Tag: 2020-21 boston celtics

WATCH: Best of Boston Celtics ball movement in the 2020-21 season

While ball movement may have been a weakness for last season’s Celtics, when they used it, they were deadly.

The Boston Celtics had a significant lack of ball movement afflicting their play in the 2020-21 NBA season, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t able to whip the rock around the court with selflessness from time to time — and as it often does, it typically had strong results when they did.

The team as a whole only averaged a mere 23.5 assists per game, good for 25th in the league in that category according to Basketball Reference. But you can catch a glimpse at just how deadly this team can be when it has the ball moving around the court with gusto, and believe it or not it happened enough for Celtics YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski to patch together almost six minutes of video of Boston doing just that.

Watch the clip embedded below to see the very best of the Celtics moving the ball in their 2020-21 campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETBjNX4FUeA

And with a chance to build a more balanced roster for 2021-22, expect to see even more ball movement in the future of the team.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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WATCH: Best of Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown’s midrange offense in 2020-21

Jaylen Brown thrived in the midrange in 2020-21, usually thought of as an inefficient shot.

Even though he made a conscious decision to step back outside of the 3-point arc as the season went on, Boston Celtics All-Star wing Jaylen Brown dominated the midrange shot in his 2020-21 season with the Celtics like few players did that season, becoming a lethal offensive weapon eating in the creases of a modern NBA defense.

The exploitation of this supposedly “inefficient” shot by Brown led to the Georgia native logging a career-high 48.4% from 2-point range overall and 49% between 16 feet from the basket and the 3-point line, nearly approaching the efficiency rate of big men near the cup. Brown also managed to put up a career-high in overall scoring in no small part due to this approach, recording 24.7 points per game last season.

Watch the best of the Cal-Berkeley product’s midrange attacks in 2020-21 in the video embedded below, created by fan-favorite Celtics YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Xia4BGtLM

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Jaylen Brown

With our penultimate player grade of the 2020-21 Celtics season, we arrive at one of the best individual grades on the team with Jaylen Brown.

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players, and today’s focus is freshly minted All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, our second to last player season grade remaining. Brown leaned into a leadership role not only on his team but across the league and in society even beyond what he had in the recent past.

And while the season didn’t end the way he likely had hoped, he took some big steps forward in it in several ways. With that in mind, let’s assess Brown’s 2020-21 season in context.

WATCH: The best of Robert Williams III’s dunks with the Celtics in 2020-21

Timelord’s vertical spacing wreaked havoc on opposing teams in 2020-21.

While Boston Celtics starting big man Robert Williams III took some big steps forward with his overall game in the 2020-21 season from passing to things as simple as improving his availability with better overall health, one of the most fundamental aspects of his offensive package became an even more lethal part of his arsenal to unleash on opposing teams.

That of course would be his trademark high-flying slam dunks, which Williams regularly let loose on lobs and putbacks, drawing in the defenses of Boston’s opponents to prevent an easy make and a painfully emphatic poster from demoralizing their players.

Celtics YouTube chronicler Tomasz Kordylewski put together a highlight clip of all of Timelord’s best flushes from the 2020-21 NBA season that we’ve embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27UC_2R4YTo

With more rest, improved health, and a new head coach to maximize his skillsets in 2021-22, we may well see Williams take his game a step futher.

Not a development likely to be very popular with the other 29 teams in the league.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Marcus Smart

While injury likely kept him from a third consecutive NBA All-Defense team nod, Smart still had a strong season overall.

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is veteran guard Marcus Smart. The Flower mound native had a mixed bag of a year individually, but his team had arguably never needed the mix of skills he can bring to the table more than in 2020-21.

Let’s review how his season went with the Celtics, in context.

Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Tristan Thompson

The veteran big man had a rough first season in Boston, but not all of it was his fault.

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is veteran big man Tristan Thompson, signed by then-team president Danny Ainge to the taxpayer mid-level exception in the offseason to try and shore up Boston’s frontcourt rotation with a seasoned player.

Let’s assess how well he filled that role in context this past season.

Mannix: Complaint by Wizards filed with NBA for Celtics reportedly skirting COVID rules

Boston’s dysfunction last season may have put people at risk, based on these reports.

The Boston Celtics were among the NBA’s hardest-hit teams when it came to COVID-19, and the franchise paid a hefty price in terms of player-days lost — and it likely had a lot to do with the roster performing well beneath preseason expectations as well.

But rumbles abound that this was something of a self-own, with word being reported by NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Mannix (via WEEI) that the team did not take the deadly viral malady seriously. Evidently, it was to the extent that an opposing team — the Washington Wizards — filed a complaint with the NBA, believing the Celtics were responsible for a spate of their own COVID absences.

“The Celtics were among the teams that I know of that didn’t take COVID seriously,” related Mannix.

Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Robert Williams III

Just how good was Timelord this season, taking into account how much time he missed?

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is starting center Robert Williams III. The hyper-vertical big man has struggled to stay on the floor due to injury throughout his pro career, but has also started to flash some truly transcendent play this season.

Let’s assess his performance in the 2020-21 NBA season.

Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Semi Ojeleye

Did the SMU product do enough for Boston to warrant bringing him back in 2021-22?

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is fourth-year small forward Semi Ojeleye in a critical season for his future in the league. Nearly a casualty of roster moves made in the prior offseason, Ojeleye was brought back for depth at the 4 after Gordon Hayward decamped to the Charlotte Hornets.

Let’s see what the SMU product did with the opportunity.

WATCH: Veteran Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart’s best plays from 2020-21

Catch all of Smart’s best moments from last season in this video.

Boston Celtics veteran guard Marcus Smart might not have managed to secure a third straight season as an NBA All-Defense team member, but he still had an excellent season in 2020-21 for Boston, the Flower Mound native a steadying force in one of the most difficult seasons for the franchise in its seven-decade history.

In his seventh campaign with the team, Smart put up career highs in scoring and assists, logging 13.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game with the Celtics this season, playing an also career-high 32.9 minutes per game with (then) teammate Kemba Walker often forced to sit the second night of back-to-backs.

Watch the video embedded below to see all of the best plays from the Oklahoma State product in 2020-21 in this highlight clip produced by YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski while we wait for 2021-22 to arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcV8Yuuaxvo

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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