Robb: Isaiah Thomas Off To An 'Unbelievable' Start While Adjusting To New Offensive Strategy
WALTHAM (CBS) -- During the second half of the 2014-15 season, the Celtics' offense became one of the team's biggest weapons. New addition Isaiah Thomas was the catalyst, surrounded by a number of capable new pieces, including Jonas Jerebko and Jae Crowder on the perimeter.
Thomas worked magic in the pace-and-space system, creating countless opportunities for himself and his teammates, and helped Boston jump back into the postseason picture.
Facing off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first-round of the playoffs, Thomas and the rest of Boston's offense came back to earth in a hurry. After averaging over 101 points per game during the regular season, Boston managed just 94.8 per game in four games against the Cavs. The drop in shooting percentages was even more dramatic, with Boston going just 42 percent from the field and a meager 25 percent from beyond the arc.
A large part of that decline can be attributed to the Cavs' scheme in defending Thomas, according to Jae Crowder.
"We came to a point last year where Cleveland took away his pick-and-roll and trapped him every time," Crowder explained. "So it made us adjust. I've talked to him about it, and our way of adjusting is him trying to find other guys and trying to make a play for him – not necessarily [him] making a play for us each and every time. So we're just trying to pick up where we left off last year with Cleveland making us adjust."
Thomas has adjusted to the new strategy quite well in the opening few days of training camp. His focus on passing has translated into a better offense for the Celtics in the eyes of Brad Stevens.
"Isaiah is last on our team in field goal attempts through the four days of practice that we've [tracked]," Stevens said. "And has completely been unbelievable on offense, which tells you all that he's doing for everybody else. He's playing very unselfishly. He's making the right read regardless of situation and he's not forcing anything. He really played great point guard on offense the whole time."
Stevens has not directly requested the transition to primary distributor by Thomas. However, he has looked for the shifty guard to have more of an overall recognition of where everyone is in the offense. A full training camp and familiarity with teammates has appeared to help the fifth-year veteran on that front.
"The thing that I've asked out of him is the same that you'd ask out of anybody," Stevens continued. "If there's a basketball play that's happening, the game is going to tell you what to do and you've got to make the reads. We spent a lot more time this year, even the first four practices, on reading and reacting off of each other -- more of in a constant movement, somewhat random yet organized manner, so you know where people are going to be, but it's not going to be exact time and again. And you just have to make basketball reads.
"Sometimes they are going to be backed up off of him and he's going to be able to score; sometimes he's going to be able to blow by them and get to the rim and make shots; sometimes he's going to have to make the right read for the other guy. What happened the other night was, he got a couple of his shots in transition, but he started the game by finding spaces because everybody was pulled in. They ended the game by Amir Johnson laying the ball in, because everybody was extended out because the spacers had already made shots. That's kind of the way the team works, his task will be continuing to make the right reads."
Thomas has been keeping up his part so far, so it's just up to his teammates now to take care of business on their end.
"You definitely want to space and give him opportunities to drive," Kelly Olynyk said of Thomas. "If you can pull your defender away from the basket, that helps him immensely. Guys are going to have longer closeouts and tag farther. That helps him out."
With improved offensive weapons in place and a full training camp to incorporate all the pieces, Thomas looks ready to ensure the Celtics' offense gets back on track after being derailed against the Cavs last postseason.
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.
