What happens to the Celtics' big man rotation with Rob Williams (hip) out indefinitely?

The Celtics’ frontcourt will be without Robert Williams for at least the remainder of 2019 after being diagnosed with a bone edema (i.e. bone bruise) in his left hip.

The team announced he will be forced to limit his basketball activities while healing and will be reassessed in three weeks. BSJ’s Dr. Jessica Flynn says there is a wide range of severity for these types of injuries but any kind of bone edema around the hip can be troubling. She puts a potential timetable at six weeks at a minimum for that type of injury generally.

Williams had missed the last three games with the sore hip as the team’s training staff tried to get a better sense of what had caused the injury.

The 22-year-old center is averaging 3.9 points and 4.6 rebounds this season while shooting a team-high 67 percent from the field.

“He was on the bike today,” Brad Stevens said after practice. “I don’t know what beyond that they’ve cleared him to do or what he will be asked to do. But obviously we want to progress slowly with that and the reason why we didn’t have a better answer for you last week is that we just wanted to have as many people see it as possible … Need to make sure that the next scan looks better when he gets scanned again in three weeks.”

So what exactly does this mean for the Celtics frontcourt in the meantime? Let’s take a look at the domino effect down the roster and how it could impact the rest of the December schedule.

Daniel Theis: No real change with his starting role. He’s averaging 21.9 minutes per game now and that number should remain consistent or go up a bit more depending on the matchup.

Enes Kanter: He was spending time sharing his bench minutes with Williams so he has the potential to benefit the most here as a clear cut 20-25 minute option for the next month. The Celtics’ defense is always limited to a degree when he’s in the mix but his rebounding ability and scoring should help offset those limitations. Kanter is clearly getting into an offensive scoring groove as we saw last week against the Sixers so the chance for him to get into more of a rhythm should benefit his own game.

Grant Williams: The rookie has been out of the rotation the past few games even with Rob Williams out but his defensive IQ and mobility should give him a few chances now, especially now that Gordon Hayward is back in the fold. The C’s have had plenty of success at times this year when they are willing to switch at all five positions and G. Williams is the best center on the C’s roster right now to do that. His shooting struggles remain a concern (25 percent from field, just 1-of-25 from 3-point range) but the next few weeks will be a good time to figure out how much the team will be able to rely on him against bigger opponents. He won’t stand much of a shot rebounding against the Andre Drummond’s of the world but his ability to guard the 3-point line should come in handy against offenses that like to spread you out (Dallas, Toronto, etc.). A crucial stretch for him.

Vincent Poirier: The French rookie has played just 44 minutes over nine games all year long while languishing at the bottom of the depth chart. He has more size than Williams and should get some chances against true bigs when Kanter is in foul trouble or struggling on Defense. Poirier has the length and speed to get up the floor but it’s probably time to see where he can bang against the big boys a little bit in the paint. Otherwise, the C’s may be better off using this roster spot to upgrade another part of the team ahead of the trade deadline.

Poirier may need to wait a little longer to get a chance after suffering a jammed finger during practice on Monday. However, this is probably the best window of opportunity he’s going to get this season.

Other practice notes

Smart still recovering from an eye infection 

Marcus Smart missed practice again as he continues to recover from an eye infection that has spread to both eyes now. His status remains uncertain ahead of the team’s matchup with the Mavs on Wednesday after seeing multiple specialists.

“You’re worried about it but I was told this particular type of infection could be 7-10 days,” Stevens said. “We’re at seven (days) now.”

Based on that, a return at some point this week remains likely. The C’s defense has shown a bit of a dip in the past two games with Smart sidelined against elite teams so his presence against a top-flight offense in Dallas will be a big help.

“We played really well in a few of the games without him,” Stevens said. “I think we’ve got a lot of good defenders. But clearly we’re going to be better with him. Obviously, selfishly, I’d like to have everybody back so that we can start to throw together our rotations and play guys together and try different things with regard to getting groups out there. But man, I just hope he gets better. It’s been a miserable week for him.”

Romeo Langford rejoins team 

Romeo Langford returned to the team for some practice action after a stint with the Red Claws over the weekend. The team may elect to keep him with the squad for Wednesday’s game, based on Smart’s availability.

“He’s never really had a shot here because he really hasn’t been healthy,” Stevens said. “When he’s got healthy, he’s been able to go play a little bit in the G-League but we brought him back for practice because, twofold, No. 1 is it would be a good chance to get a lot of practice reps and, No. 2, we think really highly of him. We haven’t gotten a chance to see him in this scenario very often. We’ll make the decision on whether he goes back with the Claws for the weekend in Vegas, or if he stays with us when we fly to Dallas, depending on kinda how the rest of our week goes. Marcus being out has pushed all of those G-League assignments back a little bit because we really haven’t had our full group since the first of November and so we haven’t sent Carsen up as much as we would have liked and others as well.”

The Red Claws play on Thursday in the G-League showcase so it’s possible the C’s could have Langford play in Dallas and send him to Vegas on Thursday. For now, it appears the team wants Edwards to get some extended run with the Red Claws instead of bouncing back and forth so much.

“Our plan – again, it got tested a little bit with Marcus being out – but our plan was after the Indiana game to send him and Romeo to Iowa, to Grand Rapids, and then to the G League Showcase so they get 10 straight days,” Stevens said. “Bouncing back and forth is hard. We didn’t want to do that with Romeo, but the other thing is we needed a body to practice. We didn’t have enough to go live there with all our wings, so we needed one of those guys to come back. And I thought it would be good for Romeo.”