Yes, the play of Tatum and Brown ultimately dictates how the season will go.
How they integrate Porzingis and how effective he is playing high pressure basketball matters.
But for this entire thing to work, the guard play has to be up to par.
Last year was a perfect example of that in my opinion.
When the Smart/White/Brogdon trio played well, it took everything up a level.
When they struggled, it didn’t really matter what the Jays did.
Essentially, you’re the brain of the entire operation.
He finished the year with 46/38% splits, which was arguably the best shooting season of his career.
There was no hesitation.
The question now becomes, how will that look?
The encouraging thing is we do have a little bit of a sample of what this looks like.
It’s also interesting when you see the numbers behind what we watched.
To put it simply, that’s more than good enough.
Especially now that they also get to add in the offense of Porzingis.
That’s the good news.
That’s not all either.
He’s not going to take the same level of risk with the ball.
Since coming to Boston, White has had a TO% under 11%.
This is important to me for a few reasons.
For starters, it means fewer empty trips on offense.
Nothing worse than not even giving your team a chance if you aren’t getting shots up.
But let’s not overlook what this also means defensively as well.
Fewer turnovers mean fewer transition opportunities which means you become harder to score on.
For a team that wants to get back to a defensive identity, limiting easy buckets is pretty important.
Defensively, we know what we’re getting with White.
That shit is real.
That leaves Pritchard (a question mark to stay) and JD Davison.
With no real replacement on the roster, that’s something to keep an eye on.
Of course, it’s not all positive.
Last year he sort of had to step up as the #3 option in terms of offense/shooting.
Heading into another title or bust season, there’s certainly pressure on everyone.
But don’t sleep on the guards.
I can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.
