Five Bigs, Two Spots: Brad Stevens Trying To Make It Work

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Five bigs, two spots: Stevens trying to make it work
December 25, 2014, 5:00 pm
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BOSTON — We've seen Tyler Zeller go from end of the Boston Celtics bench to becoming a starting center. Kelly Olynyk has ventured from playing with the first unit to coming off the bench to being nominated for Eastern Conference player of the week.

Brandon Bass went from playing less than five minutes one night, to leading the Celtics in shot attempts the following game.

It has indeed been a roller-coaster of a season for Boston's big men when it comes to playing time.

And barring a trade, that ride won't stop anytime soon.

"It's a hard situation from the standpoint of, you got five very capable guys for two spots," said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. "And that's without playing small."

The five big men that Stevens is referring to are Zeller, Olynyk, Bass, Brandan Wright and Jared Sullinger.

Sullinger is the most recent Boston big man whose minutes were unexpectedly slashed. In Boston's 100-95 loss at Orlando on Tuesday, Sullinger was scoreless while playing a season-low nine minutes. He came into the game averaging a career-high 28.4 minutes per game.

After the game, Sullinger was in and out of the locker room bound for the team bus prior to the post-game media session began.

Following Tuesday's loss, Stevens said he did not go into the game expecting to limit Sullinger's minutes.

Stevens said he felt the guys that were gobbling up Sullinger's usual allotment of court time at Orlando, were playing well and he didn't want to disrupt their flow.

Boston trailed by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter but rallied to cut Orlando's lead to as little as three points.

And Sullinger was among the more noticeable players cheering from the sideline during the blistering fourth quarter surge.

"He's a supportive, team guy," Stevens said of Sullinger.

There's no telling if Sullinger's minutes will be closer to his usual 25-30 minutes per game tomorrow afternoon against Brooklyn.

But his playing time, Stevens said, has nothing to do with how the Celtics feel about Sullinger and his potential going forward.

"We really believe in him," Stevens said. "We think he's going to be really good. We think he's had stretches where he's been really good."

But in those games when Sullinger or any of his teammates don't have it going, Stevens has shown a willingness to go his bench.

"Everybody on our team has had a moment where they haven't played as much in a certain game regardless if they're a starter or a bench guy," Stevens said. "That's been pretty consistent across the board, whether it was Kelly Olynyk when he went through his slump, or Avery Bradley at the end of a couple of games in the middle of December. That's part of having a team that has good depth and sometimes guys just get it going and you want to roll with them."





bob
MY NOTE:  This is the downside of roster parity and being in rebuilding mode.  We have young'uns who need to play to develop but we also have veterans that deserve to play and can help us win (and who also need to be showcased  for a trade).  We don't have all-stars where you just have to have them on the court and if that means some good player collects splinters so be it because the all-star is "da  man".  This roster, and how the minutes are allocated, is more Darwin Ian than most teams that have kings and knights and bishops and rooks ( (let's leave out the Queens for now) and a bunch of pawns.  Teams like Cleveland and SAS and Chicago and even Miami have the pieces to play chess.  Brad is playing games like GO,or backgammon where all the pieces are the same and the difference is about how you lose them and not their individual superiority.  We struggle with match ups and the NBA is a league about matchups.



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Bob,

No question that getting playing time for exactly the reasons you mentioned is a problem for this year's team.

The only way I see these problems sorting themselves out is either by injury or by trade.

I believe that this problem may continue, but also that there is no present solution unless one or more of the guys that were mentioned up their games and take minutes from the other four. So far, I would have to say that Zeller has done the most to achieve this result if only by his consistency in the last month. Wright is still pretty new, Sullenger and Olynyk have been up and down while Bass has been consistent but also is playing the role of the veteran on a young, developing team.

Where is Favorani when you need him?

once the trade deadline has passed and Stevens knows what the team is, I hope he settles on a regular rotation.

including who are starters and play starters minutes and who are his regular reserves. buy that point the staff should know who the best players are and it will time to see if the players gel in their spots/rotation.

for instance IF Thornton and Wallace are still here, will their be any reason to play either?

Bass could also be added to that mix, assuming Ainge isn't planning on a playoff push this year.

I don't mind having a 10 man regular rotation, especially IF we are going to try to run other teams out of the building each night. But I do think the players will respond better when they know how they fit in that rotation.