Celtics and the importance of sacrificial cutting

The Celtics forced the Knicks into multiple defensive breakdowns with their off-ball movement.

Good morning! Happy Monday!

We had a great weekend of hoops, and I’m sure most of you tuned into the Super Bowl with friends or family! I love it when a weekend is built around sports! Those are the best types of weekends, am I right?

Before we get started, I wanted to share an interview I had with Drew Hanlen yesterday. I’ve done some awesome interviews over the years, but this one was really fun!

We dove into Tatum’s jump shot — what led to his struggles during the 2024 playoffs — how it got fixed — and the importance of contextualizing shot diet. We also covered the value of body positioning for movement shooters, balancing a range of different clients (like working with both Tatum and Joel Embiid) and a bunch of other stuff.

You can watch the full interview by clicking on the embedded video below. I’m still trying to get to that 1K subscriber mark on YouTube, too — so hit that red button!

Drew is currently promoting the release of his new book: ‘Stop Bullshitting Yourself,’ which you can buy here. AND! If you’re in the Boston area, you should 100% try and attend his event at the TD Garden tomorrow, where you will get to see some mic’d-up footage of Tatum and Kobe working out — oh, and Tatum will be in attendance, too. Tickets can be brought here.

The Importance of Sacrificial Cuts

I opted against writing a newsletter this weekend. Mainly because it was the Super Bowl, and I knew eyeballs would be elsewhere. However, that gave me some additional time to re-watch the New York Knicks game. What a butt-kicking, right?

I had the Knicks pinned as the Boston Celtics’ biggest threat in the Eastern Conference coming into the season. I’m not totally ready to change that stance, but it’s definitely starting to soften. Of course, we haven’t seen these two rosters, fully healthy, going at each other. Nevertheless, an (approximately) 84-point differential over two games speaks volumes.

By now, Tatum’s praises have been sung by the masses. A 40-point night in MSG will do that for you. Fortunately, my focus is elsewhere because, against the Knicks, we saw a masterclass in sacrificial cutting.

I class sacrificial cutting as one of two things.

1: A cut from a player who doesn’t intend to receive a pass, nor do they expect to set a screen or be directly involved in an action in any way. Instead, they’re making a cut to manipulate the defense and create openings for others to exploit. Essentially, they’re sacrificing their position and likely involvement in possession to generate higher-quality shot opportunities elsewhere.

2: A cut that sacrifices team principles such as spacing or ball movement but is done to generate a quality shot against a defense that could potentially hold an advantage.

Watch the above clip. Take note of Luke Kornet, and watch how his cut from the 5-slot (weakside slot where a non-shooting big is positioned in a five-out offense) manipulates the weakside corner defender.

Now that we’ve seen that action in real time let’s watch an annotated version.

Kornet is seen as a non-shooter. As such, the Knicks felt empowered to help off him, allowing them to load up on shooters such as Payton Pritchard. The side PnR between Prtichard and Neemias Queta saw the Knicks look to trap via ice coverage — a Thibodeau staple — putting the onus on Karl-Anthony Towns to shrink the strong side and pick up Queta around the paint.

If Kornet stands pat, Queta’s best option is to kick the rock out to a non-shooting big at the top of the perimeter with the shot clock ticking down. That would likely put pressure on Tatum to go hero mode. Instead, Kornet sacrifices his position — and some of Boston’s spacing — by cutting toward the rim, forcing Cameron Payne to rotate over and tag Kornet, thus leaving Hauser open in the corner.

Now, Queta has an easier pass (as he can see over Payne) to a shooter who is converting 42% of his looks from the corners this season.

The shot might not fall, but getting Hauser an open shot off the catch is a high-quality outcome. The process of Kornet’s cut yielded a strong return. Good process will produce good results more often than not.

Here’s another example, this time with the cut sacrificing some interior spacing around the rim. Kornet is involved in the action again, cutting from the perimeter to set a Gortat Screen on Towns near the restricted area. That screen creates some confusion down low as the Knicks look to shrink the paint and limit Brown’s effectiveness around the rim.

By screening Towns and getting Precious Achiuwa mixed up in the movement, Horford is left wide open in the slot, allowing for an easy catch-and-shoot release off the kick-out pass.

Again, Kornet’s movement wasn’t intended for him to receive a pass or to put himself in a scoring position. The sole purpose was to generate spacing and scoring opportunities elsewhere on the court.

Last season, the word sacrifice became somewhat of a buzzword during news conferences and interviews. Every player on the roster said some version of ‘We have multiple elite talents sacrificing for the good of the team.’ Apparently, that mentality has filtered down throughout the entire roster, and Kornet is the one leading by example.

Kornet wasn’t the only player making sacrificial cuts against the Knicks. Peep Brown in the above clip, and how his baseline cut sucked the defense with him, leaving Derrick White open on the wing for a wide-open catch-and-shoot three.

It’s one thing when a role player like Kornet is making sacrificial cuts, it’s another when a clear-cut star on the team does what’s needed to generate the shot quality Joe Mazzulla wants from his roster.

Brown’s gravity ensured the Knicks didn’t close back out to White. Kornet as a roll man, has to be respected. He’s 7-foot tall. He can hit floaters or finish around the rim. Furthermore, you’ve got to play the passing lane. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last 18 months, it’s that Kornet is going to kick the rock out of the short roll.

Once Brown had committed to a paint touch, White was always going to have enough time to get his shot off. If, by some miraculous stroke of luck, the Knicks did rotate over quick enough to run him off the line, White had Brown, who could easily have posted up, as a release valve.

Sacrificial cuts are an important part of Boston’s overall strategy. Playing for the good of the team and for high-quality opportunities is what got them a championship last season. Having everyone buy into the importance of moving without the ball and the necessity of utilizing gravity wherever possible has been key to Mazzulla’s system.

We won’t — and shouldn’t — see these types of movements on every possession. They’re better when used sparingly — maybe like 4-6 times per game. And, to note, the clips above aren’t the only times the Celtics leaned into this style of movement.

Still, when these cuts do occur, they bring a genuine value and impact to the offense. The Knicks rank 16th in the NBA for defensive rating. You’re supposed to manipulate them with off-ball movement and high-level screening offense.

Fortunately for us, we’ve seen the Celtics decimate the best defenses in the league with consistency over the past 18 months. Still, if they can continue to implement a sacrificial aspect to their movement, they’re going to be even harder to shut down.

I really enjoyed seeing Boston’s approach against the Knicks. I’ll be looking out for it again on Monday, Feb. 10, when they face the Miami Heat and old foe Andrew Wiggins.