Boston Celtics: Evaluating the state of the C’s bench

With Romeo Langford’s recent productivity, let’s look at all the Boston Celtics bench players and evaluate who should get the most meaningful minutes moving forward.

First off, everyone’s favorite: Marcus Smart. He’s having his best offensive season since joining the Boston Celtics, scoring 12.4 points and dishing 4.8 assists per game, while shooting 35 percent from downtown on 6.5 threes per game. On the defensive side of the ball, Smart is as valuable as ever, guarding the opposing team’s best player repeatedly, and sacrificing his body for the good of the team. Come playoff time, he will be the most used player off the bench, probably averaging upwards of 30 minutes per game.

Next, let’s look to the center rotation, with Enes Kanter. Kanter has shown his value in the box stats, averaging 9.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in only 18.9 minutes.

While his lack of defensive mobility can be exploited in certain matchups, when the Celtics need a rebound or a size advantage, they’ll look for Kanter to give them a spark. Averaging over three offensive rebounds per game, he will always create second chance opportunities, allowing his team to get more shots at the basket.

Second-year man Brad Wanamaker, in 18.7 minutes per game, is averaging 6.6 points and 2.6 assists. He’s the traditional stable backup point guard — he won’t do anything special, but he’s not going to mess up the chemistry on the court. He can be valuable at stabilizing the offense and being an above average point guard defender, but he shouldn’t be expected to be a game changer for the Boston Celtics.

Grant Williams has been a pleasant surprise for Boston. Being a rookie, he wasn’t expected to contribute as much, but he’s shined so far in his first year.

Sure, he’s only averaging 3.8 points and 2.7 rebounds, yet he has suddenly become an efficient 3 point shooter, and has always played above average defense. With the injury-riddled front court for the C’s, look for him to get lots more small ball center minutes in the upcoming weeks. Also, in the playoffs, his game transitions well, as he is a very switchable defender and has a reliable jump shot.

Semi Ojeleye has also shown improvement the past couple of months. Similar to Williams, he only averages 3.1 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, yet is one of the strongest players in the entire league. His three pointer is improved, hitting on 36.5 percent of his attempts from downtown, and he is an above average 1-on-1 defender, especially against the best in the league. In years past, he has given Giannis Antetokounmpo trouble, and if the Celtics and Bucks end up meeting in the playoffs, look for that matchup to develop throughout the series.

Robert Williams has been injured the majority of the season, but showed flashes in the beginning of his second year to make Celtics fans excited. He presents a more mobile option at center, something that could be valuable in certain matchups. He’s a better option than Vincent Poirier as a rim-running center, so he may get some playing time if he ever recovers from his injury.

With recent injuries to almost all of the top Boston Celtics players, Romeo Langford has found an opportunity in the rotation, and is using the best of it. Scoring a career-high 16 points against Atlanta on Friday night, he showed his potential in both his ability to drive to the basket and his already above average help defense. It’s good to get him as much playing time as possible in his young career, as it’s difficult to find minutes behind this deep team.

Similar to Semi Ojeleye, Javonte Green provides another defensive option on the wing. However, Ojeleye’s jump shot has progressed much further than Green’s, making him a more reliable option for that spot in the rotation.

Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters can be spark plugs off the bench if need be, but they haven’t proved to be consistent rotation players yet in their young careers. For Vincent Poirier and Tacko Fall, they will likely only be used as injury replacements, as they have not gotten enough playing time to make an impact. We all love Tacko, but he needs more opportunities besides garbage time minutes to make an impression on the Boston Celtics coaching staff.

It’s difficult to trust anyone consistently besides Smart and Kanter off the Celtics bench right now, but rookies such as Grant Williams have shown consistent production, something that is hard to ignore.

Who do you trust off the Celtics bench and who should get the most minutes?