The Boston Celtics have done a marvelous job revamping their NBA Finals runner-up rotation this offseason, adding on incredibly valuable and talented players who could have been of great service to them during last year’s remarkable postseason run.
With these newcomers now in tow, it appears that the C’s have only strengthened their case as being favorites to take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy come the conclusion of 2023.
With that being said, while Brad Stevens and co. have undoubtedly done a fine job bolstering this roster’s talent pool, there are many who believe that some of the team’s biggest weaknesses have still yet to be answered.
Such is the case for the folks at Bleacher Report, who are of the belief that, even with the addition of veteran power forward Danilo Gallinari, they still haven’t really gone about and addressed their need for a legitimate backup big:
"Despite having one of the better offseasons of any NBA team with the trade for Malcolm Brogdon and free agent signing of Gallinari, the Celtics didn’t really address their main (only?) weakness. If anything, Boston only became a little thinner in the frontcourt by giving up Daniel Theis in the Brogdon deal.If Al Horford and Robert Williams III are once again the starting power forward and center, the Celtics only rotation-caliber “bigs” off the bench are Grant Williams and Gallinari. Both are best at power forward, so we’ll likely see plenty of Horford as the backup five as he enters his age-36 season."
Make no mistake about it, the signing of Gallinari has the potential to be a tremendous move for this Boston Celtics team, as he’s a proven scoring threat in this league (averages 15.6 points on 38 percent shooting from deep for his career) who can only go on to help improve this team’s 26th ranked scoring unit from last season.
However, even still, this does not take away from the fact that their lack of legitimate big man depth is a bit concerning, especially when considering the fact that both of their starting bigs in Al Horford and Robert Williams have some considerable question marks attached to them (the former is already 36-years-old while the latter has played over 52 games just once and over 32 games just twice in his career).
Hopefully, someone like Luke Kornet (re-signed), Mfiondu Kabengele (two-way), or Noah Vonleh (non-guaranteed one-year deal) can find a way to step up and take on the main role as backup big for this title-hopeful squad.
If not, there’s always the free agency market where we still see several former high-end talents residing.
No matter which avenue they chose to embark on, the Boston Celtics still must find a way to actually address their need for a backup big.
Let’s hope they can plug up this rotational blunder prior to the start of the 2022-23 regular season.