New York...You Got Boston.
The Knicks get first crack at the reigning NBA Champions.
I had some major internet problems yesterday. I lost connection around 6 a.m., and I had an intermittent connection around 5 p.m., which wasn’t back to normal until nearly 10 p.m. So, I nixed the newsletter yesterday. I was super annoyed because I want to get a nice consistency and rhythm over the next few months in time for the new season. Still, we adjust, adapt and overcome. We move.
As I mentioned last week, I’m going to be upping the amount of paid content to 50% this week, with that slowly increasing back to in-season levels as we get closer to opening night. I will likely do this in a daily rotation. With expectations being made as and when they make sense.
I would like to try running a mailbag for Thursday’s newsletter—assuming I get enough responses. So, if there’s anything you want to ask, say, or share, leave a comment at the bottom.
🫖 Taylor’s Tea Time
☕ The Tea: The Celtics will face the New York Knicks at the TD Garden on the opening night of the 2024-25 season — Oct. 22. Joe Mazzulla’s team will also receive their championship rings on that night, per Shams Charania.
🗣️ Taylor: I like it. The Knicks are one of Boston’s biggest threats in the Eastern Conference next season. The addition of Mikal Bridges has vastly improved their defensive versatility and given them another reliable scoring option behind Jalen Brunson. Getting that early litmus test while also making them watch you receive your championship rings is a great way to start the season.
Of course, the opening game of the season doesn’t tell us much about how successful a team will be throughout the remaining 81 games, but it does allow for some early bragging rights. I'll have more on the Knicks matchup shortly…
☕ The Tea: Shams Charania also released the dates of Boston’s NBA Finals repeats against the Dallas Mavericks. The first matchup will take place in Dallas, at the American Airlines Center on Jan. 25. While Luka Doncic and co. will head to the TD Garden on Feb. 6. 🗣️ Taylor: Bring it on! By the time the Celtics face the Mavericks in January, Kristaps Porzingis should hopefully be back in the rotation, barring any setbacks. We will also get our first close-up look at Dallas’ roster now that Klay Thompson is part of the rotation. Still, there’s no guarantee we get a repeat series in the NBA Finals, but if we do, these games could be a good precursor.
☕ The Tea: Brad Stevens recently updated Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe on Porzingis’ recovery during a recent interview.
“He’s in Latvia,” Stevens said. “He’s starting to do more and more and more. He was in a boot for a while there, but every indication is he’s progressing well and he’s on the right timeline. But it’s going to be a while.”
Stevens then praised Porzingis for playing through the pain barrier during the NBA Finals.
“He was going to have to have surgery regardless. He was moving better than he was before Games 3 and 4 and had probably gotten more used to it. And the outcome wasn’t going to change whether he played or not after that moment. It was just, really, could he do it? I was pretty impressed that he did.
I don’t know exactly what he felt like, but I know he wasn’t 100 percent. But the toughness to get out there and do it was awesome. But that didn’t make it worse, and it wasn’t going to.”
🗣️ Taylor: Porzingis isn’t going to be back in the rotation anytime soon. It’s great that he’s progressing well and that, from how Stevens worded things, he’s out of the boot. However, after his recovery, he will have to rehab the injury, then work through his conditioning and finally begin re-integrating into the rotation — including working through contact. All of that stuff takes time.
Furthermore, Porzingis is too valuable to the Celtics for him to get rushed back. That’s why we looked at Neemy and Tillman last week; there’s plenty of depth to keep things ticking over during the season's opening months.
The downside to all of this is that we likely won’t see Boston at full strength until the end of the year if not early 2025. Still, it’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.
☕ The Tea: Shortly after winning his second gold medal with Team USA, Jayson Tatum was asked whether he would be part of the pool for 2028.
"It was a tough personal experience on the court, but I'm not going to make any decision off emotions," Tatum said, as reported by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. "If you asked me right now if I was going to play in 2028 -- it is four years from now and I [would have] to take time and think about that. So I'm not going to make any decision based off how this experience was or how I felt individually."
