With their win-streak now at three, Boston Celtics fans appear optimistic about their team’s chances of being true contenders in the Eastern Conference for the 2019-20 campaign. However, unless their bench production improves, expectations must be tempered.
Wednesday night was a welcoming sight to see for Boston Celtics fans. Finding themselves down by 16 at the halfway point, Boston dug deep into their bag of tricks and made a miraculous comeback in the second half that saw them finish the night with an impressive 116-105 win over the 2018-19 Eastern Conference Finals runner-up’s, the Milwaukee Bucks.
The team’s top options did exactly what they’re expected to do on a nightly basis: ball-out. Kemba Walker led all scorers with 32 points to go along with six assists and six rebounds. Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward added 25 and 21 points, respectively, with both coming away from the contest shooting over 50% from downtown.
Boston saw five players score in double digits and, collectively, put forth a solid defensive effort that ultimately lead to their come-from-behind victory.
Now, with their 3-1 record — two of said victories coming against top tier Eastern Conference foes — fans and media alike are starting to develop an even greater sense of optimism for the Boston Celtics in 2019-20. However, upon further review of their first four contests, it must be noted, the team has shown a massive weakness that could seriously lower their ceiling this season.
So far, Boston’s second unit has been incredibly underwhelming. Outside of an impressive collective performance against the lackluster New York Knicks, the team’s bench — aside from Marcus Smart — has not lived up to the preseason hype.
Carsen Edwards, one of the NCAA’s best scoring guards last year who most recently averaged 15.3 points-per-game this past preseason, has yet to find his touch translate into the NBA’s regular season. Viewed by many — including myself — as a potential “spark plug” off the bench for Boston this year, Edwards has cracked the double-digit threshold just once, while recording a combined four points in three other contests on 25% shooting from the field.
Grant Williams has proven capable of contributing in many facets of the game, but has not yet shown the capability of excelling at one specific thing. While he has shown flashes in the distributing department as well as on defense and on the boards, the 6-6 forward has struggled to make an impact in the scoring sector, averaging 3.3 points on 33% shooting.
Semi Ojeleye and Brad Wanamaker have never proven to be capable of reaching “key contributor” status and, thus far into 2019-20, this fact doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. And, we have yet to see what sole lottery selection Romeo Langford can bring to the unit, as he’s been sidelined while nursing a knee injury sustained during the preseason.
In all three of the Boston Celtics’ wins this season, the team’s main contributors have managed to put together spectacular performances. In these games, Walker has averaged 28.7 points and four assists on 42% shooting from deep, Tatum averages 22 points on 48% shooting from 3, Brown averages 22 points, 6.5 boards and 1.5 blocks a game and Hayward is putting up 15 points on a whopping 58% shooting from deep to go along with eight boards and four assists.
While all these aforementioned players are incredibly talented, this overall level of consistency is not likely to be sustainable throughout the grueling 82-game regular season. Because of this, in order to keep up with these winning ways, Boston’s second unit needs to step up.
Perhaps the team’s young bench needs a few friendly matchup’s — their next three games against the Knicks, Cavaliers and Hornets could be deemed as such — in order to build their confidence. This second unit is filled with quality talent that should find themselves having very productive NBA careers.
However, until their bench production steps up, the Boston Celtics should be viewed more as pretenders rather than legitimate contenders, despite their impressive team cohesion and the starting-five’s stellar outputs thus far.