Who STARTS? Who FINISHES? Figuring out Boston Celtics ROTATIONS

Who STARTS? Who FINISHES? Figuring out Boston Celtics ROTATIONS

Now that Anthony Simons is sticking around for a while, let’s figure this out. Who starts? What’s the bench rotation? Who finishes games? It’s right now on the Locked On Celtics podcast. Uh-huh. Be ready. It’s the season. Who else could it be? What they going to say now? Screaming like JT coral. We kept the madness every game, every practice. Prime time. Deon D White on the sideline. Raining J. How we started raising business. How we finish locked on Celtics Pod, home of the winners, baby. Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network where it’s your team every day. Your team’s the Boston Celtics and I talk about them Monday through Friday. It’s free. It’s available everywhere. It’s on YouTube. Watch the podcast. Get into the comments section. Share your thoughts with your fellow Celtics fans, your everydayers who are with me every day, five days a week, during the regular season, during the playoffs. I’m gonna say playoffs, sure. Uh whenever they play in the weekends, bonus podcast then, so make sure you are subscribed. I’m John Corales, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I’ve been covering the Celtics for about 20 years now. I’ve written a couple books about the team. So I just really enjoy talking about the Celtics. And today I’ll be talking about the rotation. Let’s figure this out together. Who starts? Who finishes? What do we get in the middle? We’ll get to the finishing part in the third segment. We’ll figure out the bench rotations in the second segment. But let’s get into the potential starting lineups. I I feel like my my starting lineup has it my belief in this is starting to I don’t know waiver a little bit. My starting lineup has been Derek White, uh, Anthony Simons, Jaylen Brown, Chris Bucher, Nimish Kada. That’s my starting five for now. I’m not saying there aren’t arguments for other people, but here’s my argument right away for what this is. First of all, you got the perimeter players, White Simons, and Jaylen. Obviously, Jaylen Brown is the number one option. Anthony Simons is a really good, we could say he’s the second option and Dererick White can be the third option. Either way, however you want to say Derrick White’s second and Simons is third. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Uh, we know that Jaylen’s going to get the lion share and that’s going to uh I think open things up where Simons and Derek White are going to have room to play. I like that little rotation on the perimeter. I like how it lines up the rotations behind it. And I think the double big lineup defensively having a couple of shot blockers there. Kada obviously with the, you know, he’s 7 feet tall. He can block some shots. He’s uh he’s coming off a good Euro League. Let’s I’m I’m penciling him as a starter. Uh, I don’t think you could really make a stronger argument for anybody else at this point. But I like Buché at the four. I think he’s a more natural four. I think he’s he can hit some shots. So, you have to pay attention to him in the corners. So, he can space the floor. It’s not like he’s Sam Hower. And so, that’s that I think opens up for some debate, but I think Buché is a guy that you have to at least pay attention to. So, that’s enough. It’s enough space and you I mean you would he would need to hit some shots but offensively it’s enough space. There’s going to be a guy on the floor that can’t space and so whether it’s uh Kada or I don’t know they’re going to have to play Garza. Garza can space some but he it’s not not in the same way. Uh they’re not going to have the same kind of five out capability. So that’s fine. you play you play Nimi in the dunker spot or in the pick and roll or you know set just whatever setting screens on the perimeter. I think that’s fine. He can put that vertical pressure on. He can go get a lob. So I like right off the bat I think Tatum I mean sorry Jaylen’s talent, Simons’s talent, Derek White’s talent that’s a good perimeter. You get some decent shooting out of Buché and Kada can can roll and operate in some of that space. And defensively, I think that that protects you uh pretty nicely. I also like, as I’ve said on this podcast before, I like uh Pton Pritchard off the bench. Not because he doesn’t deserve to start, he does deserve to start. And if Joe Mazoula says I am I’m rewarding Pton Pritchard, then I I don’t not I’m not gonna argue that I I’m not this is not like I’m not married to this starting lineup. Uh and I just did a a podcast with Chris Forsber for NBC Sports Boston where we went over this. If we if we see a starting lineup of um Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hower, and Nish Kada, totally fine with that. I think that’s you can make the argument that those guys have earned it. I think you get some ball handling. You move Derek White off the ball. You now have um a rotation where Simons