CelticsBlog film room: Malcolm Brogdon

After progressing by probably the greatest six-month spans in latest NBA historical past, the Boston Celtics are sure that they’ve a championship core. Nonetheless, there’s work to be accomplished to recover from the hump and convey dwelling the Larry O’Brien trophy as soon as once more. Most of that work is available in two areas: internally by the event and enchancment of their finest gamers, and small tweaks across the core that add completely different weapons into the combination.

Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens labored to handle the latter with a number of strikes across the margins that give the Celtics added depth and new items to play with. Simply two years in the past, Malcolm Brogdon was averaging 21 factors, 6 assists and 5.3 rebounds per recreation, taking pictures 38.8% from 3-point vary and was one of many NBA’s best pick-and-roll creators. At solely 29, it’s extremely unlikely that the oft-injured Brogdon is previous his prime.

Photograph by Chris Marion/NBAE through Getty Photographs

In a smaller, extra scalable function, Brogdon is an unbelievable addition to this Celtics group. The hope is that his physique can maintain up for longer components of the season when requested to do much less, and it’s extremely unlikely that Brogdon will play greater than 33 minutes per recreation, as he has been the final two years with the Indiana Pacers.

From a logical standpoint, including Brogdon reinforces the way in which the Celtics need to play: massive at each place with high-IQ ball movers and shooters, in addition to guys who can defend a number of positions. The three-man backcourt combo of Brogdon, Marcus Sensible and Derrick White examine all these containers whereas plugging up the vast majority of the minutes accessible on the guard spots.

Whereas Brogdon has good dimension at 6’5” with a extremely sturdy body, he’s unlikely to make use of it in the identical approach that Sensible does (within the submit). What Brogdon does effectively is bodily get to his spots at a deliberate tempo, not often getting got rid of by contact on his drives. His physique helps him lean into defenders on hostage dribbles, get by a number of defenders on screens, and see excessive of the protection as a passer.

So what does Brogdon deliver to the desk that the Celtics don’t have already got? A extremely sensible, succesful pick-and-roll creation facet that the C’s can simply profit from.

Brogdon’s worth to the second unit (or just occasions when one in every of Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown are resting) is to stabilize offensive creation, each in early clock and late clock conditions. Final 12 months, Brogdon was one of many higher ending level guards within the league, changing on 63.2% of his makes an attempt inside three toes according to Basketball Reference. He’s over 59% on the hoop for his profession, proof of his mixture of dimension, talent and contact.

What we respect most is that Brogdon has nice contact along with his left hand. He handles contact effectively on his drives attributable to his sturdy body, will get to his spots on the basket, and has the flexibility to drift off-hand layups up there precisely.

As a much bigger physique, Brogdon doesn’t create a ton of separation, even in straight traces, from his man one-on-one. On ball display screen switches or attacking downhill towards drop protection, he’s not prone to get a unadorned try on the rim fairly often. As a way to achieve success taking part in that approach, Brogdon must have loads of tips up his sleeve to attain within the lane.

We’ll spotlight two of our favorites right here. First is his propensity to dive into contact of massive males and get himself to the free throw line. Brogdon drives at an outdoor hip of a middle that’s dropping again in direction of the rim. He initiates contact with the hip, then flails outward, getting rewarded with two free throws:

The opposite transfer is his counter to get each contact and a clear have a look at the rim. Brogdon makes use of an incredible pump pretend and step-thru transfer that will get massive males within the air nearly each time:

The trickster that Brogdon has became is simply efficient due to how laborious and bodily he drives. His energy permits him to deal with contact and get to spots, however the urgency with which he tries to strain the rim is what forces defenders to behave rapidly. He isn’t essentially the most athletic however there’s an general sense that he drives actually laborious.

Due to that repute, deceleration traits turn out to be actually vital for Brogdon they usually’re one thing he does very well. When he feels that he can’t get the separation to the rim, he received’t attempt to bully guys over and choose up a ton of offensive fouls. As an alternative, he’ll cease on a dime and hit some robust mid-range pull-up jumpers.

Final 12 months, Brogdon shot 42.9% on mid-range jumpers within the halfcourt, based on Synergy Sports activities Tech, and was a powerful 46.9% in 2020-21. These numbers imply that the shot isn’t only a good one for Brogdon, it’s one for the Celtics: if he can ship upwards of 0.9 factors per shot (shoot above 45% within the mid-range), it’s thought of an analytically-positive possession.

Now that we’ve established Brogdon is admittedly good on the rim and within the mid-range, there’s yet another degree that scorers can attain within the half-court: taking pictures off the dribble from 3-point vary. Brogdon is constant at hurting groups that go beneath picks, that means opponents can not merely cover within the lane and dare him to shoot.

I’ve lengthy believed that impactful pull-up taking pictures goes hand-in-hand with efficient pick-and-roll passing. Guards that shoot it off the bounce power defenders to go excessive of screens. After they dribble off a choose, the defender is momentarily behind them, giving a 5-on-4 sort of benefit that artful guards can exploit. Hostage dribble, snaking the display screen, taking open area and different strategies have turn out to be commonplace within the NBA to use these momentary benefits.

There’s no substitute for a fast decision-maker and correct passer in these moments, although. All these tips are vital, however when relied upon they turn out to be simpler to cease. Brogdon is a well timed passer, each in fast reads and in remaining affected person to see what develops on a play. He follows the rule of thumb to search for the roll first, then could make kickouts to shooters round him:

Final 12 months beneath Rick Carlisle, the Indiana Pacers had a substantial amount of shooters (particularly after the commerce deadline). Buddy Hield, Tyrese Haliburton and Chris Duarte had been all actually impactful taking pictures specialists, and massive males Myles Turner and Jalen Smith may stretch the ground. Brogdon’s skill to juggle completely different actions (like guard-to-guard screens on the wing that Carlisle dialed up a ton) and nonetheless make the fitting learn will slot in effectively with the Celtics. They will run guard-to-guard actions with Tatum and Brown to power switches or get open bounce photographs, and make the most of the ground spacing of taking pictures bigs like Al Horford and Danilo Gallinari within the corners, all of that are acquainted from his time in Indiana.

Most second unit level guards are on the second unit as a result of they’ve some kind of limitation on their recreation. Brogdon is an effective defender, an enormous physique, a gentle and constant 3-point shooter, an efficient finisher, proactive passer, finisher with each fingers… the listing goes on and on. Stevens pulled off a heist by getting the league’s highest-quality backup guard for a reasonably low value. Whatever the harm historical past, this can be a big win for the C’s.