Celtics have failsafes their 3-point happy predecessors never had

Anyone who says Joe Mazzulla's strategy revolves around threes isn't wrong, but they're not getting the full scope of it. Mazzulla Ball is all about possession maxing. Getting the most points out of a possession is a three, but it's also about trying to get as many opportunities to score as possible while limiting the opportunities their opponents gets to score.

How do the Boston Celtics do this? By corralling as many offensive rebounds as possible, forcing as many turnovers as possible, and limiting their own turnovers. Regardless of what anyone thinks of their moves this offseason, the players they have added and subtracted have gone into creating the perfect Mazzulla Ball team.

But yes, it comes down to shooting threes. There's no doubt whatsoever that Mazzulla Ball has been heavily inspired by predecessors who also depended on their three-point shooting to make their style work on the floor.

The difference though is that Boston has taken precautions to cover up the potential flaws by strengthening their presence on the offensive glass though Mitchell Robinson while also strengthening their abilities to create turnovers through both Robinson and Paul George.

3-point dependent contenders did not do this

The first contender to truly weaponize threes as a team were the Dallas Mavericks of the 2000s, led by Celtics legend Don Nelson (RIP). "Nellieball" introduced the concept of smallball where his teams did not play a traditional center, thereby they were able to play smaller and faster.

A revolutionary concept at the time when he first introduced it in Golden State, though in Dallas it worked like a charm. In fact, the 2002-03 Mavericks were perhaps a healthy Dirk Nowitzki away from winning their first championship. Having a legendary shot creator and floor-spacer in Nowitzki, along with Hall of Famer dishman Steve Nash, truly unlocked Nellieball.

Their defense wasn't necessarily good, but it was good enough to hold opponents at bay. The following offseason, Dallas added one of aforementioned failsafes by acquiring talented offensive rebounders like Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison, who could also space the floor.

It worked like a charm on offense, as it became an all-time great on that end, but unfortunately, it came at the expense of their defense, as their decisions also made them worse. Dallas adjusted the following offseason, though losing Nash effectively killed their ceiling under Nelson.

Phoenix thought fast break was their failsafe

Nash went from one historic offense to the next, where Phoenix took him from All-Star to Most Valuable Player. Mike D'Antonni's style was all about run-n-gun, or, as he called it, the "Seven seconds or less offense."

Nash was the maestro behind this team that also depended on threes, but their failsafe was about playing fast (something the Mazzulla Celtics have refused to do). They believed their fast-paced offense could create more scoring opportunities. It was as dominant as it was pretty fun to watch.

But their defense and offensive rebounding were downright terrible. Phoenix was right about its offensive potency, but between their woes in other areas along with letting Joe Johnson go, they never quite got over the hump that was within their grasp. They tried, but their flaws held them back just enough.

Golden State perfected three-point dependency

How the Warriors were created started with the fact that they added the best three-point weapon ever: Stephen Curry. The NBA had stars whose calling cards were their three-balls, like Reggie Miller and Ray Allen, but Curry was the one player who was even more lethal because of how good his handle was. You couldn't (and still can't) take your eyes off Curry for one second or he's drilling one in your grill.

Of course, it didn't start and end with Curry. The Warriors also added one of the smartest defenders in NBA history with Draymond Green on top of an excellent 3&D guard in Klay Thompson, all while surrounding them with high IQ two-way players such as Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and Andrew Bogut.

Doing so made the Warriors fantastic on both ends, and yeah we all know about the basketball supernova they became with Kevin Durant. Once that happened, the only thing that could stop them was injuries, which happened, but only after they destroyed in the league for two straight seasons.

After Durant was when it all fell apart at the seams. They won another title, and developed some keepers like Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, but they never quite rediscovered that magic.

What's made Boston's play over the past decade so impressive is that they've had to keep re-inventing the wheel. One of the primary reasons why Golden State has fallen apart is because they've never been able to replace what they had save for 2022.

For the record, despite Kevon Looney's presence, the Warriors' offensive rebounding was slightly below average. Of course, they didn't need it when pairing Curry with Durant, but there's no telling how different things would be if they had made that point of emphasis as Curry entered the twilight of his career.

The Celtics have had to keep changing the formula since Mazzulla took over in 2022, and now they've made their biggest change in that era by trading Jaylen Brown. However, when taking a look at what George and Robinson can do, it might be the best move for the team.

It's still a major risk that changes everything, but if this team is the perfect version of Mazzulla Ball - in other words, they perfect the possession-maxing strategy - then the change will have been more than necessary.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow