Welcome to Boston, Dalano Banton!

[zoyathedestroya]

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[Andrew McCeltic]

His shot looks... good? It's slow, but if he's rebuilding his shooting form it should get faster with repetition. Even 33% taking only wide open threes is better than nothing.

[shackles10]

Gotta imagine the finger injury doesn’t help his shooting either. If he’s a cutter, running the break, and getting offensive rebounds I think he’ll be good enough to just shoot wide open 3’s.

[Hal14]

His shot looks... good? It's slow, but if he's rebuilding his shooting form it should get faster with repetition. Even 33% taking only wide open threes is better than nothing.

His mechanics are solid. Like you said, the release is a little slow. But the main thing I see is that his touch isn't great - needs to develop softer touch, if possible. Most of his missed jumpers really clank hard off the rim.

And like Shackles mentioned - perhaps some of the issues with his touch that we saw in SL were because of the finger injury. Also, he only played in 2 SL games. Tough to draw too much conclusions from such a small sample.

There's definitely some potential here - look forward to seeing how he looks in training camp/preseason. He might look better with a full training camp with our guys and our full coaching staff - and when he's out there playing with better players (Tatum, Brown, etc.)

[sam_I_am]

The best I can say is that if the team had to play him because of load management, there is a chance he has enough size and athleticism and ball handling skill to get by. He could possibly could be carried offensively by the other 4 guys the way Wannamaker used to be for 10 minutes or so. Could do worse with a player 12-15 on the roster.

[zoyathedestroya]

Officially official.

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[Hal14]

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[Smart2Nesmith43]

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The way a player goes about his business when the game is already decided tells you a lot about the kind of competitor he is. Love to see a guy play hard to the final whistle regardless of the score.

I remember watching a documentary about the Bad Boy Pistons and the GM of the team talked about playing against a crappy Cleveland team and being impressed by their backup center that kept battling everybody even down 40 so he traded for that guy later in the season. That player was a 24 years old dude playing 18 minutes per night on a team that would finish 15-67. His name: Bill Laimbeer.

Now to be clear, I'm not expecting Banton to have that kind of career. I'm just saying that if what he showed in that clip is the kind of competitiveness that he displays on a daily basis there's no telling how far he might go.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[31to6]

The best I can say is that if the team had to play him because of load management, there is a chance he has enough size and athleticism and ball handling skill to get by. He could possibly could be carried offensively by the other 4 guys the way Wannamaker used to be for 10 minutes or so. Could do worse with a player 12-15 on the roster.

Here’s hoping — Wanamaker was solid for us

[GoCeltics123]

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[31to6]

Good contract for the Cs, though ideally they would’ve signed someone they actually want to give money to — but he could possibly outperform this.

[Hal14]

Some context behind Banton's shooting. If you look at Banton's game log for last season, clearly he was in Nurse's dog house. I've seen lots of Raptors fans say they thought Nurse should've played Banton more.

Something doesn't add up..just literally stopped playing him from like middle of december on for the rest of the season.

Since the playing time was so sporadic, I looked closer at his game log from last season and found something interesting:

In 8 games where he played 12+ mins: 10/27 from 3 (37%) on 3.4 attempts per game
In the 23 games where he played under 12 mins: 5/24 from 3 (21%) on 1 attempt per game

*There was also a game vs Miami where he got pretty good playing time. He had 3 threes that rimmed out on him that game - 1 bounced off the back rim softly and out - the other 2 shots went halfway down the basket and then popped out. His mechanics were clean on all 3 shots. If just of those shots went in, that 37% number above would have jumped to 41%.

Logic tells us that if you play 12+ mins in a game, you're in more of a rhythm, you're warmed up, a higher % of the shots you took that game were after you were able to get in the flow of the game. If you played under 12 mins, it was probably just garbage time which we should take with a grain of salt.

I'm not making a definitive statement that 12 is the number or that we should just look at stats when a guy played 12+ mins in the game. No. I'm simply saying that I noticed a pretty striking correlation here with Banton.

Also, a couple other stats that have me optimistic about his shooting:
-His FT% went up from 59.1% as a rookie to 70.8% last season. A solid jump indeed. And, also encouraging to see him get over that 70% threshold (many folks feel like FT% is a good indicator of future 3 pt shooting projection, and those people typically say that a player needs to shoot at least 70% FT in order to be a league average 3 pt shooter)
-Volume is another key indicator of 3 pt shooting projection. So it's also encouraging that his volume increased last season. As a rookie, he only took 3.7 3PA per 100 possessions, but that jumped up to 9 3PA per 100 possessions last season

Another thing I noticed when looking at his stats. In addition to FT% and 3PA per 100 possessions, Banton also improved in each of these categories from his rookie season to his 2nd year: PER, BPM, 3 PT%, steal %, blocks %, usage %, FG%. Oh, and his points per 100 possessions jumped from 14.7 to 25.2 ! His rebound % and assist % stayed about the same.

