What Can The Celtics Expect From Kyrie Irving?

Adding Kyrie Irving signaled the Celtics’ desire to look towards the future. Bringing in a 25-year-old point guard to pair with their two 3rd overall picks and 27-year-old Gordon Hayward sets the core of this team up for the long haul. Many people are expecting many different things from Kyrie Irving. Many think Brad Stevens will get the best out of him and that he will thrive in an offense predicated on ball movement and spacing. Others think that Kyrie does not have what it takes to be a true point guard and his lack of facilitation and isolation playstyle will actually bring the Celtics backwards. I wanted to look at a few different factors and see if there is any sort of pattern that could give us evidence as to what we could actually expect from Kyrie Irving this season. The three factors we will be looking at are Kyrie Irving’s Progression, “The Al Horford Effect”, and How Brad Stevens’ Offense Treats Point Guards.
Kyrie Irving’s Progression

Season	G	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	TRB	AST	TOV	PTS	TS%
2011-12	51	14.6	.469	3.6	.399	3.7	5.4	3.1	18.5	56.6
2012-13	59	18.1	.452	4.7	.391	3.7	5.9	3.2	22.5	55.3
2013-14	71	17.4	.430	4.8	.358	3.6	6.1	2.7	20.8	53.3
2014-15	75	16.5	.468	5.0	.415	3.2	5.2	2.5	21.7	58.3
2015-16	53	16.6	.448	4.9	.321	3.0	4.7	2.3	19.6	54.0
2016-17	72	19.7	.473	6.1	.401	3.2	5.8	2.5	25.2	58.3
Career	381	17.3	.457	5.0	.383	3.4	5.5	2.7	21.6	56.1

Kyrie saw his biggest jump in efficiency in the 2014-2015 season. This was the season that LeBron came back to Cleveland, but also the year that David Blatt was instituted as the head coach. The next year, Kyrie was hurt and missed the beginning of the season and didn’t really get truly back to form until the playoffs. This past season he had an identical True Shooting mark as he did in the 14-15 season. In his first two seasons with LeBron, Kyrie took less shots than in his prior two seasons. This could explain his jump in efficiency for that first season- he took less shots because LeBron was taking more, but the shots he did take were better looks. However, this last season, he took a career high in shots, with 19.7 per game, and tied his career high in True Shooting, with a career high in 2-Point FG%, FT%, FG% and points. LeBron or no LeBron, I think it’s fair to say that Kyrie Irving has become a more efficient scorer in the past three seasons.
Kyrie also saw a dip in his assists when LeBron returned. From about 6 per game the year before LeBron came back, to about 5 when he was there. This is easily explained by LeBron being another facilitator that takes the ball out of Kyrie’s hands. Another thing to consider however, is that Blatt’s Princeton offense that he tried, perhaps unsuccessfully, to implement with the Cavs is much more similar to Brad Stevens’ offense than Tyrone Lue’s. Both Blatt’s and Stevens’ are focused on ball movement and making the right pass. This means giving the play time to develop and having the ball not sit too long in anyone player’s hands.
That sounds like it should benefit Kyrie’s assists numbers, right? Keeping the ball moving should mean more assists for everyone, especially the point guard. But perhaps not. Kyrie excels at getting to the rim and either finishing or kicking it out to shooters. In fact, according to NBA.com tracking data, Kyrie made on average 6 passes that led to a three-point attempt per game last season, and only 7.5 passes that led to a 2-point field goal attempt. This coincidentally (or not) led to Kyrie having the most assists per game since LeBron joined the team. Kyrie thrives when he has the ball in his hand. Lue’s isolation style offense allowed Irving to attack the rim more and force the defense to collapse. Playing in Blatt’s scheme forced the ball out of his hands and led to more players having assists, instead of assists being focused on the primary ball handlers. For example, in the 14-15 season under Blatt, 6 Cavalier players averaged more than 2 assists per game. In the 16-17 season? Only 3. Moving to an offense that will run more of a focused offense could be bad for Kyrie’s assists numbers.
However, there is a third side to this passing coin. Last season, Isaiah Thomas led the entire NBA in drives per game. He attacked the basket 12.7 times per game on average. Kyrie Irving only had 9.3 per game. Both Thomas and Irving had similar passing rates out of these drives, at 29.8% and 27.6% respectively. So, if we are to believe that Irving is afforded a similar role and similar opportunity to what Thomas had last season, we could expect a slight increase on Irving’s assists due to him being able to attack the hoop more than he did last season. Adding in Gordon Hayward probably means that Irving won’t have quite the same number of driving chances, but I’d be willing to say that Hayward will demand less possessions than LeBron used last season. Basically, Stevens’ offense equals less assists, more driving equals more assists, but Gordon Hayward equals less driving chances than Isaiah Thomas had last season. Overall, I think we have seen Irving’s ability and tendency to pass. I wouldn’t expect him to suddenly be an 8+ assists per game player, but he should still be solidly in that 5-6 assists per game range.
“The Al Horford Effect”
This is something that you hear talked about occasionally amongst Celtic fans, mainly due to the fact that the offense performed much better this year after they added Al Horford. 3-Point percentage, FG percentage, free throw percentage, assists, points, and offensive rating went up and turnovers went down. It really was a massive leap and they only big change roster-wise was adding Al Horford. Now, I’m not claiming that Horford is secretly a super elite player that will automatically make a team better in literally every offensive category. I’m not. But, I do think it is worthwhile to investigate the impact that he might have on his team’s starting point guard and see if they improve similarly to how their team improves.
Isaiah Thomas

Season	G	MP	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	TOV	PTS	TS%
2015-16	82	32.2	16.9	.428	5.7	.359	6.6	.871	3.0	6.2	2.7	22.2	56.2
2016-17	76	33.8	19.4	.463	8.5	.379	8.5	.909	2.7	5.9	2.8	28.9	62.5

Jeff Teague

Season	G	MP	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	TOV	PTS	TS%
2014-15	73	30.5	12.2	.460	2.8	.343	4.4	.862	2.5	7.0	2.8	15.9	56.6
2015-16	79	28.5	12.5	.439	3.5	.400	3.9	.837	2.7	5.9	2.8	15.7	55.1
2016-17	82	32.4	11.1	.442	3.1	.357	5.1	.867	4.0	7.8	2.6	15.3	57.4

There isn’t too much to pull from this. Many things that Thomas got better at when Horford came in are things that Teague got better at when Horford left. This leads us to believe that there is very minimal impact that Horford has on his point guards. However, the one aspect that stood out to me, was three-point shooting. Thomas shot 2% better in his one season with Horford while Teague shot 40% in his last season with him, but 35.7% in his first season without him. This is in no way conclusive, but the year that Teague shot 40% was also the season Horford started shooting more threes. When your center can provide spacing, that will open up many more open looks for everyone else, both on the perimeter and in the paint. I think it is no coincidence that Teague suddenly had a career year from three the same year Horford upped his three-point attempts from 0.5 to 3.1 per game. I could see this trend continue, probably with a smaller increase for Kyrie though. Irving already shot 40% from three last season. He has proven before to be able to get to the 41% mark and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him do that again this year.
How Brad Stevens’ Offense Treats Point Guards
Perhaps the biggest single factor on Kyrie’s numbers this season (outside of, ya know, Kyrie himself) will be Brad Stevens’ offense. Now, this offense has proven to be able to support ridiculous scoring numbers from a sole source. Isaiah Thomas scoring almost 30 points a game is evidence to that. However, this year there will be two players that could both be the main scoring threat. The last time Stevens had two main scoring threats was his 2009-2010 Butler team led by none other than Gordon Hayward and All-Horizon point guard Shelvin Mack. Now, it is much clearer who was the better player on that Bulldogs’ team than it is on this Celtics team. However, Mack was still given the green light and actually led the Bulldogs in shots attempted per game.
Now, Stevens’ offense has certainly evolved and Kyrie Irving will most likely be afforded opportunities that even the great Shelvin Mack wasn’t. But, looking at the past few years of Boston Celtics’ basketball, Isaiah Thomas was the clear scorer and he led the team in shots and points by far. Now, you might dismiss this as obvious because Thomas was the clear best scorer on the team, but I believe that there was some design to Isaiah becoming the scorer he has. The Celtics have wanted Isaiah Thomas since he was a free agent in 2014. Stevens has been known to have sway in the front office, so I would not be surprised if Brad has had his eye on Isaiah for a while before he even came to Boston.
Why does this matter? It matters because it shows that Brad likes to have a scoring point guard. He utilized them at Butler, in fact he had a point guard as one of his main scorers in 4 out of his 6 seasons, and he has utilized them in the pros. Stevens knows how to use these point guards, and you know that he is on board with bringing in Kyrie Irving. Stevens’ offense is predicated on ball movement and making the right passes, but it also gives the primary playmaker lots of freedom to attack the hoop, cut off a big at the high post, or spot up for shots. I think Irving will have the green light pretty much all the time in this offense and he will see a similar number of opportunities as he did last season where he had a 30% usage rate.
Conclusion
Kyrie Irving’s got a lot going for him. He has gotten better as a player recently, he gets to play with Al Horford who may have a strong positive influence on point guards’ three-point shooting, and he gets to be the point guard in Brad Stevens’ offense. These are all great things for his scoring. I would not be surprised at all to see Kyrie average a career high in points, probably around the 26-27 points per game mark. I would also expect Kyrie to become slightly more efficient. Relying less on isolation plays should afford Kyrie some better shots and playing with Horford might give him that small bump in 3-point percentage. I think 47-48% from the field, 41% from three, and 90+% from the line is realistic, optimistic, but realistic. He should see an increase in his free throw attempts as well. As mentioned previously, Isaiah Thomas average over 12 drives per game last season and 8.5 FTA. Irving averaged only 9 drives and 4.6 FTA last year. Both of those number should go up this season, as he won’t have a player of LeBron’s caliber to defer to. Becoming the primary facilitator won’t do too much for his assists however. In Blatt’s offense, Irving’s assists went down, and I think playing with Horford and Hayward, two very capable passers, will put very little pressure on Irving to facilitate. I would expect his assists to stay right about in line with his career average at 5-6 per game.
TL;DR: 26.5 points/5.5 assists/47.5%/41%/90%

How Does Jayson Tatum Fit on the Current Celtics?

They say you should never draft for fit, especially in the lottery. However, it is important for team’s rookies to have a place to fit in and play wherever they get drafted to. So today, we will be looking at Jayson Tatum and evaluating how well he fits in regards to the Celtics' current roster.

Vitals

Position	Height	Wingspan	3 PT %	Points	Rebounds	Assists
F	6'8"	6'11"	34.2	16.8	7.3	2.1

Projected Lineup:

PG: Isaiah Thomas

SG: Avery Bradley

SF: Jae Crowder

PF: Some Free Agent (Forwards Currently Under Contract Include Jaylen Brown and Jordan Mickey)

C: Al Horford

The hope is that Jayson Tatum brings fills one of two big holes that this Celtic team has had for years, getting a bucket when nothing else works (the other hole being rebounding). The Celtics are full of guys who can score, but really Isaiah Thomas is the only one who can be depended on to create a shot reliably for himself. Jayson Tatum has the skills and the tools to be an excellent isolation scorer due to his shooting, ball handling, and length.

Scoring

Tatum is one of the best isolation scorers in this draft. He averaged 1.047 points per possession in isolation plays this season, placing him in the 86^th percentile of all college players. He’s not your traditional isolation scorer though. A lot of his damage is done in the post where he deploys a wide arsenal of moves coupled with excellent footwork to punish defenders. In the post, he averaged 1.087 points per possession, putting him in the 94^th percentile of college players. This man knows what this game is about. Here is a great example of his ability in the post. The defender knows he can go either direction to score on him. Tatum uses that knowledge to his advantage using a quick spin fake into a fall-away jumper that is impossible to block.

Tatum employs similar moves in the post and on the perimeter. He loves jab steps, rip throughs, and pull up jumpers, oftentimes using all these on one play. His length and high release point makes it tough for smaller defenders to contest his jumpshot, while his dribble moves allow him to keep bigs on their heels.

This is exactly what the Celtics need on the wing. Avery Bradley is slowly becoming more of a scorer, but 35% of his shots are still of the catch and shoot variety. Gerald Green was probably the only wing the Celtics had last year that would consistently look to create his own shot. The Celtics were 2^nd in assists per game last year, despite having a shoot first point guard. This is due to the Brad Stevens ball movement offense, but a lack of playmakers also forces the team to play that way. That is by no means a bad thing by the way. Ball movement and floor spacing are key in the modern NBA, but so is being able to score even when good defense is played. When everything breaks down, the Celtics need another option to score. Jayson Tatum could be that guy.

Rebounding

The Celtics have a problem rebounding. Everyone knows this. I am not going to spend too much time on their problem as a team. While he’s not the answer to all of the Celtics’ woes, Tatum is a superb rebounder for his position and I believe that will translate to the pros. He averaged 7.3 boards per game in college. His length and positioning are what gets him most of these. He is not an exceptional athlete, nor incredibly strong. But he has good size and long arms and he knows where to put himself to grab a good number of rebounds.

Tatum played mostly power forward at Duke and I would not be surprised to see him get most of his minutes at the 4 spot in the NBA as well, due to the high number of wings Boston is looking likely to have. The Celtics sorely need some bigs who can rebound, as Avery Bradley cannot continue to be one of the team’s top rebounders. If Tatum can bulk up some more, he should be able to fill this hole nicely for the Celtics. This could lead to a team that already plays fast to play even faster. Against teams with good rebounding bigs, the Celtics would often send four or five players to the defensive glass to ensure a rebound. This makes fast breaks much less common. However, if they could get away with just sending Tatum and whoever is playing center, that would allow the guards to get out and run more.

Defense

Jaylen Brown proved last year that in order to stay on the court for Brad Stevens, you have to play defense. Many games, Brown would make back to back plays on offense, maybe dunk over a dude and then hit a corner three, only to get pulled the next dead ball because he let his man go backdoor for an easy layup. Tatum may be able to come in and make a contribution on offense, but he will not stay on the floor unless he plays at least passable defense. Luckily for the Celtics, it looks like he has the tools to do that.

Tatum’s size should allow him to guard 3s and 4s, especially since he will mainly be playing against opposing backups. He used this size in college to rack up over a steal and block each per game. He definitely has the instincts to play good defense in the NBA. However, he kind of reminds me of Lonzo Ball defensively. They both have the size and ability to be good defenders, but they both need to work on their technique to keep ball-handlers in front of them and to rotate effectively.

Bigger power forwards with strong post games will definitely give him trouble out of the gate. He is long enough to guard the position, but at only 210 pounds, he is susceptible to getting bullied. Fortunately, the Celtics are one the best teams in the league at playing team defense (they have to overcome Isaiah Thomas’ defense). Look for Tatum to have help available when he needs it.

Playing with the bench means he will probably see most of his minutes with Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, and Jaylen Brown (if they are all still on the team). All three of these are very disruptive defenders that should overcome any shortcomings on Tatum’s part.

Fit Concerns

There seems to be a theme in the top-3 of this draft class. No one is good at defense. Tatum is probably the best suited to fit in despite that, thanks to all the plus defenders the Celtics already have. Still, look for him to have trouble getting consistent minutes if his defense struggles in the early part of the season.

Offensively, Tatum is sometimes a willing passer. It’s almost as if he decides which possessions he’s going to shoot on and which ones he will pass the ball ahead of time. If he has ball-stopping tendencies that aren’t by design or occur late in the shot clock, the Celtics offense will struggle. The bread and butter of this team is moving the ball and passing up good shots to get great shots. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Tatum will play selfish basketball as a rookie, but he needs to buy into the system and trust that he will still be able to get his points while working inside of it.

From day one, Tatum will probably have a small role off the bench (barring any huge acquisitions). He won’t be depended on to score, but that will be what he is on the court to do. If he plays well and proves to be not a liability on defense, look for his minutes to increase steadily throughout the year. If the Celtics add one or both of Gordon Hayward or Paul George, he probably will not have much of a role at all, depending on how the roster shakes out after that. Unfortunately for him, he plays the same position as both of those guys and he would also be competing with Jaylen Brown for minutes on the wing. This is not an ideal fit, position wise (I think the Celtics would have loved someone who is bigger and plays the 4 and 5) but Tatum will most likely carve out a role for himself and the Celtics will make it work.

Conclusion

Tatum has the potential to fill a need for the Celtics with his scoring ability. He will need to earn his minutes by doing the little things like rebounding and defending. If he buys into team basketball and Stevens’ system, he should be able to contribute from the get-go. He could be seeing limited minutes due to the vast number of wings that could potentially be on the Celtics roster.

Fit Grade

This Cat

(Fit Grades are on a scale from "This Cat" to "This Hedgehog"

Celtics Player Development Part 2: The Bench

Last week, I looked into how the Celtics’ starters developed throughout the year. Now it’s time for the bench. The development of this Celtics bench may be more important than that of the starters due to the substantial number of young players on it. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart look like they will be core pieces of the Celtics future, Terry Rozier seems like he could be in the long-term plans, and if Kelly Olynyk is back next year, he will be a piece for the future too. Basically, the future of this Celtics team will depend on the development of these current bench guys, as well as the next couple of draft picks (thanks Brooklyn).

Marcus Smart

Year	MP	FGM	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS/G
2017	30.4	3.4	9.5	35.9%	1.2	4.2	28.3%	42.2%	2.6	3.2	81.2%	3.9	4.6	1.6	0.4	2	10.6
2016	27.3	3	8.7	34.8%	1	4	25.3%	40.5%	2.1	2.7	77.7%	4.2	3	1.5	0.3	1.3	9.1

A common theme amongst the starters was what I like to call the “Al Horford Bump” when it comes to their shooting efficiencies. The theory is that playing with Horford opens everyone else up for more open shots, allowing them to shoot higher percentages. Smart saw a small increase across the board for his percentages, however they are still abysmal. Once this team becomes a serious contender, Smart needs to either be shooting a lot better than 35.9% from the floor, or not take nearly 10 shots a game. The improvements Smart made aren’t even enough to call them promising, but he at least is trending in the right direction. I would upgrade his shooting grade from an F- last year, to just your regular old F this year.

Thankfully for Marcus, shooting is not the most important aspect of his game. Elite defense and hustle keeps him on the floor. Smart saw a small increase in steals and blocks that are in line with his increase in minutes. Despite playing three more minutes per game, his rebounding number actually decreased this season. He still pulled in a respectable-for-a-guard 3.9 per game, but Smart’s body and skillset should allow him to be an elite rebounding guard, I would hope that improves in the future. What was probably Smart’s biggest development was his playmaking. He increased his assists by over 50% which is huge for this Celtic team. The Celtics sorely needed a secondary playmaker for when Isaiah sat or even when he was on the court, but playing off-ball. Al Horford and Marcus Smart combined to alleviate that need this year. If Marcus can continue to improve his ball handling while limiting his turnovers, he could be a very good pure point guard in this league. He probably will never be a high scorer, but don’t be surprised if he is an eight-assists-per-game player if he ever is a starting point guard running an offense.

Terry Rozier

Year	MP	FGM	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS/G
2017	17.1	2	5.6	36.7%	0.8	2.4	31.8%	43.7%	0.7	0.9	77.3%	3.1	1.8	0.6	0.1	0.6	5.5
2016	8	0.7	2.7	27.4%	0.2	0.7	22.2%	30.2%	0.2	0.3	80.0%	1.6	0.9	0.2	0	0.5	1.8

Scary Terry has had to fight for every minute he has gotten so far in his career. After contributing really solid minutes in the playoff series against the Hawks last year, Rozier came into the year with Brad Stevens having some confidence in him, and his minutes reflected that. Terry’s game bares resemblance with Marcus Smart’s in that they are both poor shooters, but they still both play significant minutes. Terry’s specialty is his hustle, rebounding, and playmaking ability. While the limited minutes don’t lead to very impressive stats, having 3 rebounds in 17 minutes is darn good rate. Terry didn’t rack up many steals or blocks, but he was still an impactful defender due to his length, athleticism, and quickness, which made the Smart-Rozier backcourt a nice change of pace to a backcourt with Isaiah Thomas in it.

Overall, most of the increases in Terry’s stats can be explained by his increase in minutes. His minutes doubled, so his rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks all roughly doubled. That is still very good though. Oftentimes, players are effective in limited minutes but not able to translate that when they play more. The notable improvements came in his scoring, and the lack of increased turnovers. Terry, though still not very efficient, was much more efficient than last year. He shot about 9% better on threes as well as from the floor. This explains his increase in scoring. The lack of turnovers can be explained by the work he put into his handles. Rozier noticeably improved in this area, he looked much more comfortable dribbling with pressure, and was making smarter passes. His ball security grade went from a C- to a C+ this year. There is still room for improvement, but Terry made a big stride this year, so look for that to continue.

Jaylen Brown

Pre/Post All-Star	MIN	FGM	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	FTM	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS
Pre All-Star	15.5	2.1	4.8	42.7	0.4	1.3	30.4	1.2	1.6	72.1	2.6	0.6	0.4	0.2	0.7	5.7
Post All-Star	20.8	3.3	6.7	49.4	1	2.6	37.9	0.9	1.5	60.5	3.4	1.2	0.5	0.2	1.2	8.6

Since Jaylen doesn’t have another year in the pros to compare to, I figured we should look at his splits from before and after the all-star break. There are a couple of stereotypes about rookie seasons in the NBA. One is the “rookie wall” where rookies slow down and stop producing, either because they are fatigued from the longer season or because defenses have adjusted to their playstyle. Another is a “rookie surge” where they will improve after the All-Star break because they have finally adjusted to the NBA pace and style of play. Jaylen was definitely a surger. Jaylen improved in every single statistical category other than free throws and turnovers. And he didn’t just improve a little, he made a significant jump. His three-point percentage was probably the best thing to come out of his improvement. Coming into the league, the biggest question mark about Jaylen was his jump shot. It showed early on in the season. He clearly did not have the green light from three and he only shot 30% from behind the line. He must have figured something out over the All-Star break, because he started taking and making more, with his 37.9% mark being well above league average.

The increase in turnovers isn’t very concerning, as the increase is in line with his increase in minutes. I would like to see Jaylen improve his handle this offseason however, as that would bring his turnovers down to a rate that is very good. The only concerning metric from after the All-Star break is the free throw percentage. As we saw in Summer League, Jaylen is at his best when he is attacking the hoop and drawing fouls. However, when his minutes increased, his free throw attempts went down and his percentage dropped dramatically. Now, the drop in attempts and percentage could be tied to fatigue from playing three times the number of games compared to a college season or just from his increase in minutes. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be terribly concerning, because many rookies need to adjust their conditioning to keep up with an 82 game schedule.

Jaylen Brown should become a very good scorer in this league. Maybe not a first option, but he should be a great second or third in the future. Going forward, I would like to see him increase his hustle stats. With his size and athleticism, he should be grabbing more than 3.4 rebounds. His steals and blocks need to increase as well, as he has the quickness and length to be a pesky defender, and I’m sure Brad will get that out of him.

Kelly Olynyk

Year	MP	FGM	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS/G
2017	20.5	3.5	6.8	51.2%	0.9	2.6	35.4%	57.9%	1.2	1.6	73.2%	4.8	2	0.6	0.4	1.3	9
2016	20.2	3.7	8.1	45.5%	1.2	3	40.5%	53.1%	1.4	1.9	75.0%	4.1	1.5	0.8	0.5	1.1	10

Kelly’s role in the offense decreased a little this season with the signing of Al Horford. He still played the same minutes, but he took less shots. The major improvement from Kelly was his shooting from the floor. Shooting over 50% is great, especially for a rangy big man like Kelly. Kelly implemented a super effective pump fake into his game this year that has allowed him to get cleaner looks around the basket. This is huge for Kelly’s development, because up until this season, he was really a one-trick pony offensively. He could shoot the three and occasionally put the ball on the floor to attack the hoop. This year he improved his attacking and his post scoring. Adding things like these to his game will allow Kelly to stick around in this league for a long time. His inside scoring grade improved from a C to a B- this year.

It was nice to see Kelly’s rebounds and assists number increase. Playing with Horford should give Kelly opportunity to develop his passing and learn from one of the best passing bigs in the game. With his ability to stretch the floor, attack slower defenders off the dribble, and see the whole court with his height, Kelly has potential to be a dangerous distributor.

That’s about where the positive improvements end. His three-point percentage decreased, his free throw percentage did too, as well as his steals, blocks, and points, and his turnovers increased. I’m honestly not sure what to make of this. He played the same amount of minutes in a very similar role to what he did in the year prior. Maybe the pressure of playing for a new contract got to him? (Luckily for Kelly he had that awesome game 7 against the Wizards). I would love to have Kelly back on this team next year. I think he has some positive regression in him. However, he might cost too much for us to bring him back, especially if we are bringing in a max free agent like Blake Griffin or Gordon Hayward.

Overall, this bench improved this year. That was to be expected though as the majority of the bench is still on their rookie contracts. Player development of these guys in particular will be key going forward however. They all have significant improvements that they need to make if they ever want to be starting options in this league. I’m sure Brad and the rest of the staff knows this, so look for the young guys to make another big leap next year.