is coming off the bench and can be uh can get some buckets off the bench for you. I don’t like that starting lineup necessarily. I think it takes some of the scoring punch away, but uh I can see I can see the argument. So, in my starting lineup, I don’t have Payton Pritchard. It’s just because I like the rotation of Payton coming in for Derek White. First TV timeout. Payton at the next TV timeout comes in for Jaylen Brown. Then White and Brown are kind of like staggering with one another. Simons is there to uh carry some of the scoring load, take pressure off of Jaylen Brown. I think why I like Simon so much as a starter is that it prevents you from prevents the defense from doubling Jaylen Brown. And I think that’s a big deal. You know, as much as I want to see how Jaylen does with drawing a double team, if they do throw a lot of double teams at him, drawing the double team, accepting, we like to talk about accepting the double team and drawing them away from the the three-point line and then kicking it to a teammate for a fouron-ree. I think that’s a very valuable uh ability for Jaylen Brown. I saw him do it last year better than he’s ever done it. If he can continue to do it well, then that’s going to be a very important element to the Celtics offense. And if he does it enough, then teams are not going to be able to double team him. And and that will allow uh that will allow him a lot more one-on-one time. So, I like um Simons to be on the floor with Jaylen. So Simons now I think makes it even less likely to double. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna play fouron-ree with Simons and Derek White? Like that’s if two of their your guys are Simons and Derek White against your three defenders, you’re giving up a bucket because they demand attention and they’re going to demand so much attention that that makes Nish Kada better. that makes Chris Bucher better because those two guys are still really good offensive options. Simons in that scenario is an elite offensive option. So, I like Simons there to take the pressure off of Jaylen. Uh, so that’s why that’s my starting lineup. But like I said, if you want to start Pritchard and move White off the ball so he’s a little bit more of a catch and shoot guy than a than an off the dribble guy, I like that, too. Derek White’s catch and shoot numbers are really good. That puts Simons, I think, in a position where he can be that second unit’s primary scorer. If that’s the case, then Simons is going to win uh six man of the year. I really think like a Celtic is going to win six man of the year. Is it Pritchard? Is it Simons? Or or do they alternate and eliminate each other and maybe a Celtic doesn’t win six man of the year? I don’t know how this is going to go. Whatever whatever the starting lineup is on opening night, it might change based on on matchups. It may change based on just performance and lineup. Certain things that you think are going to happen don’t actually materialize. Like I can in my head have this concept of A B C D and then the reality is for whatever reason, well A happened, B never really kind of materialized, C was completely wrong and we never got to D. And so you got to change the lineup. But my starting lineup, I like that group. Uh, but I can see the value in let’s get Sam Hower out there with some more shooting to open up that space. You put a Hower and Pritchard on there. Uh, that’s a lot of shooting. Pritchard Hower and Derek White, tons and tons of space and that just allows you to run middle pick and roll with Kada and and Jaylen Brown. And that also I think has a lot of value. So completely open to that starting lineup as well. Um or some variation. Maybe maybe it’s Pritchard and Buché instead of Hower. And you I I I still think a double big defensive lineup is going to be Boston’s best option because either Simons or Pritchard or even just just by the nature of the NBA, guys are going to get beat no matter what, no matter what defensive lineup you put out there. So having a couple of guys back there that are deterrence to some degree will be important if the Celtics are trying to win these games. So that’s my starting lineup. What about the bench rotation? How deep can the Celtics go? Do they have a lot of depth? Could they Indian Pacers this thing? We’ll talk about that when we come back. Today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. I bet you have a few different accounts, whether it’s an investment account or, you know, a 401k or maybe some some properties or something. Can you name them all? Probably not. 