The Boston Celtics will be able to do a lot of damage staggering minutes this season
The Boston Celtics will be going into next season with a level of talent that they have never approached before. On top of the fact that both Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving are returning, they have young studs in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum that just finished up pushing LeBron James to seven games.
They have those four with Al Horford, who is off of the best season of his career on both ends, and you can tack on arguably the best bench in the NBA. Terry Rozier, Daniel Theis and Marcus Morris will hopefully be joined by Marcus Smart, giving them unprecedented depth in the NBA.
Brad Stevens has built a reputation on getting more out of less talent than anyone else could. Now, he needs to make sure he unlocks as much of the talent on his roster as possible. If he does that, the Celtics will have one of the most complete and balanced rosters in the NBA, and you know Stevens will be able to take advantage of it.
Even with the top end talent, you cannot expect Stevens to front load his minutes. He likes to make sure everyone on the court is fresh, and the depth the Celtics have means they can stagger minutes, without putting too much strain on any individual, creating the best matchups and situations for everyone on the court.
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The Celtics are going to be an absolute matchup nightmare next season. Their versatility and wings are going to be impossible to account for, and there are all kinds of different ways that Stevens will be able to use them.
The Celtics know that with their depth, there is no reason to have a weakness on the court at any time. There is no doubt that there will be times when the starters need the defense of Smart, or the size of Theis. All the bench players are capable of holding their own with the starters, meaning there should not be too much of a drop off if they are swapping one of their starters.
What that will allow them to do is find which of these wings will be able to exploit a bench even more, and reserve some of their minutes with the second unit. By staggering minutes, the Celtics will be able to create the kind of advantages that will absolutely destroy second units. And they can do that without threatening the integrity of a starting unit that can accommodate any of those top bench players.
The Celtics are good enough with their top talent, to stagger some of them down without leaving themselves exposed. Stevens will be able to make all of these pieces work together, and how he chooses to stagger those minutes could depend entirely on the matchup.
That also allows the Celtics to be comfortable in a lot of different positions. Even if there is a particular way they want to play with their starters, Stevens will have options off the bench that can change how they attack, making it impossible for teams to try and take advantage of them.
On top of that, the Celtics might be the only team in the NBA that will never have to put a weakness on the court. The Celtics have starting caliber players coming off their bench, and can maintain that while going even eight or nine deep in the rotation.
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It will be fascinating to see how Stevens is going to use so much talent next season, but the good news is that there are all kinds of options. The Celtics are going to have more ways to attack any team, while having next to no weaknesses to attack, and staggering starters minutes could destroy a lot of teams.