Here's the kicker, despite the fact that he clearly developed into a better player last season, his playing time fell off a cliff. From 64 games played as a rookie to 31 last season. He had 27 games as a rookie where he played 12+ mins, yet last season that number dropped down to just 8 games where he played 12+ mins. It doesn't really make sense to me. It just seems like Nurse put him in the doghouse.

Lastly, I know we shouldn't put too much weight in vids like this shooting vs no defender in a workout setting but this was 6 days ago - his mechanics look smooth and he hits 13 corner 3's in a row:



This guy can play. He just needs to get a chance. Not sure how many minutes he'll get on a team as deep and talented as Boston, but I hope we give him a shot..

The instagram video doesn't seem to be working but just go to his page and it's there if you click on the "tagged" tab..

[31to6]

Hal I appreciate your efforts, and it's interesting that Banton shot better when given more minutes -- I wonder how common that is? I'm sorry that I can't help but type the knee-jerk reaction though that "a miss is a miss" -- but you've perhaps corroborated what a TOR fan told us after we signed him, which was that he made progress as a shooter even if it doesn't show up in the stats.

Yet --- look at Banton's G-league stats from last season:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

14 games played, 32 mpg, 6 3pa per game, shot 26% on them. You can parse it however you want -- that's not good:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

Presumably, he can get better. And I like this guy's height and the smoothness to his game. I wonder:

a) if there was other interest in him as a FA, because the Cs seemed to jump on him early in the summer, while a lot of more established 'talent' was on the board (and some of it still is, in late August)

b) if he's going to need to/be able to bulk up, because 6'7", 204 lbs is Reggie Miller numbers.

[MeanGeraldGreen]

It’s way too small of a sample to take anything from, but I do think he is a good fit here.

[Hal14]

Hal I appreciate your efforts, and it's interesting that Banton shot better when given more minutes -- I wonder how common that is?

I'd guess it's pretty common. Like I said, logic tells us that if you play 12+ mins in a game, you're in more of a rhythm, you're warmed up, a higher % of the shots you took that game were after you were able to get in the flow of the game. If you played under 12 mins, it was probably just garbage time which we should take with a grain of salt.

If a guy comes in cold off the bench after sitting all game and only plays like 4 minutes, of course his shooting will probably be colder than a guy getting a consistent 20+ mins every night.

look at Banton's G-league stats from last season:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

14 games played, 32 mpg, 6 3pa per game, shot 26% on them. You can parse it however you want -- that's not good:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

Fair point. My only thought about that stat line is the 6 3PA per game seems really high for a guy who is not a very good shooter. A guy who isn't a knock down shooter shouldn't really be taking that many - it makes me think that some of those 3's were forced, a high % of them were probably off the dribble (which are harder to make than catch and shoot 3's) and the high volume makes me think he was not being very selective with those attempts and the shot difficulty was higher.

Also, you shared a stat where the shooting looks bad. I shared a few stats that indicate there's reason for optimism, as well as a video that shows him hitting 13 corner 3's in a row. We'll see what happens this season..

Lastly, while the G league 3 pt % isn't good, he did shoot 87.1% FT in the g league last season, up from 65.6% FT in the g league the season before that. And FT% is an indicator of future 3 pt shooting projection..

I wonder:

a) if there was other interest in him as a FA, because the Cs seemed to jump on him early in the summer, while a lot of more established 'talent' was on the board (and some of it still is, in late August)

I haven't heard about much interest that Banton or Brissett got from other teams. I think Brad just saw them both as guys he could get for cheap to help fill out the end of the bench.

Banton's playing time dipped last season compared to his rookie year, despite his stats being better in pretty much every category (as I wrote above). And Brissett's playing time and production decreased in each of his 3 seasons in Indiana. Clearly, Banton was in Nurse's doghouse. And Carlisle is a coach who is known to play favorites and he played Brissett less and less.

So I think they were calculated, strategic pickups. Brad saw both of them as low risk (end of the bench guys on a minimum contracts), high reward pickups. I wrote a pretty lengthy post in the Brissett thread about why he has some upside and why he is potentially better than his stats indicate. And I've written one on Banton here.

They both have some upside. And they're both still pretty young (Banton is 23, Brissett just turned 25), still getting better, still developing, not even in their prime yet. From what I have seen they both play hard and seem like they have a good attitude.

