Tag: jared weiss

Daniel Theis linchpin of Celtics top-5 defense, says Athletic’s Weiss

Boston Celtics starting center Daniel Theis should get much of the credit for this season’s defensive success, according to The Athletic’s Jared Weiss.

It’s no secret that Boston Celtics big man Daniel Theis’ defensive excellence in the 2019-20 NBA season put the German center in the team’s starting role at center in a season most assumed it would be a position filled by committee and matchup.

But he didn’t just earn a starting role according to some analysts — he actually stepped into some very big shoes defensively and filled them well enough to hand the Celtics a top-five defense for most of the season.

Those big shoes would belong to Al Horford, who left the team over the summer in free agency to join the Philadelphia 76ers, causing many experts to assume the team’s defensive coherence would take a big step back.

It did not, surprisingly, thanks to Theis — and the Athletic’s Jared Weiss recently explained why on the popular NBA basketball podcast “Dunc’d On”.

“Daniel Theis is replicating so much of what Al Horford did defensively that it’s kind of remarkable,” he began.

“They’ve limited it so that his his main function in the defense is as a drop defender and pick and roll, and he’s doing it just about as well as Horford did — and Horford was maybe the best in the league at that. And Theis has been pretty close to that. He’s just he he reads the screens really well, he positions himself just right, [and] he’s able to take in pretty much anybody driving on him and go vertical without fouling and contests at the rim.”

“He doesn’t really block them, and … he’s one of the best in the league at contesting with verticality at the rim and getting a stop,” added Weiss.

[protected-iframe id=”7f78f9a9762c793aa0cda7dd9145c3b3-134770808-157869264″ info=”https://tunein.com/embed/player/t142442276/” scrolling=”no”]

For the Athletic analyst, it’s not some overwhelming leap forward that has made the Saltzigger native so valuable this season, but rather a culmination of many small steps Theis has made to improve his game and make his teammates better in the process.

“He’s the perfect defender for the system, and he doesn’t do anything really exceptional, but he executes his job pretty much to perfection, and he puts an effort throughout the possession and he lets all their really talented perimeter defenders do their job.”

In many ways, Theis is hearkening back to the style of skilled big man that was long the hallmark of Celtics teams in their glory years of the 1960s and 1970s recently expounded on by Boston legend Dave Cowens.

But it also has a more modern twist in how Theis uses the gravity of his teammates to get open shots at the perimeter, or adapts big man Marcin Gortat’s offensive screening strategies to open lanes for his teammates.

All in all, the German big man is among the most criminally underrated players in the NBA in 2019-20 — but don’t expect that trend to continue long into the future if the veteran center keeps providing this level of pay.

[lawrence-related id=33542,33533,33525,33519]

Tacko Fall and Grant Williams debate Shaq’s fit in the modern NBA

Co-hosts of the Grant and Tacko show, Boston Celtics big men Fall and Williams debate Shaquille O’Neal’s role in the modern NBA.

Boston Celtics big men Tacko Fall share both a podcast and a frontcourt rotation, so the topic of conversation being focused on the positions they play isn’t exactly unusual.

But after much debate on the role of the big man in the modern NBA in a recent episode of the Grant and Tacko Show, attention turned to how legends of the past might fare in the contemporary iteration of the league.

There are few more dominant — if any — big men in the post than former Celtic Shaquille O’Neal, and evidently Tacko Fall had caught wind of a debate on how that mountain of a man might do in a league that treat post play like underhanded free throws.

“Okay,” said the Celtics two way center, “so what do you think about people saying Shaq wouldn’t be able to play in this era?”

The query was met with incredulity from both Williams and podcast producers Jared Weiss, with both wondering where the debate was coming from.

“I’ve seen it on social media,” related the Senegalese big man, “I’ve seen some people say it … I don’t like to curse, but that’s stupidest thing I’ve heard.”

Williams, an astute history of the game, interjected.

“It depends on which Shaq you’re talking about. If you’re talking about Lakers Shaq, about Orlando Shaq — he could play in this league easily,” emphasized the Tennessee product.

“If you’re talking about Celtics Shaq, Cavaliers Shaq …” Williams trailed off, eluding more than an implied aspersion on the tail end of the Boston alumnus’ career.

“That’s the end of his career, you can’t talk about that,” Fall agreed.

In his prime, the LSU product was arguably the best player in the NBA. Shaq was scoring nearly 30 points per game near his peak, and pulling down over 10 boards per game throughout his mid- to late twenties.

An unstoppable force in the paint in that era, how would he fit today?

“How the game is being played right now, Shaq would just kill people,” claimed Fall, alluding to the dearth of brawny big men who used to dominate the NBA for many years, abandoned in favor of switchier bigs able to move their feet, defend the perimeter and shoot.

“For one, I think Shaq would be way more of a pick-and-roll guy,” suggested Weiss. “I thought that about Dwight Howard; he started to be a pick-and-roll guy, [he] destroyed the league [with it], but then he stopped after that because he didn’t feel like it.”

