Boston Celtics: 3 surprise players that could land starting gigs in 2020-21

While the Boston Celtics generally have 3 sure-fire starters within their rotation, there are a few surprise players that could wind up cracking the top-5 rotation.

Coming into the 2020-21 season, the Boston Celtics remain ranked amongst the top teams within the NBA, placing No. 6 overall on NBA.com’s recent power-rankings list heading into the year.

Boasting one of the best big-3s in the league (when healthy, at least) in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kemba Walker, it’s no question that the Cs have one of the best core groups in the association.

However, though these aforementioned ballers are locks to be found within the team’s starting rotation, that’s not to say the rest of the five-man group is set in stone. As we inch closer to the start of the season, Brad Stevens will need to make big decisions about how he wishes to fill out the starting lineup, both to kick off the season, what with Walker’s injury, as well as when they have their fully healthy roster.

Today, the Houdini presents to you 3 specific players who could realistically land a starting gig, be it temporarily or for the duration of the upcoming campaign:

Surprise player who could land starting gig No. 1) Tristan Thompson

Despite our feelings about the 2020 offseason initially, the more time that passes the happier we get about what moves the Boston Celtics actually did make in free agency, specifically the signing of Tristan Thompson.

Thus far, everything he’s been saying since joining the franchise has been absolutely perfect, especially his comments about how he wants to be the “Marcus Smart of the frontcourt” — now that’s a way to get into the hearts of Cs fans!

Like Smart, we can also definitely see an argument to be made about having the veteran center be inserted into the starting lineup as we approach the regular season.

No, this is not us advocating for current starting five Daniel Theis to be tossed to the bench but, rather, have him slide up to the four — where we believe to be his natural position — and put Thompson in at the pivot.

With this, the Celtics could potentially run a four out, one in scheme, allowing the likes of Kemba (when healthy), Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Theis hang on the perimeter and leave the bruising TT down low to gobble up boards and give the team’s offense extra possessions — ranked second in the league in offensive rebounds per game (4.0) and third in offensive rebounding percentage (14.5) in 2019-20.