🗣️ Taylor: Four years is a long time. It’s only logical that Tatum would refrain from committing to something that is so far ahead, especially when he will be 30 years old by the time the tournament rolls around. I’ve been very outspoken about Tatum being benched for the two games against Serbia. However, I don’t think that will have too much of an impact on his decision for the next Olympic games due to a new coaching staff likely being implemented in the coming months.
Steve Kerr set his intentions to step down from Team USA during an interview with The Athletic’s Joe Vardon back in November, citing the fact the job is usually swapped per cycle.
“To me, it’s a two-year; it’s a cycle,” Kerr said. “Pop coached a World Cup and the Olympics, now it’s my turn to pass the baton. I think that’s kind of how it should be. Frankly, it’s a huge commitment, too. I guess I think it was different the last go-around with Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) and Jerry (Colangelo), when they were really establishing this culture and this system where guys had to commit for a couple years. Made sense for Coach K to stay on. But I think where we are now, one cycle and you move on.”
Still, with two gold medals on his resume, Tatum shouldn’t feel any pressure or obligation to compete in 2028, especially if a defined role within the rotation isn’t provided ahead of time. He deserved better in Paris — both in terms of playing time and role — even if his role is understandable due to the talent and depth Kerr had available.
☕ The Tea: Jrue Holiday and Tatum both found themselves in some elite company following their Olympic and NBA success this summer.
Holiday became just the second player to win an Olympic Gold Medal and an NBA championship on two separate occasions.
Tatum became the third player to be named to an All-NBA First Team, win a championship and earn a gold medal in a single season. He joined Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
🗣️ Taylor: I’m not one for these obscure stats, but I’ll make an exception this time. Holiday is putting together a HOF candidacy with two championships and two gold medals to his name. He could potentially have another ring or two by the time it’s all said and done, too.
Tatum is 26 years old and has a HOF resume right now. It’s scary to think what his career achievements will look like once he eventually hangs them up.
🔍 How the Celtics fared against New York last season
The Celtics faced the Knicks on five occasions last season. They ended the season series 4-1, dropping their final game against Tom Thibodeau’s roster. Here’s how the Celtics fared in each of those games from a statistical standpoint:
When looking at the above snapshot, the biggest concern was how much success the Knicks had on the offensive glass.
Fortunately, New York is slightly lacking in the center position for the upcoming campaign.
The loss and failure to replace Isaiah Hartenstein will be an interesting subplot to New York’s season and will likely provide more opportunities for Precious Achiuwa at the five. However, that could create an advantage point for the Celtics, who have a deep rotation of bigs to lean on, all of who bring different approaches to the floor.
Furthermore, Porzingis’ absence from the opening night matchup will be a tough blow for the Celtics. He’s their X-Factor on any given night, and has the type of skillset that can create cracks in the Knicks’ defense due to his floor spacing ability and his work in the post or around the elbows. He’s also a reliable defensive rebounder.
As such, Neemias Queta could have a strong claim to minutes on opening night due to his size and activity around the rim on both sides of the floor. If that's how the rotations play out, I would enjoy watching the battle with Achiuwa.
Still, I’m a big fan of the Celtics/Knicks matchups. I find that Mazzulla often goes deeper into his playbook to counter New York’s physical brand of defense, and we often see one or more of the role players step up — like Derrick White’s 30-point night in December.
I also want to point out that Tatum usually performs well against New York, too. Over the five games last season, he averaged 26.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists and was consistently one of the best players on the floor. After a tough summer, suiting up against a team that he usually finds success against could be just what the doctor ordered.
While it’s far too early to have any inclination as to how Mazzulla and Thibodeau could set their teams up, here’s an example of a 10-man rotation that we could see from each roster.
Celtics
Guard - Jrue Holiday
Guard - Derrick White
Wing - Jaylen Brown
Wing - Jayson Tatum
Big - Al Horford
6 - Payton Pritchard
7 - Sam Hauser
8 - Luke Kornet
9 - Neemias Queta
10 - Baylor Scheierman
Knicks
Guard - Jalen Brunson
Guard - Mikal Bridges
Wing - OG Anunoby
Wing - Julius Randle
Big - Mitchell Robinson
6 - Josh Hart
7 - Done DiVincenzo
8 - Precious Achiuwa
9 - Moles McBride
10 - Cameron Payne
4 of my favorite plays from Boston when facing the Knicks
As I mentioned, Mazzulla appears to open up his playbook a little bit more when facing the Knicks. Here are a few of my favorite actions from their five games last season - and some quick thoughts on why they worked.
