad habits can be hard to break. I guess we'll see. Are we the team that consistently builds huge early leads, or the team that consistently blows them?
I get that sometimes, if everyone is healthy, a good player is going to be the odd man out. If you want to play two bigs, say Al and Rob, to go along with the Jays, that only leaves one spot among Smart, Brogdon and White. But when Rob and Al are both out, and Smart too, how can you not play White - who by almost any statistical measure has been among the best Celtics this year? It's from another sport, but I always remember what Dustin Pedroia said about Shane Victorino when he joined the Red Sox that "he's a winning player". A winning player ... that's what White is. He needs to be on the court during winning time and Joe should be seeing that. Instead he opted for size, even though the big guys he put out there aren't nearly as good players as White is.
The margin is often small in the playoffs and knowing who to play, and who to play with whom, can make the difference. Is our coach up to it? Does he need an experienced bench coach to help guide him?
Edit: Saw Ainge quoted this morning as saying that he thought Joe M would be a great coach. That he would make mistakes but learn from them. Said the same about Will Hardy. I hope he's right.
Also saw that Scal said the main problem the Celtics have is that they only play hard some of the time. They think they'll be able to turn it on when they need to, and he agrees, but also that bad habits can be hard to break. I guess we'll see. Are we the team that consistently builds huge early leads, or the team that consistently blows them?