Nesmith airs out his game
Hopes to get back on track after COVID-19
Sometimes all it takes is some steady playing time to rediscover a flow, which is exactly what happened to Aaron Nesmith when he joined the Maine Celtics for their 117-89 win over the Wisconsin Herd Sunday night.
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
By Monday morning the second-year wing was back with the parent team, settling in for his back-of-therotation role against Indiana. And after shooting 9for-16 on his way to 21 points, and playing 31 minutes, Nesmith once again had a sense of himself.
“Just being able to go out there and play freely and just kind of get back into a rhythm a little bit, it’s always fun and always a good experience,” he said. “It’s just fun to play the game of basketball no matter where it is. … So I said I’ll go, go play, have fun. And win another basketball game.”
But there was also the matter of getting his game back on track. Nesmith’s recent time in health and safety protocol couldn’t have come at a worse time. With 14 different Celtics going in and out of quarantine this season, Nesmith would normally have had a prime chance at playing time.
As such, prior to Saturday’s six-minute appearance against the Knicks, Nesmith had missed seven straight games. Before that, his 3-point shooting had dropped to 23.4 percent — a rough number for anyone, let alone someone whose shooting was the reason for his status as the 14th pick in the 2020 draft.
“Oh yeah, it’s frustrating. My shot is not where it’s supposed to be or where I want it to be,” he said. “And I need to find my consistency with that and I need to get back to doing what I’ve been doing regarding that. But, besides that, just continuing to make the most of opportunities on the defensive side of the floor, even if my shot’s not falling make sure I can still make an impact without making jumpers.
“I’m just not making a high percentage that I know I’m capable of making it and I should be making it at. So that’s on me,” said Nesmith. “I definitely get better with that as the season goes on. And, like I said, I’ll just continue to make impacts in other ways around the game.”
Coach Ime Udoka, who knows a lot about the opportunity a G-League stint can offer an end-of-the-rotation player, is glad Nesmith got an extended run.
“It’s huge. I think any opportunity we can get for guys to go down there, whether it’s practices or a block of games, is needed,” he said. “Obviously with the situation with us this year, guys in and out, we haven’t been able to map out that time. But looked at it as a good opportunity with him coming back to get some minutes there and get some live action, nothing like he can do at practice three-onthree to emulate that. So it was good to see him get down there, play a good amount of minutes and play well.”
The COVID-19 factor
There may be no substitute for playing, but Nesmith did what he could to remain in shape during his short time in quarantine.
“Definitely a setback a little bit,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do much, wasn’t able to get much cardio in. So when I was allowed some gym time on my own, I’d just come in and do a bunch of running to be honest. So when I got back, I wasn’t too far out of shape.”
Managing the bench
Like Nesmith, the other players at the end of the rotation, or the end of the bench, haven’t had much chance to improve or build a flow, especially with the general lack of full practices.
“Do the work, the one-onone, the individual work that they always do, as much as we could when we had the protocols stuff we couldn’t get guys out there to play as much, coaches as well, so that hampered that a little bit,” said Udoka. “But the main thing is really try to get the work in they get, and as I mentioned we started doing the one-onone individual film sessions and group sessions as well. So as much game action as they could see, sit down and talk to those guys one-onone. But there’s no substitute for him getting out there playing or guys even having that practice time.”