Boston Celtics: 4 reasons to be thankful for the Tristan Thompson signing

In today’s Thanksgiving special, we explain why the Boston Celtics should be thankful for the addition of Tristan Thompson.

Though today may be Thanksgiving, a day devoted to family and togetherness, I can’t help but feel thankful for the Boston Celtics and their signing of veteran big man Tristan Thompson this offseason.

I am almost 23 years old, so I never lived through the Bad Boys Pistons Era of the 1980s, but I’ve been told tales and seen footage of their ruthless hard-nosed style of basketball.

Dirty at times, these Piston teams embodied toughness, and when I say embodied, I mean they put the “bodied” in embodied. If I were constructing a team of current NBA players to emulate this bruising style of basketball, Tristan Thompson would for sure be a highly-coveted talent.

He is one of the few old-school smash-mouth centers still left in this hyper-revved world of stretch-fives, and he is now a member of the Boston Celtics.

The Cs are siding with toughness by signing the 29-year old Canadian-born big to a two-year, $19 million deal at the full mid-level exception. He gives Boston an added dose of hustle, something most modern-day bigs fail to provide.

The shamrocks most likely noticed the havoc caused by Bam Adebayo during Game 6 of the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals and put this as a top offseason priority. It was Adebayo, not Jimmy Butler, who led the Heat in free throw attempts during that series.

Let’s remember this little fact as we proceed forward in detailing how Tristan Thompson fits with the Boston Celtics, and why we all should be thankful for his arrival.

Without further adieu, let’s get into the weeds on what makes the signing of T.T. so special:

Reason to be thankful for Tristan Thompson No. 1) Defensive prowess

Let’s start on defense, and let’s bring back that fouling/ opposition’s free-throw shooting stat mentioned earlier.

Some players are quickly labeled foul magnets.

Others are not.

Kelly Olynyk is a former Boston Celtics player who carried around this badge, and Daniel Theis, unfortunately, still holds it.

At a glance, one could look at Thompson and Theis as similar in their physical nature and defensive profile. However, the main difference between the two rests within the foul department.

An underrated aspect of Thompson’s defensive acumen is his ability to stay on the floor — by staying on the floor, I mean not fouling. Thompson absorbs contact with his chest, has patience on most of his shot contests, and rarely gets called for ticky-tack shooting fouls.

His patience and willingness to play with his chest helped him post a 2.5 percent foul percentage (93rd percentile), whereas Theis ranked in the 14th percentile.

Reason to be thankful for Tristan Thompson No. 2) Rebounding

Now, let’s pivot to rebounding.

While playing with the Boston Celtics in 2019-20, Enes Kanter was an excellent example of how you can be a good rebounder but easily be schemed off the floor. At the moment, Robert Williams is in the same club.

Tristan Thompson is an example of a good rebounder who won’t be played off the floor. He brings elite-level rebounding to a team ranked 26th and 23rd in offensive and defensive rebounding among big men.

An offensive rebounding machine (96th percentile), according to InStat, almost 20 percent of Thompson’s offensive shots come from putback attempts.

On the defensive glass, specifically, the former Cavalier put together an impressive body of work, even playing alongside rebound gobbler Kevin Love. In addition, Thompson’s boxout rate per BBal.index.com ranked in the 87th percentile, and the Boston Celtics certainly could use for his physicality in a loaded Eastern Conference big man landscape.

Reason to be thankful for Tristan Thompson No. 3) Blocking & pick-and-roll D

At 6-9, with a solid 7-1 wingspan, Thompson is somewhat of a force when contesting shots.

His size doesn’t make him a Mitchell Robinson at the rim but Thompson was present on a large portion of his contests. He played a lot of drop coverage last year, similar to Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez but without the help from higher quality wing defenders chasing over the top.

After going back and watching all possessions cataloged by InStat last season where Thompson guarded the pick & roll/pop or the isolation (31 minutes worth), it’s safe to say that the film wasn’t the prettiest of sights.

The number of Cedi Osman, Darius Garland, and Kevin Porter Jr. pick & roll mishaps served as a microcosm for the internal dysfunction of the 2019-20 Cleveland Cavaliers. But Thompson had some bright spots, and some numbers to back up these bright spots.

