Getty Boston Celtics big man Al Horford poses for a photo during the team's 2021 media day.
Following a wild summer that saw turnover in the front office, on the sidelines and throughout the roster, the Boston Celtics are just days away from tipping off their 2021-22 season. And while the preseason answered some questions about what fans can expect in the year ahead, several still remain.
One of the biggest unknowns heading into opening night is which five players Ime Udoka plans to start at the outset.
On Thursday, Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale served up his best guesses on the starting units for every team in the Association. Where the Celtics were concerned, that meant a few no-brainer picks along with a frontcourt that may or may not be surprising, depending on how you feel about double-big lineups.
As the league insider sees it, the Celtics’ starting five should shake out as follows:
PG: Marcus Smart
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Robert Williams III
Breaking Down the Picks
For Favale, this exercise wasn’t a difficult one for Boston due to the sheer number of locks.
“Four of the spots are non-negotiable. They belong to Smart, Brown, Tatum and Williams,” he wrote. “The finishing touch comes down to Horford, [Dennis] Schroder or [Josh] Richardson. The latter probably has the weakest case.”
When the Celtics acquired Schroder, there was some level of debate about whether he or Smart should start at the point. However, the wind has been blowing in Smart’s direction for some time. And Smart’s recent minor rules infraction won’t change that.
During the 2021 NBA Playoffs, Smart was forced into the starting five due to Brown’s wrist injury. Although he was playing the two spot then, he also spent time initiating and running Boston’s offense, and acquitted himself particularly well with the first five overall. In five playoff games, Smart averaged 17.8 points, 6.0 assists and 4.4 rebounds per contest.
Tatum and Brown, of course, are All-Stars — ’nuff said there. The power forward and center spots are another matter entirely.
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The Twin Towers
Last season, Horford showed he still has something left in the tank by logging a 14-7-3 line for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And Udoka has left little doubt about the importance of his presence on the team. That said, the five-time All-Star celebrated his 35th birthday this year.
At that age, can he realistically be expected to have that kind of impact over a full season (after appearing in just 28 games last season)? Moreover, per Basketball Reference‘s position estimate, Horford has spent 82% of his career minutes at center; asking him to shift to the four almost exclusively may be a tough ask at this late stage.
There’s also the question of whether or not a twin tower approach works in the modern NBA — it was kind of a disaster for the Philadelphia 76ers. Size advantage notwithstanding, when Horford was on the court with Joel Embiid in Philly during the 2019-20 campaign, the Sixers posted a net rating of minus-0.5.
And the Sixers were swept in the first round by the Cs.
The Utah Jazz are another team that bucked the small ball trend with Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors for multiple years; that led to a lot of wins, but space was a problem. The team got significantly better when it moved away from the pairing, too. Last year, with Gobert in the middle and Royce O’Neale/Bojan Bogdanovic splitting PF duties, Utah went 52-20.
On the other hand, Williams makes a ton of sense as the Celtics’ starting center. Some of the chatter on the hoops blogosphere this fall was more centered on whether he or Horford would start at the center spot this season, and understandably so. Williams is young and has struggled with injuries in his early career.
However, leaving Williams on the bench in favor of a 15th-year vet would be a wild thing to do. The 23-year-old could be a star in the making. Also, his pairing with Horford could be less awkward than the aforementioned double-big setups due to their mutual mobility and court vision. Space and pace may still be issues, though.
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