Boston Celtics: 2 players the young Cs could force off the roster

The narrative of the Boston Celtics season may be ready to completely flip should they escape tonight’s game against the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center.

Two consecutive victories over the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat in consecutive nights helped send the trajectory that way.

Boston is still just 4-5 and wouldn’t even contend for the NBA Play-in tournament if the season ended today, but there’s still plenty of games left for the ship to be righted. In fact, given the extra two ‘postseason’–which we use loosely considering the Play-in game stats don’t count as playoff stats–slots, that shouldn’t be impossible for these Cs.

That said, it’s going to take embracing the youth for Ime Udoka to get desired results in his first season.

Take last night, when Aaron Nesmith dropped 13 points in 18 minutes off the pine. Nesmith is an example of an unknown ceiling, and he has dropped hints that it could extremely high as a catch-and-shoot role player. Ditto for Grant Williams, who is shooting 44% from the 3-point line this season. Double ditto for Romeo Langford, who is at a scorching 47% on his first 15 long-range attempts.

Nesmith gave the company line after his breakout game this 2021-22 season:

"“Whenever my name is called, it’s not a shock to me, just because I keep the same schedule every single day. So whether I play, I don’t play — I’m ready to play at all times.”"

And that’s what he’s supposed to do. But the veterans won’t say the same. They’ll be more likely to work behind the scenes to get a deal done elsewhere.

Specifically, these 2 could be forced out of Boston by the youngsters: