this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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The usual “it’s just preseason” caveat, but yeah, KP has looked like the missing piece for us so far. We haven’t had a big who’s a real threat as both a popper and a roller since Al’s first stint here, it just adds so much to an offense
For me, the question isn't about fit, it's literally just health. If he can stay healthy, I consider the C's a heavy favorite, even over the Bucks. He is such a good fit.
I really do hope he works out for you. He was just as open with Luka pnr when he was with us, but didn’t have the numbers even close to what OP is saying.
Mavs are my second team so I watched a good bit of KP in Dallas - not that he was a bad player then but he’s improved leaps and bounds from those days in almost every facet of his game. he’s actually a damn good post player now which was something that was noticeably lacking when he was a Mav
in Dallas he was the de facto #2 behind Luka, now next to Tatum and Brown he can settle into a #3 scoring role on most nights. Boston is also a much better team when it comes to perimeter defense so there won’t be as much pressure on him to cover for guys getting beat off the dribble
as you said really comes down to health but at full strength the on-court payoff looks really exciting, provides so much space and versatility to our offense
Carlisle stopped using him as a post up player because he was awful and it resulted in a bad shot or turnover almost every time. People blaming Carlisle for “using him incorrectly” just didn’t watch him in the post enough during that time period. Carlisle is a great coach and knows how to get the most efficient offense possible.
However, the numbers say KP has improved dramatically in those same situations with his time in Washington, so he’s obviously made improvements.
yea he’s greatly improved the weaknesses in early post game, attacking switches etc and really refined his game just in terms of knowing his spots on the court and when to rise up. he’d be a much better complementary player to luka now.
next improvement i want to see is getting him corner looks. he’s always been solely an above the break 3 point shooter and with his shooting ability getting open corner looks for him could be lethal. horford was the same way up until we really started weaponizing it the past couple seasons. hoping to see the same here.
No, because Luka wouldn't pass him the ball when KP had a mismatch. The same problem surfaced again with Christian Wood. The team would freeze him out and then finally pass it to him and wonder why he would miss.
The crazy thing is so far. I think we’ve posted KP up maybe once all preseason. He’s just rolling and spotting up
I just think that Carlisle’s decision to reduce KP’s role to “stand in the corner and be ready to catch and shoot” was a big reason it didn’t work out on the Mavs. undoubtedly KP wasn’t as good as a post player as he is now but his role in Dallas was almost insulting to his talent. they could’ve easily gotten him some easy baskets with some pick and pops or rim runs but they almost completely stopped going to that PnR by the end of his tenure in Dallas
at the end of the day though I think KP needed to go to Washington where he’d have a lot more freedom to operate not playing with Luka/Carlisle and more importantly no pressure to win, that situation helped him really hone his game and now the Celtics are getting a much better version of him than Dallas got
Take a look at some of the highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCXIpU2JYlU&t.
As the second/third man of an action he's absolutely unstoppable. Catch and shoot from anywhere, can drive and closeout, lob threat, and has quick footwork to catch defenders trying to close on him (watch him break ankles).
And on defense he's been much better than I thought. He's poised and uses his body without getting baited. I'm stoked for this season. Health is an issue for sure, but I'm hoping that his role will be less taxing than previous seasons.
He really wasn’t. The issue on the Mavs is that it was the Luka show until the last two seconds in the shot clock. Kidd is a terrible coach.
He literally played half a season with Jason Kidd. He was great when healthy under Carlisle.
We just allowed to spit nonsense now? KP played most of his time with Carlisle