Examining the impact of the Marcus Morris injury: Who will get a shot at minutes?

The Celtics looked poised to start the regular season on Tuesday with a fully healthy squad as recently as Saturday, but that situation changed abruptly on Sunday. Brad Stevens announced the team would be holding out projected starting forward Marcus Morris for at least 10 days in order to rest an ailing right knee.

Morris had played the final game of the preseason in Charlotte on Wednesday, scoring seven points in 11 minutes against the Hornets. However, the team clearly wasn't comfortable with what they had been seeing from him in practice following his late arrival at training camp. Morris admitted last week he came to Boston out of shape after his lengthy assault trial in Arizona as he mentioned he wanted to lose seven pounds before opening night.

"With him getting here a little bit late, we feel like he needs a little more of a preseason," Stevens said. "He will most likely be out here for the coming week-plus, and then we will re-evaluate after that. They've done all the testing, and structurally, the knee is in good shape. But I think it is a quick turnaround to get here last week and play in a regular-season game. It's going to be a little bit of time probably before he hits the court again."

The extended early season breather for Morris comes as a bit of a surprise given his track record of being an NBA iron man. The 6-foot-9 forward sat out just 11 combined regular-season games over his last five NBA seasons, making durability one of his most appealing attributes to a team like Boston when they acquired him from Detroit in July.

The Celtics did have some coaches out with him in Arizona during his trial for training sessions but it would be understandable if his mind was focused elsewhere (i.e. on the court proceedings) and that limited his conditioning  during September.

Either way, the Celtics are playing it safe with the 28-year-old former Piston for now, which is opening the door for Jayson Tatum and other Celtics to make an impact over the first two weeks of the season.

With Morris set to be re-evaluated in 10 days, it's safe to guess he will miss at least the first four games of the season (@ CLE, vs. MIL, @ PHI, vs. NYK). With Jayson Tatum and Aron Baynes expected to share starting five duties in the frontcourt over that stretch, Stevens is going to have to look further down his bench for some help.

"I think we're going to be a better basketball team with Marcus available, but he's not (ready)," Stevens said. "We're going to need other people to step up."

Who exactly has a chance to see a solid minute spike? Let's start with the obvious choices in Tatum and Baynes. We already know that Tatum will get the starting nod on opening night but he was a guy that was probably going to play 20 minutes per game out of the gate already even with Morris healthy. That number could tick up into the high 20s range with Morris out, particularly against lengthy small-ball focused teams like Cleveland and Milwaukee. Tatum will have his hands full guarding the likes of Jae Crowder, LeBron James, and the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he matches up better against those players than Al Horford would as a power forward starting next to Baynes.

On the flip side, Baynes will probably see a bigger chunk of minutes against teams with more traditional bigs like Philadelphia and New York in the season's opening week. He could actually end up starting against the likes of Joel Embiid or Enes Kanter/Willy Hernangomez in those two games, which would bump Tatum back to the bench unit. A lot of that will depend on how Tatum fares early since if the rookie holds his own and Boston's offense is rolling, the Celtics might try to keep the floor as spread as possible with Tatum as a stretch power forward until Morris makes his return.

No matter how Stevens decides to divvy out the assignments, there will certainly be more minutes available for players beyond Tatum and Baynes. Let's look at a few of the other candidates that could get an early shot at minutes:

Semi Ojeleye: He had a steady preseason and is a seasoned second-round pick. There is a lot of defensive strength and versatility here on the wing and potentially for frontcourt matchups. If the Celtics want to stick with smallball off the bench, he's an ideal candidate to play 5-10 minutes and do his job adequately on both ends. That would include handling switches and not hesitating to take some open threes.

Daniel Theis: I think this injury could be a big opportunity for him, particularly from a defensive standpoint. The Bucks, Sixers, and Knicks all can play with some big frontlines off the bench and the Celtics could use energy and defensive awareness to help contain that. Theis has shown both those attributes in limited preseason minutes. Playing him with Baynes isn't great for spacing, but it will help the C's shore up the back line.

Guerschon Yabusele: The French big man is already developing a bit of a cult following and got plenty of minutes from Stevens in the preseason, but he did little with them. He'll battle on the boards and hustle hard but he's been turnover-prone on offense. With opposing defenses ratcheted up, I'd expect the others to get the first shot at playing time over him.

Playing more small ball with Terry Rozier: Instead of throwing one of these inexperienced rookies into the fire, the safer play could just be going with a talent you can count on in the backcourt. Marcus Smart is going to play 30 minutes anyway, but what's stopping Stevens from having Smart guard small forwards or Hayward and/or Brown guard stretch forwards while giving extra bench minutes to the likes of Rozier? Those smaller lineups will have a heavy onus put on them from a rebounding standpoint, but it would only be for a few minutes each half. That could ultimately be a more appealing alternative than rolling the dice with the rookies.

I expect Stevens to try using one of the Theis/Yabusele/Ojeleye trio to start but don't be surprised if he pulls the plug on that experiment early on and relies on his experience instead. Either way, we are going to find out plenty about the depth of this team in the coming weeks.