Celtics’ Leap Calls Back to Start of Dubs’ Dynasty

First-year coaches unlocked each club’s offense.

One of the first things that comes to mind for me when thinking about this solid, stylistically fascinating Finals matchup is the coaches. More specifically, first-year coach Ime Udoka and the Celtics seem to be largely following the footsteps of Steve Kerr and the 2014–15 Warriors, who won the NBA title in Kerr’s first season at the helm.

Like most of the coaches who made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs, Kerr and Udoka played for—and, at one point or another, coached under—Gregg Popovich, who now stands as the winningest coach in league history. Their time with Popovich presumably instilled the overarching importance of good, selfless ball movement within a team’s offense.

For Kerr, that meant preaching the importance of passing the ball more and perpetual movement—even if it wasn’t stemming from the basic pick-and-roll that so many teams use from one play to the next. The Klay post-ups that had been such a staple under Mark Jackson quickly faded in Kerr’s offense, which saw the Dubs jump from last, with 243.8 passes per game in 2013-14, to ninth in the association, with 306.6 passes per night the following year.

The concept, which began with a charcuterie board at Oakland International Airport, believe it or not, was the start of building something beautiful. It gave the Warriors’ storybook-level shooters a sort of backyard basketball mentality to utilize. It’s a style so unscripted that opposing defenses have no idea what to do most times: jump out to the perimeter and stay with Stephen Curry at all costs, or stay with a roller like Kevon Looney, who ends up being just as big a threat as the star when he gets left wide open in the lane. Jordan Poole’s presence certainly doesn’t make the scenario any more of a cakewalk defensively, either.

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Just like the Warriors saw a boost in ball movement with Kerr (they led the NBA in assist percentage that year), the Celtics saw a sizable jump in their offense, too, after Udoka implored them to be better about sharing the rock about midway through the season. He didn’t necessarily get the message across in the softest way, either. Udoka has often been public with his critiques—particularly after Boston has blown big leads, then lost the contests—generating mini firestorms in the media. The team wasn’t used to that sort of blunt honesty. Yet Udoka believes the straight talk, paired with hours of one-on-one film work, has generated a new level of accountability among his players, especially Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who’ve moved the ball with more of an urgency instead of constantly trying to score it themselves.

The result: Brown and Tatum increased their assist percentages from 14.4% and 18.3%, respectively, before the All-Star break to 20.2% and 23.8% after the exhibition. (Tatum throws a couple of passes now every game that leave you in awe.) Similarly, the club’s assist rate was at 57.9% (20th in the NBA) before the New Year and increased to 63.1% (eighth in the league) after the All-Star break. The Celtics’ offensive rating before the All-Star contest was a measly 110.3 points per 100 possessions—18th-best in the league—but evolved and expanded to a whopping 122.6 points per 100 possessions since the All-Star break.

Of course there are a handful of spots you can poke holes in the Kerr-Udoka comparison if you wish.

• Golden State won 67 games and was elite throughout that entire 2014–15 campaign, whereas Boston turned up the heat most after the All-Star break this season, illustrating a 2015 Dubs-style dominance by bludgeoning opponents by 12.7 points per 100 possessions—more than five points better than the next-closest club.

• Heading into Kerr’s first year as coach, the Warriors were already coming off a season in which the defense had shown itself to be top-notch, whereas these Celtics were 13th, merely league average or so before unloading Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier, bringing back Al Horford and pumping Robert Williams’s minutes consistently.

• For how incredible someone like Derrick White has been this year for Boston, there certainly hasn’t been a revelation in the team’s rotation that even comes close to Kerr and the Warriors uncovering Draymond Green’s perfect fit in the starting lineup following the injury that forced David Lee to miss the first couple of months that season.

And of course Kerr now has his team in the title round for the sixth time in eight years—a fact that some will likely lean on when picking Golden State, which has an unquestionable edge in experience. Still, make no mistake about it: Kerr and Udoka’s decisions to tweak, call out and alter plans for young, on-the-rise teams says a ton about the men and the fact that they aren’t afraid of shaking things up if it means winning big. (Kerr, you may remember, also challenged Curry to be more committed on defense during his first year as Golden State’s coach.)

“Where I come from and who I was as a player—team basketball and San Antonio—is kind of the epitome of selflessness,” Udoka told The Athletic’s Sam Amick earlier in the year. “So that part of me is a no-brainer, and I think that’s part of the reason Brad [Stevens] hired me: because that’s what I thought. We thought the same way. But also I could actually implement it and hold guys accountable, and it’s natural for me where it’s uncomfortable for some others—even if it seems like it’s harsh at times.”

Meat and potatoes: Good reads from SI this past week

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• Michael Pina wrote an incredible Daily Cover piece on Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, and how the 2021–22 season showcased Spo at his very best. He also spoke with Boston’s Grant Williams about what makes a great role player.

• Chris Mannix wrote on the back end of the Celtics-Heat series, tackling the will of Jimmy Butler after a showstopping Game 6 performance and then laying out the improbable nature of this Celtics season after their Game 7 victory.

• I wrote a short piece on what comes next for the recently vanquished Mavericks, who have a lot of reason for optimism. But they also have a test in finding ways to improve a roster that would seem to desperately need to lock up its second-best player (who will become far more expensive), while also bolstering the team’s center position without having cap space available to do so at the moment.

• Howard Beck, on a roll lately with fun features, dug deep on “1-2-3, Cancun!” chronicles and where the saying stems from. He also sat down for a one-on-one with Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, who batted around several topics, including his continued love of baseball, and his friendship and rivalry with Kobe.

• Rohan Nadkarni dove deep on Klay Thompson’s full-circle moment, then tackled the controversial three-point shot Butler launched in the closing moments of Game 7. It’s easy to lay out why he shouldn’t have taken the look he had. But Rohan examines why he might have been right to.

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