Celtics eager to experiment with new style at center spot

Losing Al Horford at center was never the plan for the Celtics. At least it wasn’t until Kyrie Irving made it clear that he would be leaving Boston this past summer. That reality and a monster offer from the Sixers left the Celtics with no reasonable way of retaining the big man while making a play for Irving’s replacement in Kemba Walker. The Celtics elected to invest in the younger Walker at a bigger position of need for the franchise.

So after watching Horford join a rival and sending another defensive anchor in Aron Baynes packing to open up the necessary cap room to acquire Walker, the Celtics are starting a new era at center in 2019-20. On paper, it’s one of the weakest center rotations in the league behind Enes Kanter, featuring just three combined seasons of NBA experience between Daniel Theis, Vincent Poirier and Robert Williams.

After three years of relying on Horford for spacing, the center position is going to turn a new leaf in 2019 and that’s not bad a thing for a team that ranked among the worst teams in the NBA in shot attempts at the rim last season.

“It's different, for sure,” Marcus Smart said of the new offensive gameplay for bigs. “It's definitely different. But we have enough guys that can shoot the three that get on the court. We just need our bigs to be able to do what they do. That's always been our problem. I love Al, but we sometimes need a threat at the rim with the big. In ways, it is different, but it also good in a certain way.”

The coaching staff has had a summer to prepare for the vast changes and have plans to put more of the offensive onus on the wings for both shotmaking and playmaking while making things simple for the likes of Williams and Poirier down low.

“You play to the strengths of your team,” Brad Stevens said. “I think there’s two things: No. 1 is more is asked of our wings and perimeter creators, which is good because we have a lot of good ones. Then our bigs just have easy, very defined roles in what we need them to do. So you actually, with these guys, with the exception of posting Kanter, which I think you have to do some because he’s obviously very good down there, these guys really play the same. So you can be consistent with your style, all the way through a game. It’s different than we’ve played in the past, but that’s OK. Every year you tweak a little. This year, I’d say, offensively, we tweaked more. And our guys have been really receptive to that early.”

Williams, Poirier, Kanter and Theis have all shown incredibly high efficiency on rim rolls throughout during pro career so asking them to be rim runners should not be a big adjustment for them. Instead, it’s the ball handlers that will have to punish the defense for decisions on how they guard bigs in the paint.

“Just really quick reads,” Smart said of the emphasis so far for guards and wings. “Off the catch, off the dribble, not really playing with the ball. Just going, making our read. If the big steps up, dumping it down. If the big steps up and the guy hangs in, making the cross-court pass to the guy in the corner. Just finding open guys.”

There are still going to be certain lineups that can provide some spacing at the 5 for Stevens to lean on. Theis shot 38 percent from 3-point range last year, albeit with relatively low volume compared to Horford. Grant Williams and Semi Ojeleye have the potential to knock down some 3s as well while playing smallball 5. Stevens isn’t going to force the issue with his true bigs though, even though they will have the green light to put up 3s.

“I’d say the super-small lineup, maybe,” Stevens said of a potential five-out alignment. “But not a ton with our bigs that we have.  I don’t think that’s their strength. It’s not what they do best. But they can put threats on a defense by being a dunker and by rolling and again Kanter with post-ups. Those types of things.

“We’re going to ask Robert Williams to do different things than we’re going to ask Tacko Fall to do. I just think each of those bigs brings something unique to the table so we have to create a system but also be able to adjust that with each of their individual skill sets.”

For a Celtics team that has relied on finesse and jump shots a bit too much at times the past few seasons, it could be a breath of fresh air for the offense. Easy efficient looks have been hard to come by for this team on many nights in the past two seasons. Despite having less talent (on paper) than last year, a new mindset in the middle could reap dividends for the offense, when it comes to balancing out the floor and the distribution of shots. It remains to be seen who beyond Kanter will earn those minutes but it will help provide a fresh look for an offense that needed to change its ways.