By the grace of Jegs, he has allowed me the opportunity to post some blog entries on his site moving forward focusing mostly on the Celtics and occasionally on sports betting and the NFL.  If I find the time, I may also post some Patriots thoughts.  This is my first attempt at a blog entry, so hopefully you find it enjoyable.

The Celtics got a big win Tuesday night by defeating the Knicks 110-89 to move to 2-2 on the season.  While the Knicks are not one of the NBA’s elite teams, the game showed a lot of promising signs in a post Hayward world.  The biggest takeaways from the game were the overall offensive output (110 points) and the play of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

First, regarding the offense, this was the first game fans got a chance to see the Celtics run plays and rotations without Hayward’s skills being part of the plan.  The Celtics had little chance of success against the Cavs once Hayward left the game as their offense assumed his cut to the basket plays on most rotations, as well as focusing on Hayward as a secondary ball handler.  Having a back to back and facing LeBron opening night and then Giannis in the next game further complicated their issues and I doubt Brad got a chance to really coach the team until Friday night against the 6ers.  You could start to see a semblance of a new offense Friday night, and this past Tuesday was the first time it looked like they were running plays designed for the group of people actually on the court.  All in all, there still seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for the offense as they still expect Marcus Smart (and Morris) back, adding two talented players to an already above average group.  The Hayward injury has lowered this team’s ceiling at the moment, but all is not lost.

I recently thought of using the phrase “the ghost of Gordon Hayward” to tie into a few offensive concepts the Celtics continue to run, and I think the game against the Knicks outlined that concept.  Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum (nickname TBD) are going to be the most likely players to fill the void that Hayward’s ankle injury created, but it’s more a combination of their skills filling that role as neither player is an all-around developed talent like Hayward was.  So far, they have both stepped up and filled that void, I think much better than anyone anticipated.  I’ll dive into both of these players below:

Jaylen Brown

Jaylen has looked like a potential all-star this season as his defense and offense seem to be clicking.  Some plays that highlighted his improvements to his on court play on Tuesday were his block on Kanter and a nice steal followed up by a reverse dunk that got the Garden going in the first quarter.  He also had a fluid spin move in the second quarter when driving to the hoop which adds to his overall skillset.  This all ties into the Hayward injury as Jaylen routinely filled the “secondary offense” role as well as cutting to the rim on several occasions.  Jaylen’s play was reminiscent of Hayward’s skill set at times, and his overall drive to the basket has been developing into something of a weapon for the Celtics early on.  There’s a picture of LeBron just staring at Jaylen in Game 1 as he flies through the air, which sums up Jaylen’s improvements this year – there’s many times I’m either staring wide eyed as he continues to make plays that are reminiscent of all-star wing players.  His play so far has made the Hayward injury something we don’t need to panic on, which leads to the next player…

Jayson Tatum

Tatum is the second half of the scheming that Stevens has done to fill the Hayward role.  The surprise here is while optimistic Celtics fans hoped for a jump in Jaylen’s talent, no one realistically thought Tatum could come into the league and start on a winning Celtics team.  Alas, we are here and he’s playing starters minutes already, and looking pretty damn good.  He has all the offensive skills that an all-star needs to have, and he showed them off Tuesday.  He hit 3’s, most importantly sinking his open shots, and he drove to the basket several times including a nice put-back that got the crowd out of the seats screaming.  I found myself stupidly grinning each time Tatum scored, as right now he seems like a steal at the 3^rd pick and Fultz has been a trainwreck at the moment for the 6ers.  The bonus here is that Tatum can play defense, something that Stevens will like and will allow Tatum to stay on the floor.  Again, all is not lost here, and Tatum and Brown are the two biggest reasons people will still love this Celtics team this season.

Random Thoughts from the Knicks Game…

• The Celtics are still getting open shots, especially from 3. They haven’t quite started knocking them down each time but they shot well this game with a 49% shooting percentage, and 14-29 from 3.
• Kyrie hasn’t really got into a good groove yet. He isn’t as natural with Horford as Isaiah was on the pick ‘n roll plays, but he showed some improvement Tuesday night.  His passing appears so much crisper than Isaiah’s was, at least to the eye.  I’m fine with him playing hero ball once in a while as I think overall if he starts hitting shots, it will make Brad’s ball movement system more dangerous, as teams will always know there are multiple offenses the Celtics could run that can beat them.  Thursday night against the Bucks I’ll be focusing on how Kyrie handles the offense, as I think the Celtics will now ask Kyrie to fill the old Isaiah role on a lot of plays.
• Horford was a beast in this game. He’s a strange player because he doesn’t fill the stat sheet with huge point totals but when watching the game he’s essential to Steven’s system.  When he hits 3’s, the other team has difficulty rotating on the Celtics because they can’t leave Horford open in the backcourt or he’ll just shoot (and make it).  He also defended the Unicorn so well that Porzingis scored his third point on a free throw in the middle of the 3^rd  Coming into the game Porzingis led the league in points per game.
• Kanter destroyed the Celtics on the stat sheet but overall the play on the boards seems much improved. Baynes was an underrated move so far, and I like his overall attitude.  Rebounds were even on the game, so maybe rebounding won’t be a massive issue again.
• Given the high number of minutes some of ours guys have had to play so far (Jaylen, Horford, Kyrie, Tatum) I think Brad should have let the second unit in longer in the second quarter given they were still scoring and maintaining the lead, but he’s routinely correct with his moves so maybe he wanted to ensure the blowout to raise spirits.
• Theis is a weird player. I have no idea yet what to think of him. I don’t know if he’s good, bad, or something else.  His role should become more clear once the Marcuses come back.
• Rozier looks like he had a good offseason, but he’s played well in short spurts before. Not jumping to conclusions on him yet.
• The Knicks are bad – all this analysis might be meaningless once Giannis scores 40 tonight.