So I think Brad signing them was a combination of all that, combined with the desire to get bigger as a team (Banton 6'9" with a 6'10" wingspan. Brissett 6'7" with a 7'0" wingspan, Porzingis is 7'3". Walsh is 6'7" with a 7'2" wingspan. You hopefully can see a theme with the 4 guys we added to the team this summer).

Lastly, the other factor is that Brad knows that after the Porzingis trade, and the JB extension, we pretty much only have minimum contracts available to offer. And our top 7 guys are set in stone. After that Hauser, Pritchard and Kornet get first dibs. We'd like to try and develop Walsh too. So there's not much playing time to offer any FA. So we didn't have much $ or much playing time to offer. So I think part of the reason why he signed Walsh and Banton early was just to just lock in these 2 guys who actually wanted to come here and were actually willing to sign with us, given the low amount of $ and playing time we have to offer. It's like if you're not one of the cool kids in school, you just assume you're not gonna get one of the hot girls to go to prom with you. So right out of the gate, you just ask out some of the other girls who are more likely to actually say yes. And you lock that prom date in early, so you don't end up with no prom date - cause who knows, those girls who might have said yes in the beginning, if you don't lock them in early, they might end up saying yes to a different guy..

I wonder:

b) if he's going to need to/be able to bulk up, because 6'7", 204 lbs is Reggie Miller numbers.

Before the draft, he was actually listed at 6'9" in shoes (which are the official measurements used by the NBA).

Read on Twitter

/photo/1

He was also listed at 194 lbs before the draft, so it's encouraging that he's bulked up since then and added 10 lbs, since he's now listed at 204 lbs.

With that being said, sure - I'm sure he could stand to bulk up a little bit more. I'd have that as more of a priority if we were gonna try to play him at like the 4 or the 5, though. But he seems to play best as a guard, so I'm not too worried about it. If he bulks up too much, it could mess up his shot, or perhaps he loses some of his quickness and shiftiness - and having that stuff at 6'9" is a big part of what makes him appealing.

Also, last season vs Milwaukee, there was a play where Banton drove it to the basket, took the contact from the defender (Myers Leonard, who is 7'0", 260 lbs) and was able to finish strong, through the contact.

And you mention Reggie Miller being skinny. First off, he's a fall of famer so perhaps being like him isn't so bad (and he played in a more physical era, too) and basketball reference lists him at 6'7", 185 lbs so Banton has 9 lbs on him..

[31to6]

Hal I appreciate your efforts, and it's interesting that Banton shot better when given more minutes -- I wonder how common that is?

I'd guess it's pretty common. Like I said, logic tells us that if you play 12+ mins in a game, you're in more of a rhythm, you're warmed up, a higher % of the shots you took that game were after you were able to get in the flow of the game. If you played under 12 mins, it was probably just garbage time which we should take with a grain of salt.

look at Banton's G-league stats from last season:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

14 games played, 32 mpg, 6 3pa per game, shot 26% on them. You can parse it however you want -- that's not good:
https://stats.gleague.nba.com/player/1630625/traditional/

Fair point. My only thought about that stat line is the 6 3PA per game seems really high for a guy who is not a very good shooter. A guy who isn't a knock down shooter shouldn't really be taking that many - it makes me think that some of those 3's were forced, a high % of them were probably off the dribble (which are harder to make than catch and shoot 3's) and the high volume makes me think he was not being very selective with those attempts and the shot difficulty was higher.

Also, you shared a stat where the shooting looks bad. I shared a few stats that indicate there's reason for optimism, as well as a video that shows him hitting 13 corner 3's in a row. We'll see what happens this season..

Lastly, while the G league 3 pt % isn't good, he did shoot 87.1% FT in the g league last season, up from 65.6% FT in the g league the season before that. And FT% is an indicator of future 3 pt shooting projection..

I wonder:

a) if there was other interest in him as a FA, because the Cs seemed to jump on him early in the summer, while a lot of more established 'talent' was on the board (and some of it still is, in late August)

I haven't heard about much interest that Banton or Brissett got from other teams. I think Brad just saw them both as guys he could get for cheap to help fill out the end of the bench.

Banton's playing time dipped last season compared to his rookie year, despite his stats being better in pretty much every category (as I wrote above). And Brissett's playing time and production decreased in each of his 3 seasons in Indiana. Clearly, Banton was in Nurse's doghouse. And Carlisle is a coach who is known to play favorites and he played Brissett less and less.

So I think they were calculated, strategic pickups. Brad saw both of them as low risk (end of the bench guys on a minimum contracts), high reward pickups. I wrote a pretty lengthy post in the Brissett thread about why he has some upside and why he is potentially better than his stats indicate. And I've written one on Banton here.

