The NBA has become a war of attrition more than ever in recent years. The season is long, and the playoffs are a grind. The game moves faster than ever, and players are forced to cover more ground. We’re seeing injuries at a ridiculous rate and players being forced to rest and manage their bodies just to make it to the finish line.
As a result, depth has become more important than ever, and teams that can keep sending bodies into games without a significant drop-off are much more inclined to be successful over the course of 82 games.
Celtics have solved NBA's depth puzzle
The Celtics have known this for a while and have leaned into it more than ever in recent years. Their 2024 title team was stacked, but that was the last of a dying breed before the dreaded second apron started coming for teams loaded with highly paid stars. In the wake of that, Boston has shed a ton of salary, but they’ve also collected a lot of valuable and cost-effective depth on the roster.
It played a huge role in their unlikely success last season, as they won 56 games despite Jayson Tatum missing most of the season and Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet, and Kristaps Porzingis departing in the offseason. Boston doubled down on that success after the season, trading Jaylen Brown and bringing in even more solid role players to fit around Tatum.
The idea was to build a deep, sustainable roster that could be flexible and durable enough to solve any problem. We’re already seeing that on display early in the regular season, and on Monday night, they made history in the Celtics’ 134-99 demolition of the Bulls in TD Garden.
Celtics bench sets franchise record with 79 points in win over Bulls
The Boston bench accounted for 79 points in the win, which is the most in a regulation game in franchise history since the league started tracking starters and reserves in the 1970-71 season. Not too shabby.
Payton Pritchard led the charge, pouring in 28 points, including 19 during his third quarter eruption, which put the game away and allowed most of the starters to rest for the fourth quarter. Hugo Gonzalez also added 13 points, Sam Hauser had 11, Neemias Queta put in 7, Luka Garza and Mike Conley each had 6, Ron Harper Jr. and Chris Cenac Jr. both had 3, and Baylor Scheierman had 2.
This obviously isn’t going to be the case every night, but the fact that they can give this kind of performance is a huge deal and will help the Celtics weather the storm all season and keep their best players fresh. Most of the guys coming off the pine are NBA-caliber rotation players, and many of them would have bigger roles on lesser teams.
Competition for minutes is stiff, and that should be healthy for the entire 14-man roster. It’s great to see that when their numbers are called, they’re ready to go, as everyone who entered the game stepped up and performed. Everyone is going to get their chance eventually, and every opportunity to get on the floor is a potential audition for Joe Mazzulla and his staff. If guys keep making the most of it, they are going to make Mazzulla’s job even harder, but make the Celtics even better. And that’s a good problem to have.
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