Boston Celtics Mailbag: Part 2

Answering some more of your questions

I’m a bit behind here, but I wanted to wrap up the mailbag from last week. Let’s dive right in!

Chris Figee asked: Am I correct when I think that out of JB, JT and KP…we actually play our best when 2 of the three are on the court? So, best to organize like that and organize the bench around a system in which these three rotate?

My response: I’m going to use Cleaning The Glass for this thought experiment. Specifically, I’m going to lean on the lineup data. Let’s start with high usage rotations — there are six that have over 100 possessions together.

As you can see, the most impactful high-usage rotations are the one featuring Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford — which is a +20.5 per 100 possessions over 655 possessions this season. And, the rotation of Payton Prtichard, White, Tatum, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet, which is +28.8 per 100 over 101 possessions.

Interestingly, neither of those have all three of the Celtics’ primary stars on the floor at once. In fact, only the most used rotation has the trio sharing the court, with the Celtics losing those possessions by -1.4 per 100.

Let’s see what happens when we start incorporating some of the lower-usage rotations.

Tatum + Brown On | Porzingis Off

The Celtics have amassed 1,440 possessions with Tatum and Brown sharing the court this season. Joe Mazzulla’s team is +12.1 per 100 in those possessions. Interestingly, they’re also limiting opposing teams to a 51.3 eFG%, which is among the best defensive EFG’s in the NBA this season.

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