[HIGHLIGHTS] Hawks are trying to hunt Sam Hauser, but the Celtics have been doing great job at re-switching. And even if they do go at him, he’s doing just fine:
Hawks are trying to hunt Sam Hauser, but the Celtics have been doing great job at re-switching. And even if they do go at him, he's doing just fine: pic.twitter.com/WfovVVgzHb
— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) April 19, 2023
by Timi093
18 Comments
Our help defense is insane! My favorite parts of these is Smart closing driving lanes and making Trae have to think. Just good defensive positioning
Trying to hunt Hauser is a serious trap. Sure he’s not some super athlete but he’s 6’8 in shoes and he’s still laterally quick enough to hold up in isolation enough to allow for our help and rotations to take care of the rest.
In a vacuum I don’t think he’s actually a good defender for his position, *but* the amount of time it takes to get the switch (if we even give it up) running down the shot clock + his ability to stay in front of guys makes hunting him incredibly inefficient.
They broke away from their gameplan once he got subbed in last night. Helped change the game.
Sam’s hands be up and Sam’s feet be moving
I don’t think hunting Hauser really works but we’ll see
The fact that he’s hanging with Trae, who is one of the shiftier players, is impressive and just reinforces that he is an easy plug and play bench wing behind the Jays.
The guy is 215lbs at 6’7″. He’s not exactly small. While he doesn’t have Kawhi Leonard wingspan he’s the same height and is about 10lbs lighter. Hauser’s footwork is completely underrated and overlooked. I personally think he’s targeted on defense just for the mere fact he’s white. Hauser is an elite defender in this system. In any other system on any other team they’re leaving him on an island setting him up for failure. Teams are paying for this mistake. I for one love it!
He defended very well last night. A noticeable improvement.
Surprised this isn’t something NBA teams have caught on to yet. Like there’s a seasons worth of film on this offense not working yet they still try.
If teams want to hunt Hauser then go for it. They might be surprised with the results and hopefully they have a better plan for the other 30 minutes of the game.
I think Sam Hauser has made leaps in his defensive abilities, I agree with most comments already that he may not be the most athletic but seeing him in the playoffs makes me feel he in some ways replacing Grant as a 3 and D guy.
>Iso plays on a 6-7 wing that’s around average defensively maybe a bit below
Yeah that’s not worth shit. We aren’t doubling so you are just playing mid-2000s offense and settling for a contested middy.
I’ll take that any day.
I like Hauser too, but I wouldn’t make too much of his individual skills. If you watch this video, the Celtics help defenders are quite out of position in help (at least the ones where Young is the ball handler). They do a great job of digging, and their rotations are awesome. Atlanta lacks the personnel to create enough spacing for Young to cook Hauser one on one, but honestly they don’t have many better options against the Celtics. Hauser looks OK in those switches because he’s surrounded by great defenders. When it’s Hunter isolating on Hauser, I will take that all day long. Hunter is a bad offensive player – period, end of sentence. I like Sam. He is smart and knows where to be and how to use his help. This is all he needs to do to get on the court in this series, but there are definitely other series match-ups where it won’t be so easy and you likely will see very little of Hauser.
The best part of this to me is how the commentators kept mentioning how he isn’t known for Defense/ isn’t a good defender/etc. and then he plays great D and they miss a shot or whatever. Hilarious. Keep hunting Sam, please
I think the reason hunting Hauser is such a bad idea is that NBA offenses have become super efficient because of *ball movement and team play*, not because the individual players have gotten better at one-on-one. If you take a team out of their offensive flow, that’s a win almost regardless of who that team is trying to pick on one-on-one. The Celtics’ D is particularly effective because it can switch everything, meaning it tends to force opposing offenses into sub-optimal iso ball.
People really have to see past the fact that this guy is a goofy looking white guy and realize that he is a plus defender. Dude finished in the best defensive rating in basketball. I don’t think he is all-defense or anything like that but he is big and strong and has quick feet and plays good positioning.
It was a pretty lame and uncreative offensive plan from the Hawks, they have the offensive firepower to win a couple games but unless they figure out a better game plan they’ll get swept
Sam has been playing decent D for awhile now. So keep blowing up your offensive rhythm we want a sweep.