The Boston Celtics have had themselves quite a busy offseason and, in turn, look to have made their 2021-22 roster much more troubling for opponents than it was during their 2020-21 campaign.
That said, while we here at HH are certainly under the impression that they wound up improving many areas of concern with their numerous transactions made this summer, the folks at Bleacher Report believe that the team’s playmaking prowess, which they perceive to be Boston’s biggest problem, has ‘not necessarily’ been fixed.
In their recent piece discussing whether or not each team in the association has improved upon their biggest problems this offseason, though writer Zach Buckley did go on to state that this aforementioned aspect of the C’s game has gotten better, specifically with the signing of free agency steal Dennis Schroder, it does not warrant a label of being completely fixed:
"The 2020-21 Boston Celtics always felt like they were less than the sum of their individual parts. Their lack of a natural playmaker might have been to blame, as they dished out the sixth-fewest assists per game and had the fifth-fewest secondary assists.Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown made big strides as table-setters, but it isn’t what they do best. The same goes for Kemba Walker, who has always flashed more for his scoring than distributing. Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III shined as passers, but they didn’t get enough touches to make a major impact (both had sub-19 percent usage rates).With Walker now out of the equation and Smart poised to take on a greater role, Boston could emerge with better ball movement. That rings doubly true if newcomer Dennis Schroder makes as big of an impact with his passing as he does with his scoring."
Even though we believe Buckley made some fair points for why he feels a bit trepidatious when it comes to believing that the Boston Celtics fixed their lackluster passing game, the Houdini is still quite optimistic about how much better their facilitation could be when in comparison to last year.
Not only will Marcus Smart likely receive more run at the one for this team — a position where he averaged over six assists per game when running the show prior to the return of Kemba Walker earlier last season –, but they also find themselves reunited with center Al Horford, who has proven to be one of the better passing bigs in the league over his 14-year tenure and has averaged 4.4 assists per game during the last five seasons.
Add in the fact that new head coach, Ime Udoka, has publicly called out last year’s 27th ranked assists per game finish and stated that he wants to have more of a “team basketball” type of scheme in his offense and one should expect a huge emphasis on improving Boston’s ball movement this year.
No, the shamrocks didn’t wind up landing any top-tier floor generals on the open market like Lonzo Ball or trade for any like Damian Lillard, but make no mistake about it — the Celtics should certainly be a much-improved passing team during this upcoming campaign.