Boy, Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics did it again, didn’t he?
This month, the front office made two moves to help address the most glaring needs on the team’s roster following their heartbreaking loss on the parquet in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.
This team needed some depth… desperately.
Throughout the regular season, the Celtics bench played well, finishing fourth in the NBA with a plus-minus rating of +1.5. They tried to make the most of their minutes when Tatum and Brown checked out of their game, which was hard to come by.
Despite having the fourth highest plus-minus in the NBA, Boston’s bench also ranked 27th in minutes played and 26th in points scored per game.
Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka relied heavily on his starting lineup, a contributing factor to their apparent fatigue towards the end of the season and into the playoffs. By the time the NBA Finals rolled around, the team was gassed, and their inexperienced bench was shown up when they needed them the most.
Following their Game 5 loss to the Warriors where Tatum and Brown played all 24 minutes of the second half and shot a combined 2-9 in the fourth quarter, Udoka was asked if fatigue was beginning to play a role:
"“We don’t expect a lack of production like that again off the bench, so keep the guys in their natural rotation, keep their minutes down, and they will be fresh for the end.”"
The team’s bench responded by shooting a combined 2-of-11 in a win-or-go-home Game 6 of the NBA Finals on their home floor. They were a combined negative 72, with Derrick White Jr. and Payton Pritchard being a combined negative 46.
The Celtics’ starting lineup was a combined plus seven.
With this, Stevens and co. opted to pursue two major contributors in both Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari this offseason to have come in and spark a much-needed second-unit rejuvenation.
Each one of these aforementioned ballers will be able to help bolster the C’s bench in a major way and, today, we delve into what each of them will provide to Ime Udoka’s rotation: