A return to the defensive top?
Though they were better late, the Celtics finished 18th with a 106.4 defensive rating last season, after sinking as low as 28th. No team with Marcus Smart should ever defend that badly, but that’s where the Celtics are until they start stopping people this season. Perhaps not coincidentally, Smart didn’t make an All-Defensive team one year after earning his first first-team honors.
This, before anything else, has to change. That’s where Udoka comes in with his switching coverage, buoyed this time by some truly versatile defenders like Horford, Richardson and Schroder in addition to the likes of Smart, Tatum and Brown — all three capable of more.
But if Rob Williams can stay healthy, he makes all the difference, as Udoka has often noted.
“It’s improved overall throughout the preseason,” said Udoka. “Guys being out has kind of halted some of the progress as far as that, but we’ve implemented some other things as well. Last few days we’ve added to the repertoire defensively, have a few different options to go at, but that’s something we really want to get good at. We’ve seen that progression throughout the preseason. It’s not natural for everybody reverse-engineering it as far as doing the switching on and off ball — it’s not something they’re all accustomed to, and we want to hammer that home first before getting back to more traditional coverages. We got a lot of work in, saw some improvement, but also saw some slippage in areas and have to work on those areas the last few days of practice.”