Boston’s Bench Dilemma
The Celtics are about to return to play, as is the rest of the league. The way I see it, though, the Celtics are in a very unique position. In the case of most teams, there is some freedom to sign extra guys to potentially help them during the playoff stretch. The Mavericks recently signed Trey Burke, the Rockets signed David Nwaba, and even Tyler Zeller got a contract with the Spurs. While these may not seem like big signings, these are players who can play a decent role on their respective new teams. The Celtics could use an extra player during this stretch, if I’m being honest. At the very least a guy to help with scoring issues off the bench. The issue is, there’s no room.
As far as I’m aware, the NBA has expanded the allowed roster size for Orlando to 17 players. Sounds pretty good, right? The only problem is that the Celtics already technically have 17 players on the roster. There are 15 guys on the main roster, and 2 two-way players. Luckily for Boston, the NBA has also made it so that two-way contracts can be converted into normal contracts for the rest of the year. So that’s it then, problem solved right? Wrong.
The Celtics are in desperate need of bench scoring. There are so many young guys on the team with lots of potential, but they don't have enough experience to contribute effectively at this point in time. This means that there are some games, especially with injuries plaguing the team all year, where the bench barely scores 10 points. Overall, the Celtics rank second worst in the league in bench points per game (27.2), with the Trailblazers being the only team worse in that category (26.5).
This stat is a little bit misleading, however, because for the most part the bench isn’t what it would look like when the Celtics are at full health. For example, some of the worst performances from the Celtics bench have come when Smart has to be in the starting lineup. Remember that crazy shot Jaylen Brown hit to send the game against the Rockets to overtime? Yeah, Boston lost that game. Want to know why? First of all Kemba was hurt. Second of all Marcus Smart had to start, so there was less fire power off the bench. This led to the bench scoring a whopping 4 total points - 2 from Brad Wanamaker and 2 from Grant Williams. They lost that game by 1 point.
Another sad day came when the Celtics were playing the Pelicans on January 26th. Tatum was injured that game, and once again, Marcus Smart was inserted into the starting lineup. This meant that the bench could only muster up 8 points in a game where the Celtics lost by 15. Ridiculous.
All this means to me is that the Celtics need a player that can give them 10 off the bench every night consistently. Now that guy could be Smart, or even Kanter, but the Celtics are never healthy enough for this to be the case. Having an extra scorer, or even just a guy who can hit his shots, would help immensely in Orlando. However, who’s getting released to free up the roster slot? Are they going to leave Tremont Waters at home? I mean he just won G-League Rookie of the Year. Does Tacko not get to go to Orlando? That would be a serious drop off in entertainment value, in my opinion. Does Ainge actually cut someone like Javonte Green? I personally think he’s been playing pretty solid this year. Or do the Celtics go into Orlando and just pray no one gets hurt? Make no signings, keep the player they have, and just play.
I think the latter is the most likely scenario, and honestly, I don’t know if I’d want the Celtics to cut anyone. I just want them to win a ring. Figure out the bench, and bring another banner home to Boston, boys.
