Deep bench depth is usually not a big deal for teams in the NBA postseason. Head coaches tighten rotations up and elite players play heavier minutes, which decreases the impact a potential 11th-15th man might have on a team’s fate.
The Celtics are different from most NBA playoff teams this season, however. Boston will enter the postseason with only 11 healthy players on the 15-man roster with Kyrie Irving, Daniel Theis and Gordon Hayward out with season-ending injuries, while Marcus Smart is likely to be sidelined for Round 1. Every player on the roster is going to matter.
“The bench play is going to be huge for us,” Stevens said Sunday. “And I think that that’s something – whether it’s two deep, three deep, four deep, whatever it is – it’s going to be big for us.”
Once the postseason begins, the Celtics will no longer have access to the hardship exception (i.e. a 16th roster spot) they have been granted for the past couple weeks (they have signed Xavier Silas and Jonathan Gibson with it). Additionally, two-way players are not eligible for the postseason, which takes Jabari Bird and Kadeem Allen out of the mix, or so it would appear. The Celtics would need to cut a player on a 15-man roster to add Bird, Allen or Gibson to the 15-man playoff roster.
With those players seemingly out of the picture for the postseason, one might expect none of them to see any significant time with the Celtics regulars as the team tunes up for a playoff run. However, after a standout performance on Friday night, Jabari Bird saw regular minutes with the second unit on Sunday night ahead of Abdel Nader in the first half. Bird played well yet again (nine points in 22 minutes) and the decision by Stevens understandably caused some eyebrows to be raised.
Why would the Celtics be playing one wing (Bird) who isn’t playoff eligible over one who is (Nader) within the regular rotation? It’s fair to wonder if the Celtics are at least considering the possibility of adding a player like Bird to their postseason roster, which would require Nader be cut before the end of the regular season. What are the odds of something like that happening though?
“We haven’t discussed at all about making any changes to our team, so that’s not even been a discussion,” Brad Stevens said Friday night. “I think at the end of the day, we’ll play at least one, maybe two of the games with our group – with the whole group – and we’ll go from there. But we generally know what each guy’s going to bring to the table, what each guy does best, and how it’s going to fit together, and then it’ll be a matter of who we’re playing.”
Bird is definitely a different kind of player than Nader. Both were late second-round picks over the past couple of years. Nader has more size at 6-foot-7 and a better 3-point jumper (37 percent on the season). In contrast, Bird is a more defensive-minded player than Nader. He is 6-foot-6 and considerably faster on the perimeter, giving him the ability to stick with shifty shooting guards.
With Smart and Irving on the sidelines for Round 1, the Celtics will be extremely thin on backcourt depth. Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown and Shane Larkin can handle defending smaller players but if one of those guys go down with an injury, the C’s could be relying on the likes of Jayson Tatum or Nader to defend quick guards, which would be a mismatch in most situations.
Bird has only played 12 games this year for the Celtics since he was sidelined by back spasms for a couple months, but he’s made the most of his meaningful minutes when presented with the opportunity. After scoring a career-high 15 points on Friday night, he scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting in 22 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Hawks. Whether it’s grabbing offensive rebounds, making sharp backdoor cuts or dishing out the right pass at the right time, Bird has been an asset when he’s on the floor.
Jabari Bird out of nowhere! pic.twitter.com/lSGwG8jhVM
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 8, 2018
Avery Bradley stuff here. Jabari Bird is really great at moving off-ball. pic.twitter.com/IMbR2PxfYW
— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) April 8, 2018
Jabari Bird with the huge block pic.twitter.com/88bwTfQueA
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) April 7, 2018
