How The NBA Schedule Just Compounds The Boston Celtics’ Injury Woes

Even though it feels like it just started, the NBA offseason will soon come to an end. Barring unforeseen circumstances, real basketball games will start back up on December 22, whether teams are ready or not. The Boston Celtics were hoping to have some continuity in their roster to help them get them through this quick turnaround, but defections and injuries have put the team in a precarious position.

MORE FROM FORBESThe Boston Celtics Make Lateral Moves After Gordon Hayward’s Surprising Departure

It was a good sign that the Celtics went on a deep postseason run. That’s exactly what you want to see from a team, but in doing so the Celtics inadvertently put themselves at a disadvantage. They were among the last four teams remaining in the postseason and fought for their lives in the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, they find themselves having to return to action before every player has had a chance to properly recover.

Even in an ideal situation, the Celtics wouldn’t have enough time to evaluate their roster. What they are facing right now is quite far from an ideal situation. On top of injury concerns with both Kemba Walker and Romeo Langford, Tristan Thompson has a hamstring injury and will not be available at the start of training camp.

The Celtics signed Thompson to a two-year deal worth $19 million with the idea that he could play the departed Enes Kanter’s position while also providing some of the offense they were losing with Gordon Hayward’s departure. Because of this, Thompson’s injury is just straight-up bad news for the Celtics, they will have pretty much no time to work on incorporating him into their roster, which could pose a particular challenge since Thompson has played his entire NBA career with one team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The good news is that the Celtics aren’t hurting for options. Daniel Theis proved that he was a worthy starter at the five last season and Boston would not hesitate to once again give him heavy minutes. A healthy Robert Williams looks primed to take up a bigger role with the Celtics if he could just manage to stay upright this time around. The Celtics hold a team option for Williams’s 2021-22 season and would love to have an opportunity to get a long look at him to see what exactly kind of player they have. Last year’s rookies could see a chance to make a bigger impression, as well. Grant Williams could fill-in as an undersized big while the World’s Most Popular Two-Way Player Tacko Fall could prove himself to be more than a novelty by filling in as, well, the exact opposite of an “undersized” big.

Right now the hope is that Thompson will at least be available when they play their first game against the Milwaukee Bucks on December 23. We shall see. What we do know is that Kemba Walker won’t be there, as their big-ticket point guard will be out for all of December and potentially much of January after undergoing a stem cell injection in his left knee. Knowing this, the Celtics’ acquisition of veteran Jeff Teague in the offseason makes a lot more sense. Meanwhile, Romeo Langford, perpetually a “what if” on the roster, will be out for the foreseeable future due to surgery he had back in September. He has said that he would have had the surgery sooner had he known if the NBA would be starting up again so recently.

If the Celtics were hoping to capitalize on the sudden turnaround between the end of the playoffs and the start of the regular season by maintaining some sort of continuity, that plan went right out the window once it was clear that the Hornets were all in on Hayward. The bad injury news that followed will only make the 2020-21 season more of a struggle than it would have been already.


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