There was a time, earlier this month, when a case could be made—and was being made in some spaces—to have new Celtics coach Ime Udoka consider a group of starters that included forward Aaron Nesmith. A strong Summer League performance that followed a good close to the season had optimisim hig around Nesmith. Starting him, though, would require a small lineup with Jayson Tatum at the power forward spot, something Udoka has been reluctant to do, at least in his starting five (it’s only happened once). Considering that reluctance, it makes sense that Nesmith has not started a game this season.
But it does not make sense that Nesmith has not gotten all that much playing time at all this year. He’s played three games, a total of 27 minutes. He has tried 10 shots, nine of which were 3-pointers. He missed all of his attempts.
It’s been a rough go for Nesmith, in his second season with Boston after being drafted with the No. 14 pick in the 2020 draft. He’s gotten three straight DNP-CDs and his frigid shooting appears to have left him square in the depths of Udoka’s doghouse. That, really, is not fair and could wind up costing the Celtics in the long-term as they try to fight out of this early-season stumble that has the team at 2-4.
Nesmith, his early brickfest notwithstanding, is arguably Boston’s best shooter. It was the reason the Celtics used their lottery pick to pluck him out of Vanderbilt, ahead of the likes of Saddiq Bey, Tyrese Maxey and Isaiah Stewart, who were all on Boston’s radar. In a season-and-a-half with the Commodores, Nesmith shot 41.0% from the 3-point line and coach Jerry Stackhouse said of him, “A lot of our plays are designed to get him threes because he’s one of the best shooters I’ve seen at this level.”
If one thing about the Celtics was crystallized over the past weekend, it was that they are not a great 3-point shooting team. They missed their first 20 shots from the arc in a double-overtime loss to the Wizards, and went 2-for-26 on 3s for the game. That kind of night six games into the season is going to skew any team’s numbers, but the Celtics are shooting just 32.1% from deep, which is 23rd in the NBA. They were at only 35.0% before Saturday’s struggles, down from the 37.4% they shot last year.
Nesmith Is Arguably The Celtics’ Best Shooter
There’s no more readily available option to address the Celtics’ woes than Nesmith. He has excellent shooting mechanics and is sure to bounce back from his slow start if given a chance to play. That’s how it played out for Nesmith and coach Brad Stevens last year, when Nesmith played only 16 games in the first two months of the season and shot 32.6% from the 3-point line, but closed with 30 strong games as a shooter, making 40.0% of his 3s in that stretch.
The Celtics’ shooting has been most dinged by the way stars Tatum (27.3%) and Jaylen Brown (32.4%) have started from the arc, and Nesmith is not necessarily going to fix that. But he is a threat as a 3-point shooter, which will create space for Tatum and Brown while he is on the floor with him. And Nesmith needs to make the dirty-work plays that most support the team’s stars. Before the season got underway, Nesmith showed a keen understanding of that.
“I focus on my role, and I’ll continue to work on my role,” Nesmith said. “Whatever the team needs me to do, and that’s making plays off the ball, being a hustler, diving for loose balls, getting offensive rebounds, the defensive side—just doing all the little things that help win games and don’t necessarily flash on the stat sheet.”
Nesmith has the ability to do that. And he has the ability to make 3s, probably more than anyone else on the roster. He just needs some playing time to do it.
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November 01, 2021 at 12:52AM
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Boston Celtics’ 3-Point Woes Have An Easy Solution: Aaron Nesmith - Forbes
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