The Boston Celtics Need Brandon Bass to be More Effective

By Eric St. Cyr
Brandon Bass Boston Celtics
Howard Smith- USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics continue to put together an amazing second half of an eventful and constantly in transit sort of season. They are pulling out big wins and moving along at a rate that’s making them look a little more like a team that’s capable of putting together a deep playoff run. The Celtics are playing with a rotation that’s about eight to nine guys deep so contributions are pretty much necessary across the board. There’s been a lot of new faces that have carved out some nice roles for themselves and gained the trust of Doc Rivers, however one of those lacking in progression unfortunately seems to be undersized power forward Brandon Bass.

Some would possibly make the argument that Bass simply overachieved last season when the Celtics caught fire after he and Avery Bradley were inserted into the starting lineup. Others would make a case for Bass really benefiting from having a solid ball-handler and a crisp play-maker such as Rajon Rondo to play alongside as they do indeed compliment each-others games. The issues with Bass this year could surely be a combo of all of these aspects mashed together.

Effort is never a question with Bass. His numbers look semi-atrocious in comparison to last season, although there’s no question that it’s a matter of him not being able to re-carve out his role in this system, certainly not effort. It seems that the more Bass struggles, the more he tries to do, which isn’t always a good thing.

Last night in the Celtics’ impressive road win over the Indiana Pacers, Bass was held to just 19 minutes of play, while Rivers gave the majority of the minutes to Jeff Green who is certainly chomping on the heels of Bass to take his starting spot, although that isn’t necessarily of much importance on a team that plays with this short of a rotation.

Bass knows the system, he knows what his game is, so why’s he trying to suddenly change into some lane-driving up hero? The Celtics need Bass to just come into work and do his job which is playing above average individual defense, shooting consistent jumpers from the elbow, and pounding the offensive glass whenever possible. Having Bass holding onto the ball and trying to create in isolation type of situations is certainly not what he needs to be doing and it’s hindering a Celtics offense that doesn’t need to be held back anymore than they already are.

It appears he is coming around slowly, but the Celtics are in the midst of a dogfight for better position in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics are in dire need of solid contributions from Bass. He will need to turn it around soon or this season could end up being a huge step backwards for Bass.

 

Eric St. Cyr Covers the Boston Celtics for Rant Sports. Follow Him on Twitter @ericJsaint

Share On FacebookShare StumbleUpon

You May Also Like