Tough Decisions For the Celtics at Forward
By Adam Miller
One thing’s for sure, the Celtics love versatile forwards.
Before the draft, the C’s had just Jaylen Brown and Jae Crowder as their SF. Both players have the ability to do what Boston wants: play multiple positions. This past season saw Crowder play time at both forward spots. His strength and three point shooting allowed the Celtics to be confident in his ability to defend the PF as well as providing a mismatch offensively.
Brown was even more versatile than Crowder. During his first season, Brown logged time as the 2, 3, and 4. While he fits best as a SG or SF his length, size and athleticism allowed him to guard PFs.
It’s not just the Celtics who have fallen in the love with combo forwards. The league is transitioning to small ball. This basically means using smaller, stronger and faster player’s at PF in order to make mismatches on offensive. The most obvious case of this is on the Golden State Warriors where they use Draymond Green for this same purpose.
Boston continued this movement within their team during the draft. With the 3rd overall pick they choose Jayson Tatum. Tatum is a textbook small ball 4 in the NBA. He may be more comfortable as a 3, but his NBA-ready body and polished isolation game would make him a mismatch at PF. Additionally, Tatum is a bit slow on defense. By putting him on a front court player he would be less likely to be beaten off the dribble.
The then Celtics elected to pick another combo forward in Semi Ojeleye. Ojeleye is built like an ox at 6’7 and a chiseled 241 pounds. He can score in major doses and remains consistent from 3 point land. This past season was evidence of this as Ojeleye averaged 18.9 points per game while shooting 42.4% from beyond the arc. He’s a natural PF despite his height, but is able to cover the SF position because of his lateral quickness. In a nutshell, Ojeleye is a slightly taller version of Jae Crowder.
While it seems like a good idea to bolster your team with this kind of versatile talent it may bode as an issue for the C’s. You see, the Celtics own the rights to a few other players who are the same position. The first of those players is Abdel Nader.
For those who don’t know Nader was the 58th overall pick in last year’s draft and, you guessed it, he’s a combo forward. Nader spent his first season in the D-League (now called G-League) on the Maine Red Claws. In short, he tore it up. The forward averaged 21.3 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game and 3.9 assists per game. His efforts were rewarded by getting named the D-League Rookie of the Year. Obviously, Nader looks like a promising player, but for him to make the team he would most likely need to beat out Ojeleye.
It doesn’t end with Nader either. The Celtics also own the rights to Guershon Yabusele. Yabsuele was Boston’s 16th overall pick last season, but spent the year in China. During his time overseas he averaged 20.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2 assists per game. For massive size of 6’8, 260 pounds he moves extremely well. Just ask Jaylen Brown.
"“That kid is a freak of nature that I had never seen, somebody so big and so mobile,”"
“The Dancing Bear” also made an appearance for the Maine Red Claws. One might think that Yabusele may struggle a bit because of the higher competition in the D-League, but that wasn’t the case. In his limited time, Yabusele averaged 18.5 points, 10 rebounds and a single assist per game. One would think that he would be a lock to make the Celtics roster, but with the abundance of players they have at his position makes it difficult. Actually, you shouldn’t be surprised if Yabusele doesn’t make the roster at all. It’s recently been reported that he is getting surgery for his feet for bone spurs. As a result, he will not be playing for the Celtics D-League team. Don’t be surprised if this hurts him and he ends up overseas for another year.
Finally, there’s free agency. The two main players the Celtics seem to want are Gordon Hayward and Blake Griffin. Can you take a guess of what position they play? Yup, they’re both forwards. Hayward may more adept to rotating between SF and SG, but he’s more comfortable as a SF. Griffin on the other hand is more comfortable playing the PF, although he’s can play both C and SF. If the Celtics wanted to go small he could be their main big guy and if they wanted to play big he could play SF because of his passing and ball handling.
If either of the free agents got signed they would clearly play them, but they still must decide who else will be on the roster. The only locks on the team would be Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum because of their upside and their high draft position. Everyone else is up for grabs.
Next: Boston Celtics Prioritizing Shooting on Draft Night
Crowder could get traded, Ojeleye and Nader could go to the G-League, and Yabusele could stay overseas. But, hey, having too much talent is a good problem to have.