With just 19 regular-season games remaining for the Celtics, head coach Joe Mazzulla is going to have some decisions to make when it comes to the rotation. The Celtics have been dealing with different injuries all season long, which has limited their preferred starting lineup of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Robert Williams to just 68 minutes, and five starts on the floor together this season.
The Celtics are now fully healthy, with the exception of Danilo Gallinari, who continues to recover from a torn ACL in August, and the health comes at a good time as the Celtics get set for the home stretch of the regular season.
For Mazulla, the injuries throughout the season have made things easier for him in terms of dealing with the rotation. Now as the C's approach the playoffs fully healthy, it comes time to start to trim down the rotation, something that will be difficult for Mazzulla.
Having a roster loaded with capable players is obviously a good problem to have, especially for a team that struggled so much in the playoffs a season ago when their top unit was on the bench. The lack of a serviceable bench was a major contributor to the Celtics' "fatigue" in the Finals. In last year's playoffs, the Celtics starters played a total of 839 minutes, compared to 695 minutes for the Warriors starters, and the Celtics only played in two more games than the Warriors did.
We got a preview of those tough decisions Mazzulla is going to have to make in Wednesday night's 117-113 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, as Grant Williams logged his first "did not play - coach's decision" since the 2020-2021 season.
It was a surprising move, as Williams had played in 61 of Boston's 62 games, including 21 starts, and is averaging 27.3 minutes per game this season. The one game Williams missed this season came against the Cavaliers in October, when Williams was suspended by the league for making contact with an official.
Mazzulla instead went to Mike Muscala, who had logged DNP-CD's in three straight games prior to Monday's loss to the New York Knicks. After the game Mazzulla was short in his reasoning behind the decision to not play Williams, simply saying it was "matchups."
The Celtics have plenty of options they can lean on in the front court, but most likely won't be able to play them all come playoff time. Williams has been a major contributor off the Celtics' bench for much of the last two seasons. Paired with Robert Williams seeing a boost in minutes, as well as the trade acquisition of Mike Muscala, and the emergence of Sam Hauser this season, somebody is going to draw the short straw.
Just because Williams didn't see the floor Thursday night, doesn't mean he won't see the floor in the postseason. This could be Mazzulla tinkering with the lineup to get an idea of who he can count on in the postseason. Looking back to Monday night's game against the Knicks, it was Blake Griffin who was the third big man off the bench.
Maybe it was nothing more than a matchup decision, as Williams has been in a bit of slump as of late. Regardless, it is tough for Williams, who is a free agent after this season, and is said to be seeking in the neighborhood of $20 million in free agency.
