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Keith Bogans seems to have an explanation as to why Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries, among others, struggled last season for the Brooklyn Nets. Simply put, they played too much one-on-one basketball.
Bogans explained, "I think a lot of people don’t realize that we played a lot of iso, one-on-one basketball," Bogans said Monday at a press conference to introduce new Celtics. "Some guys were left out. I mean, if you’re style of play didn’t fit what they were doing then your game would fall off. And everybody didn’t fit the style of one-on-one basketball that we played last year, especially Kris and Gerald, the way they play, they’re hustle players."
The newest Celtic's comments is the just latest criticism of the coaching style of Avery Johnson and P.J. Carlesimo. The Nets' new coach, Jason Kidd, has vowed an end to iso's in the team's new offense.
Danny Ainge said he feels the same way about Wallace, who he owes $30 million, and Humphries, who he owes $12 million.
"They had a deep team, the ball’s in Joe Johnson, (Brook) Lopez’s and Deron Williams’ hands a lot. A lot of times numbers are deceiving that way, and despite numbers going down, opportunities are definitely going down when you are surrounded by guys who have the ball as much as those three guys do," said the Celtics GM.
"I certainly know that Humphries hasn’t dropped as a player," he said. "At 28 years old and you’re as fit as he is… you don’t become a worse player. So we don’t really look at the numbers that way."
Ainge also denied he was trying to move either player. The comments appeared in the Springfield Republican, which has connections to both the Celtics and Nets, because it's close to Boston and hosts the Nets' D-League team, the Armor.