Boston Celtics: “Hot or Not” on 3 of C’s top roster battles
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics battle No. 2) Non-star wings
For the better part of the past five years, the Boston Celtics have been known as having one of the best wing-duos in the entire league, with All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown holding down the fort at the position.
However, though these two aforementioned talents are absolutely deserving of all the praise and money that they’ve received throughout their tenures thus far, this area within the rotation has surprisingly been rather underwhelming from a depth perspective.
Because of this, the front office has tried their best to bolster the position by taking a wing with both of their most recent lottery selections and, this past summer, even brought on a few more players who could help round out the rotation.
Heading into the season, the C’s coaching staff will be trying to figure out what other wings are deserving of quality time on the hardwood, but as things currently stand, there are a lot more players vying for minutes than there are minutes available:
"If the Celtics can count on a bounce-back year from Josh Richardson, he might make the most sense. The 28-year-old plays both ends of the floor, historically hits his open shots (at least he did during his days with the Miami Heat) and he offers some secondary playmaking. That should be an easier skill set to fit in than Dennis Schroder’s ball-dominant, score-first style, which looks tailor-made to lead the second unit. With Richardson starting, that leaves Aaron Nesmith, Romeo Langford and Grant Williams fighting for wing minutes. And if Schroder is coming off the bench, he’ll factor into that mix too, since Payton Pritchard needs minutes at the 1. That doesn’t leave a ton of floor time to go around—even less if players like Juancho Hernangomez, Sam Hauser or Garrison Mathews chew into it. Losing this battle might effectively equal being booted from the rotation."
There are plenty of different routes in which Udoka and co. could go when it comes to their non-star wing minutes distribution.
Perhaps they could run Dennis Schroder at the two alongside Marcus Smart, allowing for a nice one-two punch on both ends of the floor. Another option could be what Buckley suggested and have Richardson slot in at shooting guard, creating a rather tall and lengthy starting lineup that can space the floor and lockdown on defense.
Outside of these ballers, we anticipate Aaron Nesmith to have a larger role within the rotation after producing rather well towards the end of last season and absolutely exploding during August’s Summer League and even believe Romeo Langford could compete for consistent playing time after shinning in last month’s games as well.
During training camp and throughout preseason, this will undoubtedly be a roster battle worth monitoring.