NEW ORLEANS — Joe Mazzulla spent training camp and the preseason emphasizing one message: Don’t read into the starting lineups. “Zero,” he said before the Celtics’ first preseason game in Memphis. “I'll save you some time.”
Through four regular-season games, that’s been the truth. There have been four staples: Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Neemias Queta. The fifth slot has been a rotating cast.
Sam Hauser earned the nod in each of Boston’s first two games. After an electric night at Madison Square Garden, rookie Hugo Gonzalez started against the Detroit Pistons. And on Monday, Josh Minott got the call-up in New Orleans.
To some, the swapping may seem like Boston figuring out what works best.
To the Celtics, it’s war.
“That's just our war tactics,” Minott said after Boston’s win over the Pelicans. “We're going to war every night. I trust Joe completely. That's something he sees with each matchup. Each night is a different team that requires a different look, and I trust Joe to make that right decision.”
The Celtics' new war games are constant
Monday’s battle saw the Celtics earn their first victory of the season. Three straight ugly losses were followed by a 32-point thumping at the Smoothie King Center. “Feels great to get the first one,” Jaylen Brown said with a smile. “Feels awesome actually.”
Moving from Hauser to Gonzalez to Minott is simply one small piece of the puzzle for Boston. They never want to let an opponent know what’s next. Nobody should be comfortable—themselves included.
And they’ve been planting seeds for weeks.
At Media Day, Jordan Walsh said Mazzulla was considering a hockey-sub style system. “I think that what Joe wants is it to be more of a five-in, five-in-five-out type of rotation, where we're all going super hard for four or five minutes, [then] boom, switch out, come [with a] new five, then fight, fight, fight for four or five minutes,” he said.
The next day, Mazzulla shut it down: “I'm not gonna lie to you, Jordan just said that to mess with you guys. We're not doing that. So, I know you guys need the headline, but that's not happening, actually. Don't worry about that.”
In their second game of the year, at the 5:32 mark of the first quarter in New York, Mazzulla subbed out all five players on the floor.
The Celtics’ fourth-year head coach keeps everyone on their toes, especially his own players.
But that’s what makes it work.
“Not just me, all of us,” Minott said when asked about how that style makes him to prepare. “Forces all of us to understand that it could be anyone's opportunity that night, and what I love about that is you have to wake up each day and realize, 'I have to lock in, because I could be the one to help us impact winning tonight.'
“So, all 15, 16, however many of us it is, you just got to wake up each day and understand, 'Yo, this could be my night to really help us impact winning.’”
Minott’s night to impact winning proved crucial. In 28:04 against the Pelicans, he finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, accruing a team-high +42 plus/minus.
The next highest on the team was Payton Pritchard at +27.
On the opening tip, Minott cut behind the entire Pelicans defense, catching a lob from Derrick White for the first two points of the game. Throughout the night, his length and defensive presence were crucial.
Without him, Boston may be 0-4.
“Just his ability to pick up. Guard multiple positions,” Mazzulla said. “They have those four wings that are able to play out there and beat you off the dribble. They're really athletic. And so, just his ability to combat that. He did a great job on [Jeremiah] Fears, picking him up full-court, and deflections, and he's getting better and better.”
On any given night, anyone could earn 30 minutes for the Celtics. It’s a blessing and a curse. The lack of a consistent rotation could throw off the rhythm, and it’s a result of Boston’s talent purge this past summer.
Simultaneously, if the Celtics don’t know what they’re going to do on a night-to-night basis, neither do their opponents.
“We've got 12, 13, guys that can impact winning any given night, and so it goes back to the depth, which we talked about,” Mazzulla said. “Depth is just the ability to do different things, and we got a group of guys that are willing to impact the game and give us a chance to win.
“So, whoever fits the game plan, whoever fits the mold that night, that's who we go with. And credit to the guys for understanding that.”
The Celtics are fighting a war that nobody else knows is going on.
As Willie Green is revealing Zion Williamson’s status in his pre-game press conference, Mazzulla stares at the Celtics PR team when asked about Brown’s hamstring.
Starting lineup questions don’t even get asked anymore, as Mazzulla won’t give anything up before the game begins. Everything the Celtics do is with a purpose.
Their new system requires constant energy and effort, and Mazzulla is willing to play completely different lineups on a nightly basis in order to maximize his team’s chances of winning.
“Flexibility is good,” said Brown. “I would always say flexibility is good. We're trying to find an identity and also find a rhythm and a comfort level. It's something that we're looking to build going forward. Kind of seeing what we got, putting guys in the best position to maximize their potential. I think both I and Joe are both looking to kind of figure out those moving parts.”
The process may seem random, but it’s intentional. Everything is intentional.
Boston just needs time.
“Obviously, you don't want to lose games while you are figuring that out, but like I said before the season, I don't know if maybe it went on deaf ears, but it takes a little bit of time,” Brown said. “I would like to see, hopefully, they give us more than a week, Celtics fans. But we know how Celtics fans can be, so we don't make any excuses.
“Tonight was good to get a win, but we still got a lot of figuring out to do. We still got to build some strength and just got to make smarter plays. So, going forward, we got to grow, we got to learn, and we got to take some of those growing pains. But tonight was a good example of a victory.”
This Celtics season is new territory for everyone involved. For Brown and White and Pritchard, it’s learning new roles and having to live up to new standards. For Mazzulla, it’s figuring out the best way to optimize a new roster with new play styles.
And for the new players, it’s understanding that sometimes the best way to help the team is to expect nothing but be ready for anything.
“Be a creature of habit and these things, but also you have to be able to think on the fly,” Mazzulla said on October 21, the day before the regular season began. “I mean, you take a look at what we've talked about over the years, some of the great players are not going to see one coverage more than two, three possessions in a row. So, you can't be a creature to habit, because that's not how the game is played.”
War isn’t often won in a day. It’s almost never won in three days. Or, in the Celtics’ case, three games.
And just because none of the other 29 teams know they’re on the battlefield doesn’t mean Mazzulla’s soldiers won’t be ready.