The Celtics’ Bench Is Officially A Problem

For most of their season, the story of the Boston Celtics has been about them surpassing expectations. Despite losing both Kyrie Irving and Al Horford in the offseason, the Celtics reached the All-Star break with a good chance at challenging the Toronto Raptors for the second seed in the Eastern Conference. However, in the last few weeks, the Celtics have run into some serious struggles, particularly when it comes to their lack of bench production.

The shorthanded Celtics have now lost four of their last five games, and the story of these losses are all about the lack of a bench. At a certain point, it was going to start hurting them in the win-loss column. Friday night’s loss to the Utah Jazz reveals the problem: the starters all ended up in the plus, while the reserves were all in the minus. It was a fairly representative night for the Celtics, who have ranked as low as 29^th in the league as far as bench scoring this season.

It’s probably a case of poor timing that Boston’s lack of bench production finally started to hurt them in the standings shortly after the Celtics decided to stand pat at the trade deadline. At the time, it made sense for the Celtics to avoid making a drastic move, there wasn’t really a player available that was worth breaking apart their current roster. That was doubly true when they avoided dropping a player in order to bring someone in from the paper-thin buyout market. At the time, it probably was the wise decision to bet on their starting rotation getting healthy rather than making a bold move for a player who may not have even been much of a difference-maker.

Whether it was the wise move at the time, it could end up looking questionable in hindsight. Right now, the Celtics have a revolving door roster: whenever a key player returns to the lineup it’s pretty much assumed that it means that somebody else is heading to the injured list. The Celtics impressed the rest of the league by picking up victories without point guard Kemba Walker. When Walker returned, Jayson Tatum ended up missing time due to an illness. In the midst of this, Jaylen Brown suffered a hamstring strain, an injury that will cause him to miss tonight’s game against the Indiana Pacers.

The Celtics can’t assume that they will be at full strength here in the near future, and reinforcements are not coming. If the Celtics want to avoid falling further in the standings, they are going to need contributions from somebody who hasn’t stepped up yet. In an ideal world, Marcus Smart, who head coach Brad Stevens has pinpointed as one of the team’s five most important players, would be heading up the second unit, but he’s mostly been pressed into starting duty. Daniel Theis has stepped up to become a solid starting center, he is the probably the unsung hero of this Boston season, but veteran big man Enes Kanter, despite his impressive stats, is a major defensive liability.

The Celtics’ problem is that the rest of the roster is that they don’t have many established role players. Brad Wanamaker has done a fine job as the team’s backup point guard, but he’s also been pressed into starting service when Walker’s been absent. Second-year center Robert Williams came into this season hoping to emerge as a consistent contributor, but he’s spent most of the year on the injured list. Can the team hope to get more out of Semi Ojeleye, who scored 22 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers last week?

Ultimately, the Celtics’ current conundrum might be the inevitable outcome of having to keep so many rookies on their 15-man roster. Of their first-year players, only versatile forward Grant Williams has proven deserving of steady minutes. First-year pick Romeo Langford’s NBA career was delayed by a steady stream of health-related setbacks and Carsen Edwards’ three-point shooting has yet to completely manifest on the professional level.  Center Vincent Poirier has been burning through DNPs. Two-way players Tremont Waters and Tacko Fall have been forced to spend most of their time with the G League Maine Red Claws, and only Waters has truly shown potential to help on the offensive end things. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Waters get more minutes here as the playoff races tighten. If the Celtics want to avoid slipping down the standings, they are going to need somebody to step up off the bench. Soon.