An Early Look at Boston Celtics Starters, Bench, to Maximize New Additions

It won’t be long before the Boston Celtics are officially back at the Auerbach Center (plenty of guys still filter through fairly regularly in the offseason) to get started on another fascinating year of basketball. There are a lot of questions about almost every player on the roster worth exploring before then, but for now, let’s start with a bigger picture item.

What should the Celtics rotation be?

Here is the roster breakdown, in the more modern classification of ball-handlers, wings, and bigs:

Ball-Handlers: Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Mike Conley

Wings: Jayson Tatum, Paul George, Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, Ron Harper Jr.

Bigs: Neemias Queta, Mitchell Robinson, Luka Garza, Chris Cenac Jr., Amari Williams (two-way)

Who Starts?

There are really only two ball-handlers the Celtics can count on regularly, so they have to be split up. Derrick White will start, which means Payton Pritchard has to come off the bench. Yes, Jayson Tatum will initiate a lot of the offense, but there's no way to start White and Pritchard without potentially putting the team in a bind.

Obviously, Jayson Tatum and Paul George will start games (whenever Paul George is available), and that plays into some of my lineup decisions as well. I need someone to step into the Paul George role when he sits, so I want to maintain a level of consistency elsewhere.

That's why I’m starting Sam Hauser next to White and Tatum. Hauser is good enough to handle closeouts, so I trust him to dribble and make the right play. He’s an almost 29-year-old vet (his birthday is in December) who knows what his role is and will play it well. Plus, in a land full of drivers like Tatum, White, and George, along with a pair of centers who will draw attention in the paint, I want to put the most dangerous spot-up shooter on the team on the floor right away.

As far as those centers go, I consider them mostly interchangeable. Queta is more durable and will be more consistent, but there's one big reason why I actually want to start Mitchell Robinson.

There are zero team fouls when the game starts, which means teams can’t play the “hack-a” game with him early on. If Boston brings him off the bench, a team in the penalty can just foul him and drag Boston’s offense to a halt while he bricks free throw after free throw. So unless Robinson finds a 75% free throw shooting form over this summer, I want to take that weapon out of an opponent’s hands.

Of course, Queta has earned his starting spot, and I know Joe Mazzulla is big on rewarding guys in that situation. At the same time, Queta just got a big, four-year contract extension this summer so he knows the team is committed to him. He’s not risking any money or status by coming off the bench in this situation. If there's any time to broach this with him, it’s now. A very simple “hey, we love you, we obviously committed to you long-term, but this is what’s best for the team and you’re going to start every game he misses anyway” conversation should make this easy.

Also, I love his chemistry with Pritchard, which brings me to …

Who Comes off the Bench?

The Pritchard/Queta combo works well together. Queta’s threat around the rim opens things up for Pritchard’s patented drive/spin/fadeaway shots in the paint non-restricted area, which Pritchard feasted on last season. And when teams step up on that, Queta has learned how to relocate very well along the baseline to give Pritchard passing options.

So I’d rather pair Robinson with Tatum because that's just a more natural “throw Robinson lobs when Tatum gets blitzed” scenario. Robinson is also more athletic than Queta, so I’d rather see him out there with Tatum catching higher lobs than Queta can catch.

Another reason why I started Hauser over Baylor Scheierman is that I like Scheierman’s secondary playmaking role next to Pritchard. I think he is a more dynamic player than Hauser, so I don’t want to waste that by having him primarily standing in the corner. I want Scheierman thinking more creatively, and I think playing next to Pritchard and Queta will give him that opportunity because that's what that group will need.

Gonzalez and Walsh will also compete for a lot of these minutes. There's usually a starter or two with the bench units, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see two of Scheierman, Gonzalez, and Walsh on the floor with Pritchard and Queta. Joe Mazzulla might pull Tatum around the eight minute mark of the first in order to start him in the second quarter. Or maybe White, or George, get their runs with that unit.

Conley, Garza, and Harper Jr. will probably be used more sparingly in games when the team is fully healthy, and fill in spots when guys like George or Robinson sit out. I don’t think George or Robinson play in back-to-backs this season, so there will be plenty of time for those guys all season long.

Chris Cenac Jr. and Amari Williams could fill in some gaps here and there, but I expect those guys to spend most of their time in Maine. Dillon Mitchell has not been signed yet, so he’s not included in these projections.

The Celtics might have different ideas for the rotation when the season rolls around in a few months. And I might as well if the preseason shows us something different. But for now I think that starting unit and bench rotation behind it is pretty good, and can be a dangerous team in the East. I think it gives Boston their best mix of complementary talent while maximizing everyone’s abilities. There may be a couple of guys who need their egos massaged to make this work, but I think everyone has a chance to play their best basketball with this initial setup.

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