It was good to see Nikola Vucevic make his return to the lineup after a fractured finger cost him 14 games and a month on the sidelines. It’s good to have a third playable center active, and it’s good to have a veteran presence and a guy who has been an All-Star before.
Having said that, the idea that Vooch is immediately taking Luka Garza’s backup center job is insane.Â
Sure, Vucevic has the pedigree; he has obviously had the much better and longer career, he’s a known name and commodity around the league, and a proud veteran who makes over $20 million this season.
In terms of actual basketball contributions on the court this season, he simply hasn’t been better than Garza and doesn’t deserve to automatically usurp his minutes. For all the talk of Vooch stretching the floor and bringing post scoring to the Celtics, Garza has quietly, actually been providing that.
Garza has outplayed Vucevic this season
Yet, after the trade, Vucevic quickly swallowed up all of Garza’s minutes, and now, in his first game back, the exact same thing has happened. Luka has given the Cs very good backup center minutes for the last month, bringing great energy and effort, knocking down threes, finishing around the basket, setting hard screens and rolling with purpose, and dominating the offensive glass.
Despite that, in Vooch’s first game back on Sunday, he was the only center to get in the game behind Neemias Queta. Neemy was dominant against the Raptors, crushing them with his screening and rolling, and being rewarded with easy finishes around the rim while anchoring the defense on the other end.
Then, when Vooch came in, it was a different story; the offense lost its rhythm, and Toronto started creating easy looks and scoring at will. In just 13 minutes off the bench, Boston was -14 in Vucevic’s minutes. Individual on/off isn’t always a great measure, but in this instance, it matches the eye test, and matches up with Queta being a team high +30.
Celtics need to figure out backup center before playoffs get here
It’s just one game and a very small sample size here, so I want to be fair to Vucci Mane. He has been put in a tough spot, coming over to the team at the deadline and trying to get quickly integrated. To make matters tougher, as soon as Jayson Tatum came back, Vooch got hurt, so he has had no chance to gel with this group at all.
However, fair or not, that should mean the Celtics are tied to playing him if they have a better option, and it appears they do in Garza.
Luka has done everything they’ve asked and more this season. I understand the theoretical upside of Vucevic, and I’m not saying he should be completely buried. But the team has been excellent with Garza playing that role, and he has done nothing to lose the job, especially to a guy who has, so far, looked pretty underwhelming.
At this point, I know better than to question Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla, and I know that if there’s any hope of getting solid play from Vooch, he has to be ramping up this week ahead of the playoffs. But I’m starting to get PTSD from the team refusing to play Luke Kornet over Kristaps Porzingis in the Knicks series, and the Celtics simply cannot afford to repeat that mistake that proved to be too much to overcome.