Boston’s Youth Movement Isn’t Moving Fast Enough

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The New York Sun

“Why didn’t you run?”


Doc Rivers could be seen screaming those words at Marcus Banks as the Celtics-Bulls game went to a timeout on Saturday, the veteran coach baffled by his young guard’s inability or unwillingness to rotate out on a wide-open shooter. Banks had stood at the foul line with hands on shorts and watched the Bulls’ Chris Duhon swish the 3-pointer, resulting in a quick T.O. and an on-camera tongue-lashing from Doc that Boston’s announcers pretended not to notice.


Knicks coach Larry Brown may be struggling to adapt to a flawed, inexperienced roster, but as Saturday night’s example showed, he’s not the only one. A few miles up I-95 (or the Merritt Parkway, if you prefer), Rivers’s Celtics are going through similar bumps and bruises. That 3-pointer on Saturday wasn’t the Celtics’ only failed rotation this weekend. Knicks fans will find this familiar: Boston allowed Chicago to make 14-of-17 from downtown, absorbing a 118-86 beating in the process.


Like Brown, Rivers came into this season with expectations that perhaps were inflated. The Celtics won the Atlantic (i.e., were the least pathetic of the division’s five teams) last season and nearly eliminated Indiana in the first round of the playoffs.


But, as in New York, Boston had a legendary player from the 80’s pulling the trigger on some dubious off-season moves. In this case it was Danny Ainge, the former Boston guard who gave a $15 million deal to Brian Scalabrine (aka the Jerome James of New England) and allowed Gary Payton and Antoine Walker to depart as free agents.


Letting Payton and Walker leave weren’t bad moves on the face of it – the problem is that the Celtics failed to replace them. The best Boston could do in the free-agent point guard market was Dan Dickau, leaving the team with a three-man muddle of second-year pro Delonte West, rookie Orien Greene, and Dickau.


The Celtics have a similar affliction in the frontcourt, where Walker’s absence is conspicuous. Scalabrine has been a profoundly disappointing replacement, obviously, but the other setback has been Al Jefferson’s failure to take over the starting role. The second year forward shined as a rookie last season, but his repeated defensive lapses keep sending him back to Doc’s doghouse, and as a result he’s being used sparingly off the bench.


Like New York, Boston’s youth is at the same time exciting and maddening. Ainge made a concerted effort to accumulate draft picks and bring aboard young talent, and the result has been the nucleus of what should eventually be a good team. Jefferson is only 18 months removed from a small high school in Mississippi, and few observers doubt that he’ll be racking up 20 and 10 a night before long.


Center Kendrick Perkins also came to the pros straight from high school and is learning on the fly, but he’s a physical presence who crashes the boards and has an underrated post game. As with Jefferson, once he learns to stop fouling so much and play better team defense, he’ll be a solid pro starter. And don’t sleep on second-year forward Justin Reed, who has been buried on the Celtics’ bench, but showed signs of becoming a solid pro small forward in his limited action last year.


In the backcourt, Boston has three potential starters. Their first-round draft pick this year, high schooler Gerald Green, has hardly played but had scouts raving about his potential last year and should eventually get his chances. At the point, West still is learning the position after playing on the wing in college but is up to the challenge defensively. Banks, after missing the first quarter of the season with a stress fracture, returned recently and has the ability to change games off the bench with his defensive pressure and ability to push the ball.


Throw in some quality veterans – perennial All-Star Paul Pierce, high-scoring Ricky Davis, and competent big men like Mark Blount and Raef LaFrentz – and it’s easier to get enthused about Boston’s chances than it is about the Knicks’. Yet the Celtics are mired at 9-14 after the Chicago smackdown.


That raises the question of why Boston is faring so poorly, and one has to wonder if Rivers isn’t part of the problem. Known more for his ability to motivate than his talent for teaching, Rivers’s second season in Boston has become notable primarily for the lack of improvement by Boston’s kiddie corps.


This has been particularly notable in the play of Jefferson, the most talented of Boston’s youngsters. The defensive lapses that kept him off the court a year ago keep recurring, and one wonders if a coach more willing to let Big Al play though his mistakes would be getting better results at this point. This is especially true since he’s so abundantly effective at the offensive end, giving Boston its only legitimate post threat and crashing the boards for second shots.


It would be easier to blame Jefferson instead of Rivers if the other Celtics were showing improvement, but none of them are. Using Player Efficiency Rating (PER), my per-minute rating of a player’s statistical production, shows that Boston’s four key kids have shown little progress from a year ago. And those numbers don’t show the most important deficiency: Much like the young Knicks, they’re not learning the defensive concepts either.


Thus, should Boston decide to go full-bore into rebuilding mode by executing the long-rumored trade of Pierce and Blount for some younger pieces, don’t be surprised if Doc is the next one with a new address. With veterans like Payton, Pierce, and Walker, Rivers was able to focus on motivating rather than teaching, and it produced a division title. But with the younger crowd, expanding their basketball IQ is the first order of business. In that key area, Doc has failed to find a cure.



Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast. He can be reached at jhollinger@nysun.com.


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