Boston Celtics: Should Aron Baynes always start over Marcus Morris?

Should the Boston Celtics be thinking about starting Marcus Morris over Aron Baynes?

After complete and utter chaos to try and work around injuries to close out the season, Brad Stevens settled into a much tighter and under control rotation in the playoffs. The Boston Celtics only went nine deep, but the more revealing aspect is that only five player got over 16 minutes, and this was in an overtime game.

Guerschon Yabusele and Abdel Nader were completely cut out, and Shane Larkin, Greg Monroe, Semi Ojeleye and, surprisingly, Aron Baynes, were not given significant minutes. It is surprising for Baynes because he has been a starter all season long, and has been one of the stronger defenders on the team.

Baynes started, but Marcus Morris got the starter minutes, and joined the other starters as the only players with 35 or more minutes played. This immediately brings up the question of whether or not Baynes should still be starting, or if Stevens is better off going with his best five from the start.

Even though Baynes has been starting, Morris has clearly been more of a priority for Stevens. He plays in the most important moments, and this is not the first time we saw him eat up all of Baynes’ minutes. Baynes certainly has value, but he is limited in a lot of ways, and that prevents the Celtics from getting comfortable.

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The interesting part is that we have seen Brad Stevens do this before. Amir Johnson was a regular starter, who saw multiple players come off the bench and get more minutes than him. Baynes and Johnson also got their minutes cut for similar reasons, because they simply are not versatile enough.

Even if it has been made clear that the Celtics prefer to have Morris on the court, and will play him over Baynes in the most important minutes, that does not mean Stevens should change the rotation.

Morris is one of the most timely shooters on the team, and his ability to bail out bad offense has been amazing this season. The Celtics can be confident in the offense of their starting unit, even if Baynes is there. The second unit, however, would be humiliated if they did not have Morris there.

The Celtics always play games of runs, and putting Morris in the starting lineup could lead to a lot more runs, even if he is clearly one of their five best players, and could certainly fit into the lineup.

Baynes has been used selectively like this all season long, and has maintained that starting position throughout. All the data backs up what a standout defender he is, but the Celtics know they can still play defense without him, and will often want more versatility.

Especially against a team as dynamic as the Milwaukee Bucks, Baynes will not be as useful. They really do not have a single traditional big like Baynes, and that makes it difficult for him to stay on the court, without hurting the offense by not shooting, or hurting the defense by not having the versatility to guard on the perimeter.

Morris has embraced everything about his time with the Celtics, and clearly has no problem coming off the bench. We have seen Marcus Smart be one of the most important players off the bench for years now, and there is a similar mentality with Morris, just his advantage is on offense, while Smart’s is on defense.

For now, there is no reason to change the starting lineup, and how many minutes Baynes gets will not change how much Morris is used, because his scoring is one of the most important things to this team right now.

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Stevens needs to keep some sort of stability, and they can afford to have that slow start from Baynes, because there are other starters to make up for it. That then opens the door for Morris to get a special kind of boost when he first comes off the bench. After that first part of the rotation, it really does not matter who started, because Stevens will play the guy that puts the team in the best position to succeed, no matter who it is at the time.