The Celtics Summer League Fiasco

Posted on 9/4 at Celticsblog.com here
Unlike most on this board, I am not a fan of Danny Ainge. To me, he has made a series of blunders since after the 2004 draft. These blunders range from the obvious (trading for Walker) to the subtle (the summer league team). I am going to discuss in depth the summer league team because I have not seen anyone remotely mentioning it as a blunder

The Four Main Purposes of a Summer League Team
1. Be Celtics basketball 101 for new players
Summer league is an opportunity to teach new players the Celtics offense, defense and conditioning drills. In training camp, vets are going to be there who already know all this information, so doing this teaching in training camp isn't as productive.

2. Show the new players what they must work on before training camp
A player will work much harder on improving on a skill if he can see in games that his current skill level isn't sufficient. A good example is Martell Webster, who started off the summer league hot until other teams figured out that he can drive and then had defenders play him skin tight, which shut down his game. Webster is going to work much harder on improving his driving ability then if a coach just told him to.

3. Pencil in minutes per game for the new players
Based upon how his players play, a GM will pencil in minutes per game to determine holes in his line up. Then, based upon the penciled MPG's, the GM knows what trades/signings he needs to make. For example, after seeing Channing Frye play, Isiah Thomas signed Jerome James.

4. Find promising free agents to invite to training camp
There are players that weren't drafted or once played on another NBA that could possibly make the opening day roster. Summer camp is a chance to identify such players.

Another way to look at a summer league team is that it is primarily about your first round pick(s), then of secondary importance is your second round picks and bench players from last season, then third in importance is possible training camp invites.

A Typical Summer League Team
A typical summer league team has all of the draft picks from the current year, any draft picks from the prior year that didn't get much playing time in the NBA and a bunch of scrubs. Golden State had a typical team, with their first round pick (Ike Diogu) and their two second round picks (Monta Ellis and Chris Taft) on their summer league roster, but no one from their regular season roster. New York had their three first round picks (Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee) as well as last year's second round pick (Trevor Ariza) and a player from deep down their bench (Bruno Sundov). New Jersey had only their first round pick (Antoine Wright) and last year's second round pick (Christian Drejer). Because Cleveland didn't have a first round pick this year, they had last year's first round pick Luke Jackson, who played in only 10 games last year because of injuries. Orlando was unusual in that it had two #1 picks from last year, both of which had seen significant minutes (Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson). Their new coach, Brian Hill, has asked them to play in the summer league because (1) it would give them a head start on the new system he was implementing and (2) Orlando's first round pick, Fran Vazquez, wasn't able to make the summer league. Both were excused after 4 games.

The Celtic's Summer League Team
The Celtic's team had all of this year's draft picks that were healthy (Gerald Green and Ryan Gomes), all of last year's draft picks (Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, Delonte West, Justin Reed), a first round pick from two years ago (Kendrick Perkins), two decent undrafted players (Will Bynum and Taylor Coppenrath) and two scrubs (Will McDonald and Jeremiah Massey). There is no reason that Allen, Jefferson and Perkins to be on the summer league squad. What was Allen going to learn against a bunch of scrubs that he didn't learn starting 34 games last year? What was Jeffeson going to learn that he didn't learn 1051 minutes of NBA action? What was Perkins going to learn that after two years in the NBA? West and Reed were okay choices because they didn't get a lot of playing time last year. Putting Allen, Jefferson and Perkins on the roster was a big mistake.

Problems before the games
Remember that summer league is suppose to be Celtics basketball 101? How are you going to teach a 101 class when half of your team are veterans? If you teach the basic stuff, then your veterans get bored. If you teach at a level that your veterans get something out of it, then you are teaching too advanced for your new players. Remember, Gerald Green, the guy who should be the focus of your summer camp, has only high school experience.

The games
What would you expect to happen when a team stacked with talent that had played together another team with little talent and hadn't played together before? A blow out, of course. In the first game against the Clippers, the Clippers didn't even have a first round pick on their team. The Celtics jumped out to a 23-6 first quarter lead and coasted from there. It's been my experience that it is very hard to learn anything from a blow out game and the Celtics had purposely stacked their roster to create blow outs. Boston had a close game against Dallas, then blew out Phoenix (48-27 at halftime). Jefferson and Perkins at this point have definitely learned something - how to mail in games. Against Phoenix, Big Al scores only 6 points and grabs only 3 rebounds in 25 minutes. Perkins in his first three games had 1 point and 2 rebounds, 2 points and 7 rebounds, then 2 points and 2 rebounds. Then came the stunner - losing to a Cleveland club of Luke Jackson and a bunch of scrubs. Al and Perk again played awfully - 9 points and 8 rebounds in 52 combined minutes. In this close game that should be an excellent learning opportunity, Gerald Green, the guy who should be the main focus of the summer league, plays only 11 minutes with 7 other players getting more minutes. The C's then sleepwalked through a half against Golden State and trail at the half, 44-41, before finally blowing them away, 108-89. In the last game of the summer league, the C's lost to Detroit, 73-69. Alex Acker (60th pick overall) scored 18 and Jason Maxiell (26th pick overall) had 17, while Gerald Green shot 1 for 8, Al Jefferson shot 1 for 8, Justin Reed shot 0 for 4 and Will Bynum shot 0 for 6.

The Results for the Celtics
Gerald Green
He should have been the focus of the summer league. He should have been the main scoring threat when he was on the court. Instead, he played only 18.8 mpg, 8th on the squad. Green put up some horrific numbers - 40.4 FG%, a 6-to-1 turnover to assist ratio, and only 2 assists and 3 steals in 113 minutes. The only bright spot for Green was shooting 4 for 7 beyond the 3 point line. These numbers probably understate how bad he played because Green was playing against scrubs and had very talented teammates creating easy opportunities for him. Why did Green play so horribly? Well, a guess might be that the coaching staff didn't spend enough time teaching the basics to him because they didn't want the veterans getting bored. DraftExpress, which wrote very generous reviews of the Las Vegas games, described Green in his last game as "still a babe lost in the woods".

Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins
They got bored and frequently snoozed through games. Big Al shot only 44.4% and Perk shot an anemic 37.0%. Their time would have much better spent back in Boston working with the coaching staff on their game.

Tony Allen
Had an outstanding summer league, averaging 16.8 ppg on 55.9% shooting. However, that could be a problem because is he going to accept that he is a below average shooting guard? To me, there is a huge risk that playing well against such poor competition will swell his head and hurt him in the long run. He needed to work on his long distance shooting, but only took 2 3-ptrs.

Delonte West
Why do the Celtics like this guy? He shot only 38.1%, averaged 4.8 fouls in 21.5 mpg, and Will Bynum averaged almost twice as many assits per game as he did (2.7 to 1.5, but assists were severally underreported). West also tweaked his ankle and missed the last two games.

Ryan Gomes and Justin Reed
They put up good numbers, but such numbers are tainted because the Celtics stacked the team.

Overall
The summer league was a wasted opportunity where the C's probably learned more bad habits than good.