I disagree you don't need one of them to become a starter this year. From the group listed it is pretty unlikjlewy we get a better than average starter this year. They could be good this year.Last year they never had the same lineup more than a few games in a row. When healthy they were winning. The time is now. They hope Shroeder can be starter or 6th man scorer. I did not put TL in the group.
I agree with your assessment. But I'll add that the Celtics place in the conference also has a lot more to do with whether their top-end talent (JB and JT) improve, stagnate, or regress, and how their veteran players complement them, than it does with what Pritchard and Nesmith do with 7th and 8th man minutes.
Of course! Wasn't try to undermine or counter you... just noting that those two don't have to show out and start given the larger context.
And both are shooters, which means they can fit it well alongside Tatum and Brown & co.
This the key…. we need both Nesmith and PP to be playable 20 min per game guys. At least adequate D etc. Some playmaking would be a bonus too.
Lots of maintenance days, especially for Brown, means that there will be at least 20-25 games were at least one of them will be unavailable.
I don’t disagree with this......which is far different than both AN and PP being 20 mpg guys.
I know we beefed up the depth this year, but PP averaged 19 and AN averaged 15 last season as rookies.
You are omitting all of these frontcourt minutes unless you feel our second unit is going to consist of 4 guards. Right now either Kanter or Grant is going to be in the rotation. I don’t see how Nesmith is in the rotation on opening night assuming everyone is healthy (big assumption I know) when he’s so far down on the backcourt depth chart. I don’t feel he did anything that was unexpected in SL, he made some shots, a lot in G2, and displayed a lot of his weaknesses as well.
Please please don’t tell me Grant is going to be in a fully healthy rotation. I can’t take another year of that.
I am guessing that Tatum will play the 4 with the starters, with one big, Brown, Smart, and one of Schroder/JRich/PP/Nesmith.
Unless they make another move, he's absolutely going to be.
He may be the only guy on the roster who can do both but there are guys on the roster who can do one or the other. There isn't really a need for Grant to play that much unless he actually deserves to be playing.
The Celtics have been a good defensive team with Williams at the 5 (which of course limits him to situations where they can do small ball). He's a career 34% 3-point shooter depite having missed his first 25 NBA threes. Last season he shot 45% on corner threes, 37% overall, not counting playoffs. He needs to improve to carve out a regular role for himself, but shooting and smallball 5 are useful.
People here have a tendency to speak of Grant as if he’s Dragan Bender. Hey I’m not really a fan of his either but he provides interior defense and toughness while is a role that is necessary in our rotation. If it’s not him it will be “somebody” that isn’t listed in many of these projected rotations that consist of 6 guards.
Other teams are going to play small ball against you.
It comes down to how bad Grant plays and which version of him we see this year.
He's not terrible though. He wasn't terrible last year. He's never been terrible.
Grant Williams 2020-2021 was in fact, the definition of terrible.
What options are better now to fill that role? We’ve loaded up on backcourt veterans and pure 5’s but haven’t addressed that versatile frontcourt role.
He may very well play but it will be because he's the best available option or whatever. I don't think it will be because he's the only one who can play PF and small ball 5.
Isn't Bruno possibly this? He doesn't stretch the floor though. He also may very well be worse than Grant. He's got much better measurables, anyway.
We'll find out how Grant plays this year. The opportunity is there, no doubt about it.
Yeah this "power forward" stuff is 1985 talk. Celtics have Al, TL, and Kanter that can play big. They have a bunch of other guys that can be the biggest wing on the floor, most notably Tatum. Grant is matchup or injury depth.
For the record, Grant Williams had a total rebound rate of 8.7 last year.
The way this team is currently constructed, we absolutely do.
Agreed, you don't want the Jays parked in the lane taking charges, or playing the 5.
what am I missing with Richardson? Isn’t he the likely person to only get 20-25 MPG?
That's not the question. The question is if the opposing team is going small ball, which of the Cs bigs do you want guarding 1s and 2s on the perimeter? It isn't saying much but other than TL, whose minutes are going to strictly monitored I suspect, GW is the best big at moving his feet.
Most of those guys seem like excellent cross matchup options.
We'll see how Grant plays.
I thought there were 2 questions:
we'd all like a Nance, Kyle Andersen, Portis, Markkanen or PJ Washington instead of Grant.
Talking about providing an interior physical presence on the second unit. They aren’t playing 48 minutes.
Bruno isn’t an NBA player. At least not close to one yet.
It's a race to the bottom, who will win? The suspense is killing me.
Between the 2 of them, they should. But yeah, I would think that's what the actual center is for.
I don't feel like I'm Grant bashing at all when I say that I hope that he doesn't see the court very much. Same as I'd really rather not have Nance, SloMo, Washington, or those others getting real minutes either. Had we brought them in, they'd be depth. Just like Grant is.
