Such terrible news.

The CLE and BOS teams we played last year were markedly different than the ones we played this week, so I don’t think these wins back up anything. Put differently, I am not the least bit confident that we would have beaten either of last years versions of those teams had we shot the way we did in either of these games.

The future games will be more interesting.

I disagree. Boston is a pretty shitty team right now, at best a play-in team. Their starters are so-so (Queta, Hauser, and to a lesser degree, Prichard, are not really starter material) and their bench absolutely sucks. I seriously doubt that Thibs would have lost that game if he were still coaching. More importantly, we didn’t win the game because Brown “let good shooters shoot a lot.” KAT took 6 3’s…he took 6 or more 20 times last year and averaged nearly 5. Brunson took 7 3’s…he averaged 6.1 last year. The rest of the team shot 10-32 from 3.

We won the game because a) we played excellent defense, b) we killed the Celts on the boards, and c) Brunson and KAT did their thing. All three of those things would likely have happened under Thibs.

I would argue that it’s game 1 that was more likely to fall into the category of “games we might have lost last year.” Mikal is clearly playing more freely and effectively, and by playing 11 guys, and some of them who might not have been given a chance last year (Shamet, Kolek, Huk, Jemison) giving us very positive stints, Brunson and KAT had something left in the 4th after struggling all game. But even so, given the injury situation, I would have liked our chances with Thibs coaching…just not necessarily the way he would go about it.

Kolek was different for me. Besides being older, he did not shoot particularly well in G-league, and it seemed to me that he could not get his “extension” shots in the paint over NBA length, i.e. the same shots that worked for Brunson were getting blocked, even by relatively small defenders. However, I did hedge by saying that he deserved every chance to stick because he has elite PG skills, and that the path to being a rotation player was for him to emulate John Stockton’s game, meaning he had to play extremely physical and borderline dirty.

It seems like the shot is coming around, and that he’s benefitting by having better players around him, giving him more space to operate.

I don’t think he’s out of the woods yet. Nobody is game-planning for him at this point, but if he sticks in the rotation, that will change. Teams will make adjustments and then it will become a matter of whether he can adjust back. But he seems to have cleared the first hurdle.

My only strong takeaways were:

1) Clarkson looks physically able to positively contribute, which is a different thing than saying he definitely will do that

2) There is at least a chance it was our first “would’ve lost last year” win of the season—amazing what letting good shooters shoot a lot will do

3) I wrote off Deuce too early and was wrong, and hope to say the same about Kolek soon

I don’t think it’s accurate to compare him with TJ McConnell in terms of playing style, as there are substantive differences…TJ seems a bit smaller, a bit quicker, more herky-jerky, has more of a broken jumper (his career 3PAr is .107, and even lower in his last two seasons)…whereas Tyler seems like a better shooter and passer, but has a ways to go to catch up on D (TJ is very good for his size!)

It seems like the thing that McConnell has done to cement his role as a quality backup is developing a small set of go-to moves in the paint. He takes 60% of his shots inside of 10 ft and makes enough of them to give opposing defenses fits, because even though his eFG% is nothing to write home about, he’s also generating points on assists and in transition off of rebounds and steals (averages 5 rebounds and 2 steals per 36.) Combine that with a 3+/1 AST/TOV ratio and you have a very effective backup and cromulent emergency starter.

The main thing is that Kolek has to play borderline dirty on defense, like McConnell does (and again, all diminutive PGs who are plus players on D.) It’s taxing to play that way, and the jury is out on whether Kolek can physically hold up in a rotation role where he’s sacrificing his body night after night. But he’s doing all the right things so far on both ends…predictably making mistakes but definitely holding his own enough to keep rolling him out there.

Playing against Davion Mitchell should be a good test for him.