The Celtics start their season tonight by facing off against the Bucks at 7:30 PM EST, and based on the preseason they are down BAD without the dominant facilitator and threat of Kemba. Still, Jaylen and Jayson didn’t play anywhere near their potential, and there’s also the overwhelming fact that it was actually preseason.
GUARD ROTATION
Unfortunately or not, the start of the season will be dominated by two guys, Jeff Teague and Payton Pritchard. Having a veteran Point Guard and rookie willing to learn isn’t inherently bad, but when neither is starter quality, it suddenly becomes an issue. Given the bench has negative shot-creators, perhaps the best being FastPP, it’s likely we’ll see scoring droughts the size of the Sahara. With this, it’s crucial that Teague and Pritchard, moreso Pritchard, don’t go overboard with the heroics. Instead, while Kemba’s out, games are going to be won off the backs of smart shots, transition scoring, and forcing turnovers. However, I can already see it now, thousands of Celtics fans going off on Tatum and Jaylen, for trying to do too much, despite the fact everyone else creates at a middle school level.
When Kemba comes back though, it’s a different story. Not only are you adding another shot-creator to take attention off Tatum and Jaylen, but it helps the putrid bench. With all three back in the line-up, it allows Brad to cycle one of them at all times with the second unit. That way, there’s always an All-Star caliber shot-creator on the court, and all the bench unit has to do is hit their open jumpers. As stated previously, to start the season watching Teague and Pritchard could be a struggle, but upon Kemba’s return, they should move back to their real roles.
WING ROTATION
Regardless of how many fans may feel about Hayward, due to his inability to consistently stay on the court and his possible MAGA loving wife, there’s no questioning the impact he had. When Hayward was on the court, he helped the offense gel together. Thus, if you lose Gordon Hayward—who bridged the gap between the first and second unit—and replace him with Semi Ojeleye, who is good for burning FitBit Calories (and that’s it), it’s hard to believe the wing depth gets any better. Furthermore, it also places these unrealistic expectations on a 2nd year guy, Romeo Langford, and the 14th pick, Aaron Nesmith. For instance, take a look at this graphic from ESPN, about Aaron Nesmith’s projected stats this coming season.
Realistically, Aaron Nesmith may not even reach 12 points in a singular game this season, let alone average it for an entire season. With Romeo last year, he didn’t just not reach 11.9 points per game (2.5 ppg), but didn’t even reach 12 minutes a night (11.6 mpg). When you expect these young players to succeed immediately, half the fanbase treats them as busts, even though they haven’t had a chance to contribute. These young pieces such as Nesmith, Langford, and Pritchard seem to be stuck in between a rock and a hard piece: As they may not necessarily be ready, but due to the horrid wing and guard depth, it’s possible they’ll be thrown into the fire.
Although Semi seemingly has significant dirt on Brad with how much gametime he gets, he’s definitely not the answer as the back-up wing. Right now, that group of Semi-Romeo-Javonte Green-Nesmith, all have their own weaknesses, but at the very least excel in an area; Aaron Nesmith has proven to be a fantastic shooter, Romeo showed flashes on defense, Javonte is uber-athletic, and Semi is, uh, a human being, I guess? Given how Brad has operated in the past, it wouldn’t shock me to see a wing by committee type of ordeal, depending on the team that night. Obviously, putting players into position to succeed is ideal, see the Lakers center rotation last year, but when there’s now two position groups by committee, who knows what types of issues
CENTER ROTATION
Honestly, at this point how I feel about the Celtics center rotation is entirely dependent on how I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I feel like Theis, Thompson, Timelord, and Grant Williams is enough, and other times I feel like they wouldn’t suffice for the Maine Red Claws. Theis played one preseason game in which he looked great in his first stint, making an immediate defensive impact. If he can continually produce like this on both ends like we saw flashes of last season, our center rotation is good. In his third year, consistency is vital if the Celtics want to remain a contender. Thompson was a great offseason pickup and, as far as I’m concerned, seems to be a necessary locker room presence the Celtics need. Tonight, I’ll be looking for his tenacity on the second unit. Timelord needs to figure out what is happening defensively, or he’s going to be included in a package with that TPE from the Hayward deal. Robert Williams happens to be one of my favorite players to watch, and it’d be unfortunate to after a couple years of development still not see him approach even 75% of his potential. Above all Celtic related big-man issues, I hope Brad has learned from this past playoff stretch (even though I know he hasn’t) and actually gives Grant minutes. Grant is good.
FINAL WORD
As always, I’m looking forward to this season. The regular season will certainly depend on the team’s health, where there is now little margin for error. The team simply cannot just rely on Jayson Tatum to be MVP-caliber every night. Whether it’s finished or not, we’re all in for a sure to be infuriating season.
The Closeout 