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What is the Ewing Theory? Does it apply to Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics? We explore how Boston and Joe Mazzulla have shocked the league by changing their offense, and the surprising history and nuance of playing “better” without a star.
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47 Comments
What a fantastic analysis and kudos to both Mazzula and the Celtics roster for cooking such a fresh and tasty new dish. I didn't expect Chris Webber to inherit the Ewing-theory but it also reminds me of that time McGrady was injured and the Rockets finally advanced past the 1st round behind Brooks, Artest and Scola. Orlando Magic with Alston at the 1 replacing Nelson also comes to mind although both of these examples have very small sample sizes, although all these games were high stake.
Bold prediction – Celtics win a title in the next 3 seasons
Great video. My only issue is that they still have an All NBA level guy in Jaylen Brown- even though they lost their 'Ewing'. Could you look into how Jaylen Brown's advanced stats don't support him improving much…just taking more shots/possessions? He's playing so dang well but I see many advanced stats fans really dragging him saying he's still the mediocre star with average/low efficiency he's just shooting more. How are is on/off numbers still so poor- he's obviously contributing enormously to their winning.
Am I the only one who enjoys watching this season more than last? The jacking up of threes was mind-numbing to watch.
3:55 here is clear how much overlooked is big men IQ on setting screens. Usually the credit is given to the point, but actually during broken plays the real playmaker is the screener, who is not as crowded as the ball handler and can trigger plenty of actions
I can recall when the Nuggets traded Carmelo and they played a more free flowing offense. Not having a ball stopper in Carmelo helped.
To the point about Sacramento, there were times where lineups that included Peja and Hedo were effective than having Webber on the court. Early 2000s basketball was more stationary and ball watching.
I wrote off Boston this year and I'll eat my words in saying they should punt the season. I do think Tatum shouldn't comeback until next season. Also, illegal screen. I had to get that in.
Trae Younf another example of
I know this is blasphemy but are this years Celtics experiencing a similar effect when Brown sits? He is currently 6th on the roster in total plus minus and 13th! In net rating. This is not to say Brown isn't good, he is fantastic! But it seems the Celtics bench is what sets this group apart. It would be interesting to dive into this phenomenon, what's different in team defence/offense when Simons and gonzalez hit the floor. Are they simply outmatching their opponents or is ball and player movement simply even better without brown?
I’m not surprised by Ben’s findings. While the 2024 Celtics had a historic offense in the regular season, they relied a bit more on defense in the playoffs. For example their offensive rating in the nba finals plummeted down to 17th percentile, but they absolutely suffocated Dallas’ backcourt
Jaylen Brown is normal, but the real effect is the Grizzlies playing better without Ja, back when they had Tre Jones and sometimes now
I always thought those tatum isolations really slowed down the celtics pace. A stepback 3 is nice in a shotclock situation or as a mixup, but if done possession after possesion it becomes stale and predictable. But thats my 2 cents
Glad they tweaked their offense this season. Those forced Isos and excessive 3s were painful to watch.
I always like jaylen brown but I don't like joe mazzula system since he took over ime udoka but I like this system they don't have to shoot a lot of threes to win great analysis I agree with this offense being more efficient hopefully they keep this
great video dude! I love your videos, been subscribed since you did the Boston v Dallas finals videos! keep em coming!
Celtics shmeltics… the 2019-20 Raptors were the greatest story never told in NBA history. They lost an NBA finals MVP to end up with a franchise best .736 winning percentage.
4:54 geez get some sleep my guy
It's not necessarily better. Without Tatum Celtics have been bottom 10 in defense, that's the worst the team have seen since like Doc era
i love this channel, as someone who loves basketball your insights of how the game works with screens, plays, and positioning have improved my game and im able to play a lot better because i understand how i can run plays and score easier
So now it's the Tatum Theory… It has a ring to it
Another caveat here is that Boston was in the same position back in 2017-18 season in which Hayward only played a few minutes and Kyrie Irving was out for the playoffs. They reached the Game 7 of the ECF with Brad Stevens as coach. I guess we can collectively say that Stevens’ experience in navigating injured superstars might’ve been integral on how the approached this season without Tatum.
All I hear is coach Mazulla is great at drawing plays and Jalen Brown was an underrated player
All I hear is coach Mazulla is great at drawing plays and Jalen Brown was an underrated player
So when Tatum comes back, do they make him adapt to the new system? Or do they revert back to the old system cause of Tatum’s superstar status? I personally think Tatum is one of the most adaptable superstars in the league, I think he can fit in any system, cause he’s ball dominant when they need him to be, but he’s not a ball HOG, and that’s a big difference, he has played effectively off ball. It’s all about finding a balance.
They chucked 3s ALL last year. Unbearable to watch, not surprising you can only get more efficient 😂
Jokic wanted me to tell you "lol"
Did you seriously do an ad-read with the words Esoteric, Opaque and Spreadsheet in the same sentence 😂😂
Steve Kerr should take note, use what you have and make good result, he always rely on Curry run the small ball at the time
2:32 this is the part of offense Luka never does for his teammates. Something like a cut to create more opportunity for a teammate. That shows more iq to me than throwing a grenade to an open teammate bc your drive got cut off.
This is why I feel like Luka is overrated even as an offensive player. This is stuff Tatum n brown are very aware of n willing to do.
I would’ve had Tatum higher than Luka on 25 best peaks list no bias! My criteria stays the same for all players..