Zoom Pick’n’Pop
A “zoom” action, also known as a “Chicago” action, is one of the most ubiquitous plays in the NBA. It’s simple in its execution. A wing or guard sets a pin-down for someone in the corner, who then curls off the pin-down to receive a DHO (usually) from a big man at the top of the perimeter.
The wrinkle in this action was that Porzingis gave the ball up a beat earlier than normal, allowing him to set a standard screen for Payton Pritchard. After screening for the sharpshooting guard, Porzingis popped into space around the slot. Hartenstein had initially dropped toward the nail after the screen, looking to limit any drive from Pritchard or potentially tag Porzingis on the roll.
As such, when Pritchard gives up the rock, and Porzingis flows into his shooting motion, Hartenstein has to recover to contest the jumper, giving Porzingis the time and space to get the ball out of his hands without having his release affected.
Slice Ricky
Slice actions were a prominent part of Mazzulla’s playbook last season. We took a deep dive into the different ways Boston used them back in February. You can find that here if you missed it.
Again, there’s a slight wrinkle in Boston’s approach here. The general idea on these slice actions is to get Jayson Tatum (or any slice receiver) into the post, allowing for an entry pass and then for the action to unfold accordingly.
However, Tatum uses a “Ricky cut” in this instance—a cut off a screen before turning around and cutting back off the same screen.
Similarly to Porzignis's play above, the slight alteration in the play provides Tatum with a pocket of space that wouldn’t have been there had a wrinkle not been thrown into the action. Horford catches two defenders on his second screen, giving Tatum the time to square his hips, receive the pass in his shooting pocket and flow into an easy catch-and-shoot 3 on the perimeter.
Phoenix Strong
Phoenix in itself is a play variation on a typical “twirl” action. The point of the play is to get one of your best shooters flaring off a pin-down screen for an easy look in space. The setup is made by setting a stagger (or double) screen, having the screen receiver come off the initial screen before setting a pin-down flare screen for the second screener.
To simplify:
The stagger screen is set for Tatum.
Holiday and Hauser are the screeners.
Tatum uses Holiday’s screen.
Holiday relocates to the corner.
Tatum set’s a pin-in screen for Hauser to pop out to the perimeter.
Tatum has both defenders caught on the screener.
Hauser receives the ball and forces the strong-side corner man to rotate up.
Holiday cuts to provide a release valve.
Hauser nails the jumper.
It’s quite an intricate action, but when you have as much shooting skill on your roster as the Celtics do, it makes sense to put three shooters into the action and force the Knicks to pick their poison.
The wrinkle to this play was setting it up as a “strong” action — which is where the ball is reversed from one side of the floor to the other via two passes before flowing into a weakside stagger screen. “Strong” is a play on its own. It’s also a setup for a bunch of other attacks. As such, it acts as somewhat of a misdirection for the defense.
Inverted Loop Ram
Ram actions and inverted screening actions have been a staple of the Celtics offense since Ime Udoka was patrolling the sidelines. However, the Celtics implemented a slight change in this action by asking Porzingis to begin the play in the weakside slot, where he could “loop” his cut.
By doing this, the Celtics tested Robinson's ability to change directions, his screen navigation, and his lateral quickness while forcing a switch for Tatum while Robinson was in drop.
The rest of the action is set up as you would expect. White sets the inverted down screen, and Porzingis comes off the pick to set a screen for Tatum. The play ends as you would expect; Tatum, in space, squares his hips and drains the pull-up jumper.
☘️ Shamrock Shorts
☘️ Payton Pritchard got married over the weekend, with Blake Griffin as an officiary.
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Pritchard now has two rings this summer. Wishing him and his wife a fantastic honeymoon before he gets back and starts preparing for the upcoming season.
That’s all for today, folks! Appreciate all of you for rocking with me!
Need to test them in the post without Hartenstein. I expect KP won't be back until Jan at the earliest, next man up Luke, X, Neemias