They both have some upside. And they're both still pretty young (Banton is 23, Brissett just turned 25), still getting better, still developing, not even in their prime yet. From what I have seen they both play hard and seem like they have a good attitude.

So I think Brad signing them was a combination of all that, combined with the desire to get bigger as a team (Banton 6'9" with a 6'10" wingspan. Brissett 6'7" with a 7'0" wingspan, Porzingis is 7'3". Walsh is 6'7" with a 7'2" wingspan. You hopefully can see a theme with the 4 guys we added to the team this summer).

Lastly, the other factor is that Brad knows that after the Porzingis trade, and the JB extension, we pretty much only have minimum contracts available to offer. And our top 7 guys are set in stone. After that Hauser, Pritchard and Kornet get first dibs. We'd like to try and develop Walsh too. So there's not much playing time to offer any FA. So we didn't have much $ or much playing time to offer. So I think part of the reason why he signed Walsh and Banton early was just to just lock in these 2 guys who actually wanted to come here and were actually willing to sign with us, given the low amount of $ and playing time we have to offer. It's like if you're not one of the cool kids in school, you just assume you're not gonna get one of the hot girls to go to prom with you. So right out of the gate, you just ask out some of the other girls who are more likely to actually say yes. And you lock that prom date in early, so you don't end up with no prom date - cause who knows, those girls who might have said yes in the beginning, if you don't lock them in early, they might end up saying yes to a different guy..

I wonder:

b) if he's going to need to/be able to bulk up, because 6'7", 204 lbs is Reggie Miller numbers.

Before the draft, he was actually listed at 6'9" in shoes (which are the official measurements used by the NBA).

Read on Twitter

/photo/1

He was also listed at 194 lbs before the draft, so it's encouraging that he's bulked up since then and added 10 lbs, since he's now listed at 204 lbs.

With that being said, sure - I'm sure he could stand to bulk up a little bit more. I'd have that as more of a priority if we were gonna try to play him at like the 4 or the 5, though. But he seems to play best as a guard, so I'm not too worried about it. If he bulks up too much, it could mess up his shot, or perhaps he loses some of his quickness and shiftiness - and having that stuff at 6'9" is a big part of what makes him appealing.

Also, last season vs Milwaukee, there was a play where Banton drove it to the basket, took the contact from the defender (Myers Leonard, who is 7'0", 260 lbs) and was able to finish strong, through the contact.

And you mention Reggie Miller being skinny. First off, he's a fall of famer so perhaps being like him isn't so bad (and he played in a more physical era, too) and basketball reference lists him at 6'7", 185 lbs so Banton has 9 lbs on him..

not going point-by-point but:
1. bad shooting % is bad shooting %. I, too, hope he improves. Good catch on the G-league FT % which I hadn't noticed -- that's encouraging.

2. Height -- NBA.com lists Banton at 6'7": https://www.nba.com/player/1630625/dalano-banton
I look forward to getting to see him stand next to Rob, JT, JB, Al etc. in training camp pictures. I LOVE taller PGs who can see over/throw over the top of a lot of stuff by default.

3. I know Reggie Miller is a HOF but he is also one of the scrawniest in the hall. Also **** Reggie Miller. I want Banton to be a rangy defender, and I'd guess some more muscle would help him there -- in addition to finishing offensively. But we'll see -- he's got to make the actual roster first! (and here's hoping he does)

[Parliament10]

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/boston-celtics/dalano-banton-74153/

Contract Notes:

2023-24: $200,000 guaranteed, $1,009,853 guaranteed Opening Night, fully guaranteed 1/10/24
2024-25: Club Option/$217,533 guaranteed (if TO exercised), $1,098,485 guaranteed Opening Night, fully guaranteed 1/10/25

Trade Restriction: This player cannot be traded until Dec 15, 2023.

No Offense (no pun intended), but I don't think he makes it to Opening Night.

[165bows]

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/boston-celtics/dalano-banton-74153/

Contract Notes:

2023-24: $200,000 guaranteed, $1,009,853 guaranteed Opening Night, fully guaranteed 1/10/24
2024-25: Club Option/$217,533 guaranteed (if TO exercised), $1,098,485 guaranteed Opening Night, fully guaranteed 1/10/25

Trade Restriction: This player cannot be traded until Dec 15, 2023.

No Offense (no pun intended), but I don't think he makes it to Opening Night.

Nah, he is not going anywhere unless he really flops compared to his past.

Same as last year re: Kornet - they aren't giving out these contracts and this money to these guys to cut them. He was one of their very first FA targets and gave him gtd money when they are very tight under the apron. Count on him being on the roster imo.

[ConstableGeneva]

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