Have the Boston Celtics ushered in a new era of “tall ball” as a response to years of small ball being the NBA’s dominant paradigm? After slogging through unskilled pairings of twin bigs the Celtics deployed in recent seasons out of sheer necessity, they stumbled upon an incredibly effective iteration built around playing center Robert Williams III and Al Horford together.
It created a league-leading defense that other teams like the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Minnesota Timberwolves emulated, perhaps signaling yet a new direction for the league. “With everything else even, bigger is certainly better than smaller,” related broadcaster and former coach Stan Van Gundy in a recent article by CBS Sports’ James Herbert.
“In Van Gundy’s view, the success of the Celtics, who had the best defense in the NBA last season and the No. 2 offense from January onward, has a lot to do with the league trending taller,” writes Herbert, noting Van Gundy is even predicting a return to post play in the league as a result.
“The Celtics had a chance to secure Williams’ future on a long-term extension this offseason, but they couldn’t make the numbers work,” writes Bleacher Report. https://t.co/p3fcXHDAEs
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 3, 2022
It’s certainly possible, but if it does happen, it will require the sort of skilled big men Boston brought on with their reunion with Horford — ask any Celtics fan how poorly more traditional bruisers in the post with little ability to shoot the ball or pass it can go
“Ideally as a team you want to have a lot of versatility and flexibility to be able to play lineups situationally,” shared Van Gundy, which sounds very much like something else Boston has developed in the course of the last year.
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