I think where I differ from y’all’s list most is that I think having a glaring weakness is worse than being 4/5% less efficient than the top of the league.
I’m not so focused on positive extremes (ie kids passing, draymond n Dwight’s defense etc..). Feels like im more respectful of ppls major weaknesses n don’t need a player’s strengths to be historic to feel like they have an edge on others at the highest levels of hoops
The championship Tatum was more team and create opportunities and held himself in check while last year's Tatum became more selfish.
Jaylen brown was always better than Tatum.
This is my thing…THE CELTICS ATE NOT BETTER THAN LAST YR objectively 😭😂
…so on the Ewing theory thing, why does the team getting (slightly*) better on offense only, say anything abt Tatum?
Could 100% of the improvement be attributed to teammates’ improvement along with a new scheme?
N if so could they not be even better when Tatum gets back given those developments?
Mind you, the Celtics’ ortg this yr is 121.5 LOWER than the Celtics mismatch heavy offensive in ‘24 at 122.2. So it’s actually debatable whether or not this new offense is definitely better than their old offense.
Rich Paul pod is interesting on many levels but 1 thing I think he’s right on is the need ppl have to compare everything, despite KNOWING the surrounding circumstances aren’t controlled.
So..long story short..there’s a world where this yrs performance tells you absolutely nothing abt tatums impact. Don’t let these ppl fool yall.
I feel not enough mention was given to how amazing all the guys that have stepped up into their role have been. Simons, Queta, Walsh, Minott, Garza, Hugo all deserve a shout
you’ve always said weird things about tatum that i don’t understand. “brown isn’t trying to be more like tatum: he’s improved his playmaking” as if tatum wasn’t an elite playmaker in the last 2 years. it’s like when you made the “most balanced team title” video after they won to try and diminish their star power because the whole starting 5 and similar +/- but you failed to mention that was because tatum or brown were ALWAYS on the court. for someone who has great analysis i always thought it was weird to slight a player who’s top 5 and his partner who’s top 10 (borderline top 5 now) because they had a “superteam” rather than celebrate how much they contribute to their teams. i really don’t think any player would be better for this celtics team than jaylen brown given everything he provides and there will be no better addition than jayson tatum when he returns.
you also, like all the other media, mention losing the stars in porzingis, holiday, and horford when in reality, porzingis was easily a net negative last year and horford and holiday had their worst offensive years of their career and they still won 61 games with brown being injured so much of the year. if tatum and luke kornet were on this team with jaylen brown as healthy as he is now, they are a 70 win team
any media who had this team at a gap year loses all their credibility. brown, white, pritchard, and queta were all capable starters last year and they had so many young shooters and defenders on the bench. doubting mazzulla is the weirdest thing i’ve seen after it was basically universally accepted he was one of the smartest coaches we’ve seen
A free video from you? You must have misclicked
After last year and this year (and 21-22), it's about to get renamed the Lebron Theory
JAYLEN BROWN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BETTER THAN JASON TATUM💯BEEN SAID THIS FOR A WHILE NOW ITS A REASON HE WAS THE FINALS MVP🤩WHEN THE LIGHTS GOT BRIGHTEST BROWN IS THE ONE WHO STEPPED UP🤷🏾♂️
Fascinating video and channel showing in real time what’s happening, why it’s happening and why it works. Difficult consents to explain but with video makes sense. Most insightful on YouTube.
Same thing is happening with the Nuggets and Jamal right now. Narratives that Jokic hinders his teammates are going crazy rn.
I honestly think Joe was almost thankful that Tatum went down. In the time since Joe inherited the team I don't really think there has been any grace period for him to actually fully impose his philosophy on the court. They've somewhat changed how they play in that time, but you can also see how much of that mismatch hunting and your turn my turn offense was still around to haunt them in close games, which was the main show in Udoka's offense like we're seeing right now in Houston. In last year's post season in the first two games against the Knicks, even though they lost there was 2 plays I saw that really impressed me and made me think "Whose fingerprints were on that play?" Turns out it was just Joe letting go of Udoka's philosophy. In game one with about 40 seconds left they ran an extremely tight high screen near the half court line, got the ball in quick to the paint and forced 2 defenders to help inside then kicked it out nicely to D-White for an open three. Then another in game 2 where Tatum just straight ran full court for an easy dunk with a quick give and go action and screen near the half court again. Simple yet precise offense that I would have never thought to see from that team, and now with the freedom of experimentation Joe has fully taken over and shown such a refreshing and renewed style of basketball that I never would have thought could even come from this group of players.
I resent it being called the Ewing theory. Call it the Lebron theory
It’s not a Ewing Theory if the team already won a championship, and the Finals MVP is still on the team
The X's and O's has been one of the factors for this surprise but we could not dismiss the effort from role players like Luka,Hugo,Quetta,Jordan.
JB and JT damn near have the same contract and people are surprised JB is playing better now……no fucking shit Sherlock…. wtf did the Celtics give all that money to him for???? They both should be avg 30 when playing together but nope. Boston needs to get rid of that big ass contract cause once both of them are back on the court together 1 will have higher stats than the other
I am in awe with Joe Mazulla and his coaching staff for crafting this really creative and great offense. Great video by the way! I always love your breakdown in strategy.
I'm glad to see some Celtics analysis.
Everyone knew JB had more potential
Sooooo… Pass the rock, gotcha! Shocking 😂