“Young Shaq — Orlando Shaq — was playing kind of like that,” countered Williams. “He was running up and down the court. He was light.”

[protected-iframe id=”1eb7860bd426a28f30d793d1b9d8a7b2-134770808-157869264″ info=”https://tunein.com/embed/player/t141190047/” scrolling=”no”]

It’s hard to imagine a svelte O’Neal unless you’re of a certain age, but the big man’s first few seasons in the NBA were exactly like that — much more rapid and mobile, and a thin-but muscular frame.

“He was athletic, dunking on guys … they were a transition team,” the Charlotte native continued.

“In the Lakers, he was a post player — they still were playing kind of similar, but the triangle. He was having the ball in his hands. So, it’s kind of like how times change. Dwight Howard went from being Superman, then he wanted to start playing with his back to the basket, shooting right-hand hooks, left-hand hooks — and now he’s back to being Superman.”

There’s more than a kernel of truth here.

To imply that Shaquille O’Neal — one of the greatest big men to play the game — was somehow an unskilled oaf just because he turned his style of play towards that which was most used in his era is insulting, and not only to O’Neal.

While not that far removed from when being 6-foot-10 or taller with some rudimentary skills might get you on a team as a third-string big, we’re discussing a first-ballot Hall of Famer — it seems silly to suggest a player as great as Shaq wouldn’t have adapted his game.

The trio continue discussing the fit of past frontcourt greats including some interesting comparisons to modern players, as well as some experimentation of Tacko Fall himself to expand his skillset to better fit the modern game, but you’ll have to listen for yourself to get the details.

[lawrence-related id=32364,32351,32338,32322]

 

Area sports-related businesses continue to struggle due to COVID-19

Several businesses that depend on the health of the Boston Celtics and sports more generally are feeling the squeeze because of the pandemic.

You might not think of restaurants as a sports-related business, but for many in the neighborhood of TD Garden, the business cycle and even existence of some depend very much on the success of local professional team sports like the Boston Bruins and Celtics.

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to crush the service industry, such businesses are often especially hard-hit, as even the delivery options being turned to by some are met with limited success.

Given sports-themed bars and restaurants in the vicinity have made their business model as more of a place to meet and watch or congregate after a game, turning to curbside pick-up or delivery hasn’t produced much business.

One such restaurant, the Fours, was recently profiled by the Athletic’s Jared Weiss.

Within eyeshot of the entrance to the Garden, the restaurant was forced to shutter temporarily on March 15th, with general manager Jim Taggart relating how — unlike other branches further away from the Celtics’ home court — delivery and related service hasn’t been enough to stay afloat.

“We tried that for the first week, but it really didn’t work for us,” he began.

“[In this area], all the restaurants and bars live and die by the cycle of the Garden … anything going on at the Garden brings business. We were fortunate that we had a really good lunch business for a lot of years and a weekend business, as a lot of government agencies used to be located in that area of Boston because the rent was cheaper. So we had a pretty thriving lunch business.”

“But of course, that has all come to an abrupt end,” he offered.

Noting how there’s no real functioning businesses of any kind nor neighborhood population in the immediate area, Taggart explained how the local demographics have forced hard decisions.

“We tried because we wanted to keep the kitchen guys working, but it just wasn’t working out … We’re closed right now, so there’s about 70 people who are not employed. It’s a big deal,” he added.

The sudden suspension to professional sports isn’t just hitting pro teams and the businesses that depend on their play directly hard, either.

The far end of the development curve that feeds the NBA with new prospects is suffering as well — sometimes even affecting former Celtics involved with them, such as former Boston point guard Dana Barros.

Interviewed by the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy, Barros related how the pandemic has closed down his youth basketball camps, which he has held going all the way back to the 1989-90 NBA season.

“Any business will have to deal with the things we are going through,” said Barros.

“Any business will be affected immensely if it goes on for five or six months, absolutely, I don’t care what business you are. Every business is holding their breath. I don’t know if the whole season will end for AAU, but it’s going to be close if something doesn’t change pretty soon.”

Barros is not alone in that regard, either. In fact, very far from it — the impacts of the COVID-19 shutdown are far-reaching, as the former Celtic explained.

“his is a peak season for us — for everyone, all basketball programs,” related Barros.

“This is AAU. March and April programs. I have 35 teams, and there’s probably 5,000 teams in this state, and some of those teams were year-round basketball programs that rely on the income from AAU. It’s difficult for all the businesses, definitely, and I was the main facility for most of the tournaments.”

Whether service industry or sports or countless other fields and industries, the impact of the pandemic is wide and deep already, and will likely be felt for a long time even once things begin to return to normalcy.

But it’s far too soon to even begin to estimate how it will change the economic landscape of many if not all industries throughout the Massachusetts area and world writ large.

“The ancillary effects are just enormous,” offered Barros — effects that may be with us in some form for quite some time.

[lawrence-related id=32300,32289,32268,32232]