Honing in on Thompson, he excelled defensively, guarding both the pick & roll ball handler and the isolation.

In both settings, he forced many long-range jump shots and limited his matchup to less than a point per possession. At times his opponents had ample space to get off a stepback shot, but again, he did his best to give up the lowest percentage shot. He understood the analytics, as he will have a much better support system around him in Boston.

Because Cleveland had so few capable wing defenders, Thompson spent a good portion (44 percent) of his time guarding higher usage wings — the Pascal Siakam’s, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s, and LeBron James’ of the world.

NBA tracking data suggests a mixed bag of results when guarding these higher usage wings. He struggled with Siakam but limited Antetokounmpo to 41 percent from the field during 12 minutes of play — again a mixed bag guarding wings.

Let’s put it this way: on defense, Thompson may not give the Boston Celtics everything they need, but also provides them with more physicality without fouling and a much-needed presence on the defensive glass.

Reason to be thankful for Tristan Thompson No. 5) Offensive skill-set

On the offensive side of the floor, brute force is the word that comes to mind.

Despite a drop in efficiency during the past two seasons, Tristan Thompson has a nice touch around the basket, can operate in the short roll, and has impeccable timing on the offensive glass — all things that should come to benefit the Boston Celtics.

For a player who gets a large portion of his buckets through assists, it would be remiss of us to not mention the context of the past two seasons.

Thompson played alongside quite possibly the least efficient starting point guard in Collin Sexton — ranked in the 78th percentile in turnover percentage and only 6th percentile in assist percentage and, yes, this is the 6th percentile among the entire league, not just guards.

When Sexton is your highest usage player, except for the quality of looks to dwindle, but let’s get back to Thompson.

During the LeBron James era in Cleveland, Thompson played more of the traditional stand in the dunker’s spot, surrounded by James, Kyrie Irving, and a bevy of floor spacers.

It wasn’t until after James and Irving’s departure that Thompson started shooting outside of the painted area.

During the 2018-19 season, he upped his non-painted area looks by <18 percent, granted the majority of these looks came in the short mid-range area, but he capitalized off this newfound range.

Even with this, however, we must slow down here a bit.

Even though he shot at an impressive 39 percent from three-point range, let’s take these numbers with a grain of salt given the minimal volume of attempts.

To put everything into perspective, Daniel Theis took more than 2-and-a-half three-pointers per game. If Thompson can hit the long-ball it’s an added benefit, but I wouldn’t set expectations too high coming into his first year with the Boston Celtics.

Thompson’s one-dimensional offensive profile may cause anguish to those wishing the Celtics invested resources into a modern floor-spacing big.

Missing out on the Myles Turner, Paul Millsap, Serge Ibaka sweepstakes limits this team in terms of its vertical pick and pop gravity.

Again, the Cs sided with toughness.

Wrap up questions

Will the Tristan Thompson signing help the Boston Celtics?

Heck, yes!

How, exactly?

If I were to partition Tristan Thompson’s effectiveness into a Fort Minor rap song, I would say < 35 percent added defensive toughness, < 35 percent added rebounding, < 15percent added in the screen setting department, and < 15 percent added as a culture setter.

Remember, Thompson joins the Boston Celtics as the only active member with a championship ring and numerous (four) finals appearances.

Does Tristan Thompson Get the Starting Nod?

Initially no, but eventually, probably yes.

Some Boston Celtics fans may jump the gun and say he starts right away, but they are probably not in the right frame of mind. However, if I had my best guess, I think the Cs may start the season with Theis as they get Thompson up to speed with coach Brad Stevens’ system.

Perhaps Boston promised him a starting spot during the negotiation process.

Perhaps not.

We shall find out on opening day.

Words can’t speak to how vital Theis was to this team’s success, and while he is slightly younger, Thompson has the edge in minutes played per game and is more of a long haul, closing games, type of center.

The condensed offseason will make for more of a time crunch when learning the intricacies of the various offensive/defensive concepts but look for Thompson to close out games for the Boston Celtics regardless of the calendar date.