Boston Celtics: Diving deeper into Carsen Edwards

Isolation

The word no Boston Celtics fan wants to hear after Kyrie Irving‘s ill-fated end to the season. While isolation plays have reduced in the era of pace-and-space basketball, they still have their place within a successful offense.

Having a player who can “just get you a bucket” is a valuable commodity within the league. If that player can also use the iso to draw in a defense to create plays for others, they have a role on most NBA rosters.

This is where Carsen Edwards has thrived in college, using his raw athleticism to put defenders in a blender. He will also flash a good shot selection and impressive basketball IQ in these situations, which correlate to his statistics within this category.

With 128 isolation possessions Edwards managed to score 127 points, hitting on 37 attempts from a total of 87 shots. This gives him a  42.5 percent field goal percentage which was good enough to rank him in the 89th percentile of all qualifying players in college last year.

Worryingly his turnovers were still a problem, with 13 from 128 possessions this gives him a 10.5 percent turnover percentage.

Interestingly, Edwards was able to draw as many shooting fouls as he committed turnovers — 13 — again giving him a 10.5 percent shooting foul percentage.

We need to dive deeper here, as this is his most effective skill heading into the NBA season, one which could define how much he sees the court.

Not only is Edwards a formidable force in the isolation, he can drive either side at will — something which fans have been calling for Jaylen Brown to develop for years now.

Driving right on 24 possessions and dropping 32 points, drawing four shooting fouls, Edwards ranked in the 69th percentile. A further 35 drives on the left resulted in 38 points and two shooting fouls, with a single turnover — this seems to be where he is most comfortable.

Driving baseline from the left side is the go-to option for Edwards when available, and he does so at an elite level. He sunk 56.3 percent of his shots when driving baseline and ranked in the 97th percentile.

But nothing is perfect, if the defense committed on any of his isolation plays, his efficiency dropped dramatically.

His 128 isolation possessions were met predominantly with man-to-man defense, which suited Edwards, but the 22 times the defense committed he could only muster five points.

Furthermore, he turned the ball over 40 percent of time — a big red flag at the next level; you cannot panic in those situations.