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Those are those guys I’ve named now seven players in addition to right so there’s four and then that’s in addition to Kada Jaylen Brown Derrick White so Kada Brown White those I believe are cemented starters Derek White Jaylen Brownish Kedar cemented starters for the Celtics book it the other four guys some combination of those four and it may depend on hey we’re playing this team this night we’re going to go double big. We’re playing this team this night. We’re going to go single big. We’re going to go shooting. It it just may it might just shift alter. However, then how deep do you go? Who else is in this rotation? Um I think you have uh the potential. I I’d like Baylor Sherman as one of the rotation pieces. Um, I think he’s when we talk about young guys making a leap, I think Shyman is a strong candidate because now he’s going into his second season and he’s he’s going uh he’s going to get those opportunities. He we we know he can shoot a little bit there. Uh that needs to be more consistent. He can really really pass the ball. He’s got a ton of confidence. He’s got the size. He is 66. Um, so he’s big, he’s got that NBA size, so he’s got that desire. Uh, I think that’s that’s going to be uh a player that the Celtics really lean on, and I think he can have a really good season off the bench. So, now we’re at eight. Josh Min, Luca Garza, those guys are going to get opportunities. Uh, Garza obviously uh not a big defensive piece for the Celtics. He’s gonna have to improve that. But offensively, he he can put up some points. Celtics are going to need some scoring off the bench and they’re going to need some size somehow. So, Garza, we’re at what what’s that? Eight. Minot a 68 forward. Uh has the potential to be, I think, a high energy guy. Really? Uh look, these are guys who are in tough spots, right? like this is a massively important season for May not for Garza for Kada. These guy these guys are going to be focused and really really trying to play hard and really really trying to to execute their their roles, whatever those roles end up being on the team. So now I can see Minot really being a high energy guy that can get in there and can defend and can do a lot of different things. And he doesn’t want to go play overseas. He doesn’t want, as much as I advocate for like, hey, Barcelona is nice this time of year, uh, this is he, you know, these these are guys who are trying to cling to their NBA spot. So, Mina and Garza are going to get their chances. So, we’re at what, nine deep, and we still haven’t talked about Xavier Tilman, who I brought up, uh, I wrote about it on Boston Sports Journal. He has the potential to be an X factor, no pun intended. He has the potential to be an X factor. We’re at 10 deep here. Uh he’s a power forward that obviously his shot needs to fall and obviously he needs to be healthy, but if he can if his knee can be right, he is proven NBA material and he’s still in his prime. I know he looks like he’s in his 30s, but he’s 26, 27 years old, so he has the potential to be a 10th guy. Jordan Walsh. We’re getting deep into this rotation. I don’t know how deep this is going to go for the Celtics, but Walsh and I think Tilman are going to be right on the edge, those outside spots. Uh I think Garza and Mina are going to get the spots ahead of them just because at least at the beginning of the season, the Celtics need to know what they have with these guys and they need to they need to prove something. and Walsh can go to Maine if he needs to. Tilman, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Tilman, but the Celtics need to figure out May not and Garza especially and and maybe not more than anybody because all of a sudden this this kind of like high energy bench wing, there’s there’s a real need for a guy like that that can come in at whatever time and just be like, “Hey, you know what? I’m gonna fly around. and I’m going to be the Aaron Nesmith type without, you know, trying to like hurt himself. But a guy that can come in, fly around, defend, and do all that stuff. Like Ma has the potential to play like really desperate, high energy basketball and be a factor off the bench. So the Salv can go 10 deep. Let’s just say my starting lineup is the one and and uh Simons comes in and Hower comes in. That’s some scoring off the bench. You can bring in May not Garza. Uh I don’t know if you want to go like that full bench lineup. You you can do a full bench lineup actually. Simons Hower, um, Shyman, Garza, Minot. That’s if you want to go five five bench guys, I’ve seen worse. And that’s at least as bad as or I don’t know if that’s the way I want to phrase it, but Anthony Simons has dealt with lineups like this in Portland. And having Hower and Shyman with Mina and and Garza. Look, Hower can shoot. Shyman can shoot. Simons can shoot. You got shooting over the place. Garza can score. May not he’s it’s he’s not a nothing out there that I you could you could sell me on some full bench lineups with those guys just to see. It’s an evaluation year. And then if you want to put Tilman and Jordan Walsh in situationally, I think that’s that’s certainly uh a possibility. So, the Celtics bench rotation, the depth, look, in a best case scenario, you can look at this and say some some kind of if you squint Pacersy vibes of obviously Jaylen is going to be the only true superstar