After a lackluster regular season that was followed up by an even more disappointing playoff run, the Boston Celtics viewed the summer of 2021 as a time for them to re-tool and restructure their rotation.
In these endeavors, they were quite busy.
Kicking off their offseason transactions with the move that shipped out Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for veteran big man, Al Horford, rookie President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, continued this trend of shakeups throughout, with his most recent move being the acquisition of Juan Hernangómez via trade earlier this month.
While the C’s front office did manage to add on players at a myriad of positions, the bulk of bolstering has seemingly been made in the frontcourt, specifically at the power forward and center positions.
After seeing a carousel of big men coming in and out of the rotation over the past couple of years, heading into this upcoming campaign one of Boston’s strongest positions actually seems to be the pivot, where they have the likes of Horford, potential breakout candidate Robert Williams, and recently re-acquired big, Enes Kanter.
With all these impactful players in tow, it wouldn’t really be all that shocking to see at least Horford and Kanter both logging some time at the four spot to simply give them all solid run on the hardwood, as their playstyle could allow them to slide on up to this position from time to time.
However, with this idea comes the reality that there are only 48 minutes in a regulation NBA game, and a typical rotation runs about 10-12 players deep. What this means is, in order to get key talents consistent minutes, others will either have to see severe reductions or complete deletions of theirs, specifically when it comes to the team’s frontcourt.
Looking at the personnel in this area of the roster, there are several players guaranteed to see meaningful playing time this season such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, and Robert Williams.
Of those behind them on the depth chart, we envision newcomers like Kanter and Juan Hernangomez receiving ample minutes as well, with the latter potentially even being in the running for a starting gig.
Just from this, it’s evident that the talent pool in the frontcourt has become rather crowded when in comparison to years past, but we still believe players like Aaron Nesmith, Romeo Langford, and even Jabari Parker from time to time should find a way to crack into the rotation this year.
However, one player we believe could ultimately be axed out when it comes to minutes distribution in this area of the roster is soon-to-be third-year forward, Grant Williams.
Over the past two years, the 22-year-old has managed to work himself into being the most highly utilized rookie-contract talent within the rotation for the Boston Celtics.
Last season, in particular, we saw plenty of Williams as he managed to improve his long-range shooting stroke quite a bit from his rookie campaign (shot 37 percent from deep in 2020-21) and, in turn, was used as a floor-spacing four on an average of 18.1 minutes per game.
Despite his steady play, however, with the new additions to the rotation, it’s hard to argue that he’s done enough to warrant play at power forward or even as a tremendously small-ball center over Horford, Kanter, Hernangomez, etc.
Though perhaps boasting the height of a typical three in the modern-day game, Williams, unfortunately, does not have the skill set or athleticism necessary to have a coaching staff feel comfortable with rolling him out here within the rotation, thus making his usage all the more likely to decrease this year.
Predominantly due to these new roster additions coupled with his inability to properly play anywhere outside of the four or five, should we be forced to bet on one player to be the odd-man-out from this coming season’s rotation, we at the Houdini would put our money on Grant Williams.