I’m fairly assured in saying that 4 of the 5 Celtics beginning spots are going to be Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown and Neemias Queta. That leaves yet another spot up for grabs and I believe it can come down to a few gamers.
Hauser is the lone returning Celtic on this record. As among the best shooters within the NBA, Hauser’s skillset nonetheless issues for the Celtics.
He’s the median level by way of offense and protection on this record. The taking pictures is elite and can provide the Celtics m0re spacing and an additional enhance on that finish and whereas the protection isn’t nice, he can nonetheless maintain up nicely sufficient to not price the Celtics.
This is able to give the Celtics a fairly small lineup. Jaylen Brown hasn’t performed the 4 a ton all through his profession, spending simply 5% of his minutes performed a season in the past at energy ahead, per Cleansing the Glass. He’s going to wish to play there extra this season and would possibly even begin there.
Their protection could be missing however the offense would be capable of generate quite a lot of factors. Even when they don’t begin this lineup, I count on to see quite a lot of the 5-man combo of Pritchard, White, Hauser, Brown and Queta this season.
Boucher is essentially the most restricted offensive participant on this record and the ground spacing with him and Queta would fear me. Nonetheless, his influence on the opposite finish of the courtroom would possibly very nicely win him this job.
The Celtics are going to be offense. With Brown, Pritchard, White, Hauser and Anfernee Simons, they’ll discover methods to attain. They’ve misplaced loads defensively with the departures of Jrue Vacation, Kristaps Porzingis, Luke Kornet and Al Horford and the damage to Jayson Tatum.
Ending defensive possessions is one thing that the Celtics could wrestle with this yr and beginning Boucher may also help that. He isn’t an elite defender by any means, however his size may also help the Celtics on that finish greater than the smaller choices we’re speaking about.
Choice 3: Anfernee Simons
This one is slightly out of left discipline and one which I don’t count on the Celtics to make use of, however it’s an possibility. Going tremendous small would put the Celtics at an obstacle on protection which might probably make this lineup untenable. Nonetheless, there’s a technique to this insanity.
Let’s begin with the truth that we’re going to see the three-guard take a look at instances for the Celtics this season. Simons, Pritchard and White are 3 of the 4 greatest gamers on the crew, so Joe Mazzulla going to need to play these guys huge minutes. In video games the place they don’t have Jaylen Brown, these three guys will likely be their greatest three at creating offense.
A 4-man lineup of Brown, White, Pritchard and Simons goes to attain. They’re all guys who can rating the ball in a large number of various methods and that offensive flexibility goes to be one thing that will likely be powerful for groups to protect.
That mentioned, the protection makes beginning this lineup persistently untenable. They only gained’t have sufficient dimension to get stops as a result of even when they do power a miss, groups will eat them alive on the offensive glass. I might be shocked if Mazzulla began this lineup at first of the season.
Josh Minott is one other identify that might be thrown round however I don’t see that one, perhaps later within the season he establishes himself however he might want to earn it.
I might begin Chris Boucher. I believe his dimension and size are issues the Celtics are missing in different areas of this lineup and the crew as a complete. He shot the ball nicely sufficient final season (36% from three) that Boston can justify beginning him. Brown goes to be taking part in the 4 loads this season, however they don’t want him to start out the sport in that spot; the Celtics will restrict his minutes at that place as a lot as they’ll and beginning Boucher permits for that.
I do suppose that Boucher will likely be Mazzulla’s selection as nicely. The Celtics are simply missing an excessive amount of dimension of their beginning 5, one thing that Joe has favored over his first three years as coach and Boucher can provide them extra of a elevate to start out video games in that division.