on this team, all all NBA guy. Simons isn’t far off. Simons is actually if he can defend, Simons can surprise people and be I’m not saying he’s an NBA guy, but Simons can be good. Uh he’s a tremendous offensive player. So I think with Jaylen Simons, Derek White, Payton Pritchard, this that’s some really good really there’s some really good pieces. the depth is actually kind of there. I don’t know. I I I’m maybe it’s the September. Maybe it’s the I’ve gotten, you know, I haven’t had much to talk about and so we’re going into full speculation before camp starts and you start to talk yourself into certain things. I’m just saying depth depth could be a strength. Like individually, you might look at these guys and say, “H, you know, okay, yeah, okay, he’s all right. He’s all right.” But if they can figure something out collectively, this actually this actually might not be so bad. Maybe maybe I’m maybe I’ve been like looking at this, you know, a little too I don’t want to go I don’t want to overreact. I’m gonna stop myself. I’m gonna stop myself. I’m still I’m not I’m not coming off of my middle of the road team just yet, but I’m saying that I am open to revising that because this depth depth could actually be a strength for the Celtics this year. Okay, so you got all these pieces and maybe they work together, maybe they don’t. We’ll see who finishes games. We’ll talk about that when we come back. Today’s show is brought to you by Open Phone. If you’ve got a business, you know that every missed call is money left on the table. I can tell you from personal experience. I had a plumbing issue in my house a couple of weeks ago. I called three different places and got no answer. The fourth place got my business. So, they weren’t there. They didn’t answer my calls. The fourth place got my business. And I got to tell you, it was a good chunk of money cuz I had a problem. And so, they could have used the other companies could have used Open Phone because it would have helped. 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I will be answering questions still on Mondays as the uh pre-season comes around. It goes a little bit infrequently as the season starts to roll up. Uh but I always want to answer your questions. So johncarales.combag for those. Okay. Who finishes games? This is going to be the most important thing I think for the Celtics. And again, it’s going to be situational. So I think we can count on obviously Jaylen Jaylen Derek White. I think Nimish Kada is probably going to be in the finishing lineups, but it might depend. Right. This is I think you might have a bunch of different finishing lineups that depend on the situation. Celtics down 10 coming out of the last TV timeout versus the Celtics up 10 coming out of the last TV timeout. It’s two different animals, right? You’re you you have time to score, but not that much time to score. So, you want more offense on the floor versus you want to be able to score to hold off the other team. As I’ve always said, fourth quarter is about getting buckets. And the best way to prevent the team from coming back is just scoring baskets. If you score, the other team can’t catch up. So, you’re going to need some scoring, but you want to be able to stop the other team, too. You don’t want to just be trading baskets. You want to be able to get some stops. So, Jaylen and Derek, obviously, you’re going to need a big out there. So, I’m going to say Kada is going to get it more often than not. But if you need offense with some of that defense in there, Buché as your five is one of the the options. So, um I think I think that’s going to be your more down 10 lineup. Buchet is probably going to be the five. And you’re gonna throw out I think Buchet, Simons, uh Jaylen, Pritchard, and Derek White. It’s a small lineup, but that’s going to be a uh high-powered offense. You’re going to get a lot of points that way, and you just have to lock in defensively. So, uh it’s going to be tough. You got to be high high energy and force uh hopefully a miss or two somewhere in there, but you need that scoring that you need that shooting. You need three-point threats all over the place. That to me is your down 10 finishing lineup. Your up 10 finishing lineup could be a little bit different. So, still Jaylen, still Derek, probably Kada because just a little bit more rebounding and a little bit you want a little bit more of a shot blocker. The only hesitation I have is the fouls and you don’t you don’t want him, you know, they’ll they’ll put him in pick and rolls. You want to make sure he’s not in a tough situation. So, I’m going to reserve the right to say maybe Buché is just your finishing big no matter what, but I’m going to give Kada the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to say he’s made some progress. I’m going to say he’s made progress in Euro League. I’m going to say you’re up 10. You need the defense. You need to get the stops, but you still need to find ways to score. Kada can be your center. You can run your pick and roll. Um, and you know, uh, may maybe you just don’t maybe have Kada just off in the dunker spot and you run your pick and roll with Derek White, Anthony Simons, one of those guys. So, and then you want a defender. So, I’m not sure who the last wing defender. So, I’m just going to say maybe Simons is a fixture in the finishing line. I think maybe Simons just joins that finishing lineup no matter what, but it depends on his ability to defend. If if he doesn’t get any of the defensive concepts, if he just remains bad, then you’re going to need somebody out there that understands and can defend. Is this where you go might not or do you go Jordan Walsh big rangy wings or do you do both? Do you put a defensive line is your best defensive lineup Derek White, Jaylen Brown, Josh Minot, Jordan Walsh, and Nimish Kada up 10, two minutes to go. Is that the group? You’re you’re sacrificing a bunch of offense there. You you are banking on your defense. Maybe that’s the maybe that’s not your final two minutes lineup, but maybe it’s the up six with 40 seconds to go and you need a couple of stops and you’re you’re going to get to the foul line. Maybe that’s the group that’s in there. Uh I can see that. I can totally see that. Jordan Walsh is such a wild card to me because I think I think he could finish this this season not on the team or part of your finishing defensive lineup. It could go either way with him. I’m not sure where it’s going to go, but your best defensive lineup, I’m just looking at this. It it may be that might be it. And depending on how big you maybe you go uh double big depending on the group and you put Buché in there with either Minot or Walsh. Again, they’re both about the same size. You can get a lot of good defensive use out of those guys. If if Simons is unplayable defensively down the stretch, which we’ll he may be, he may not be. I don’t know. Then you might have to tap into some funky lineups at the end. Um whether you go double big or single single big, it depends on what the other team is putting out there, but it it can get it might get weird. It might get weird in the down the stretch. And the Celtics, look, they they might throw some some lineups out there, especially early on, just to see. Let’s just see. Maybe that Jordan Walsh, Josh Minot combination is just a, hey, we’re going to finish with that in, you know, October, November against certain teams just to see. And look, I I don’t think we should be worried necessarily about the final wins and losses tally. If the Celtics win 41 games, so be it. If they win 51 games, hey, great. But also, so be it. If they win 31 games, so be it. I don’t care. I’m not really looking at this season as how many games are they going to win and all. I still think they’re going to be a playoff team. I hope they’re not a playin team. Either way, I want them to miss the playin. Either you’re teetering on the edge and you just forget it and don’t don’t bother or you’re teetering on the edge at the top end and it’s like go on a little bit of a run and get out of it. But either way, I don’t want them in the play. It can get funky. So, we’ll see. We will revisit again a month from now. Preseason will be over and we’ll have a better idea of what some of the lineups Joe Missoula has thrown out there. For now, get into the comments section on the YouTube page. Let me know what you think. What’s your starting five? What’s your bench rotation? Am I missing somebody? Am I overlooking somebody? Am I overrating somebody? Let me know in the comments section. Share your thoughts there. And then please share the podcast and tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Selvix podcast. Here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, it’s your team every day.

Celtics’ lineup puzzle: Who starts, who finishes? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks it down.

Boston’s potential starting five sparks debate. Karalis proposes Derrick White, Anfernee Simons, Jaylen Brown, Chris Boucher, and Neemias Queta, explaining the offensive firepower and defensive potential. He explores bench depth, suggesting a 10-player rotation with key roles for Baylor Scheierman, Josh Minott, and Luka Garza. The host analyzes finishing lineups for various scenarios, considering both offensive and defensive needs. Karalis emphasizes the importance of experimenting early in the season to find the right combinations.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of the Celtics’ roster and how it could shape their upcoming season.

1:15 Intro
5:07 Potential starting lineup combinations discussed
10:14 Analyzing bench rotation and depth options
15:51 Xavier Tillman as potential X-factor
21:02 Depth could be a strength for Celtics
26:10 Discussing late-game lineup possibilities
31:17 Season expectations and play-in tournament thoughts

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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