When asked about Luke Kornet in his postgame press conference after the Celtics walloped the Pistons on Thursday night, Joe Mazzulla praised his versatility. “He can play by himself, he can play with KP, he can play with Al,” Mazzulla said. “When those different lineups are out there, we take advantage of his defensive versatility. He does a great job at playing off the other guys on the offensive end, kind of saw that with his screening, his cutting, his passing and his offensive rebounding.”
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Positionless basketball is something that comes up a lot in basketball circles. Think of Draymond Green at center for the Warriors. They were able to do that because his defensive versatility allowed Golden State to play smaller lineups and have more shooting on the court.
However, the Celtics should use their versatility to play bigger.
Over the last two seasons, Luke Kornet and Kristaps Porzingis have played 96 minutes. They have been dominant in that small sample size, scoring 131.6 points per 100 possessions and giving up 105.6 points per 100 possessions.
Having two high IQ 7-footers who can pass and cut at a high level on the floor at the same time can create good results.
Thursday’s win against the Pistons was a great example of this.
The cut by Kornet is what gets Jaden Ivey to collapse off of Derrick White in the corner. A pass by Kristaps to Kornet who quickly throws it to White in the corner results in three points for the Celtics.
“Celtics basketball,” as NBC Sports Boston’s Drew Carter said.
You would think that it is the offense that is hurt by this lineup, and with a bigger sample size, it could be, but with the shooting that the Celtics have and the spacing that both players can create, I don’t think it would.
The defense, and rim protection more specifically, is elite with these guys sharing the court.
Kornet runs Simone Fontecchio off the three-point line and has the help of Porzingis behind him to protect the rim. Instead of doing the ‘Kornet Kontest,’ (no matter how many times Scal tells us it is effective, I won't believe him), having KP behind him allowed Luke to run out and prevent a three-point attempt by Fontecchio, a career 37% three-point shooter.
On this play, Jaden Ivey’s layup attempt is affected by Kornet’s length at the rim, forcing him to take a different angle. If Porzingis is not out there, this is likely a dump off pass to Isaiah Stewart on the roll. Instead, Porzingis’ presence forces Ivey to put up a tough layup, which he badly missed.
I am not really sure what Ausar Thompson thought was going to happen on this play. He is trying to get his own highlight by dunking on both 7-footers but that was not going to happen.
Having Kornet and Porzingis on the floor makes the Celtics defense impenetrable at the rim and I hope Joe Mazzulla decided to use this pairing more this season.
