Boston Celtics: 3 rotation decisions Cs can make following Jaylen Brown injury

Even though he had been fighting through it for weeks, after hitting the 58-game threshold, Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown has elected for surgery on his left wrist. That will cost him the remainder of the 2020-21 regular season as well as the postseason.

Is it over?

Many fans felt it never truly began this season for the Cs considering their struggles against the top teams in the Eastern Conference (minus Milwaukee). Without Brown, it’s going to take heroic efforts from Jayson Tatum and–to a lesser degree–Kemba Walker to make anything out of what’s left this season.

It’s hard to see how Boston will be able to hang offensively without the individual offense Brown creates in isolation. Brad Stevens’ offense has not been short of ball movement, but Brown’s defensive chaos-causing and end-to-end transition proficiency will be missed to make up the gap for poor shooting nights.

If the Celtics have any hope moving forward in the 2020-21 postseason play-in/postseason, there can’t be many (if any) poor shooting nights. Not unless the Cs begin to close out on 3-pointers and have more of an edge defensively when the going gets rough.

It’s not impossible, but the Boston Celtics face an uphill climb with Brown out.

How could the Cs overcome this? Let’s take a look:

The Semi Ojeleye option

For the past two years, the Boston Celtics have always thrown out an in-case-of-emergency starter to avoid disrupting things too much. Despite there being more explosive options on the offensive end off the bench, the 3-and-D low-usage Semi Ojeleye has been the man called upon to keep things moving.

Ojeleye would be the best option to maintain as much order as possible. He has fallen out of the rotation in recent weeks, so slotting him into the rotation wouldn’t change much of Brad Stevens’ current rotations.