How will the Celtics manage Kemba Walker as he returns from knee injury?

Kemba Walker is expected to be back on the floor on Tuesday night after a five-game absence but Brad Stevens wasn’t even willing to commit to his full return against the Nets without a caveat.

“The plan, should he feel good tomorrow, would be that he would be limited,” Stevens said.

That ‘feeling good’ disclaimer will be the new standard over the remainder of the regular season for the All-Star point guard after he missed eight of Boston’s last 12 games with a sore knee that required drainage and an injection after the All-Star Break. Dr. Flynn nailed it for BSJ two weeks ago when predicting Walker would be out for 1-2 weeks following his injection but now that the point guard is feeling good, the priority has to be keeping him at that level for the remainder of the season.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine,” Walker said of his condition. “It’s just being cautious. (I’m so used to) taking care of myself, that’s really it. I can’t really take any days off. I can’t skip any treatments, any lifts, just stay on top of it. I’ll be good.”

Minutes management and missing back-to-backs (the C’s have only three left including one on Wednesday) appear to be on the top of the list to ensure Walker's return to the floor is for real this time. The All-Star had a 30-minute max during his initial return from the knee injury last month and I’d expect that number to be even lower on Tuesday for an extended stretch after a two-week absence. For his part, Walker is buying into the plan, perhaps learning his lesson a little bit from his All-Star game mishap.

“It's hard. It's going to be tough playing limited minutes,” Walker said. “But it's all about the long haul and being healthy when it counts, so that's what I'm looking forward to. Just working my way toward getting healthy as we get toward the end of the year.”

The Celtics have put a specific label on Walker’s condition but the point guard seemed to acknowledge that the wear and tear of a long season that extended back to August in the World Cup was responsible for the flareup.

“I’ve had a long summer, I’ve played a lot of basketball,” he said. “That’s the only reason it’s kind of flared up on me like that. I’ve played a lot of basketball over the years. It happens. I've been blessed over the course of my career to be pretty healthy, but it happens, man. We all get injured at some point. Just gotta deal with it.”

The Celtics starters have had to take a heavier minute load of late against a tough schedule with Smart/Tatum/Brown/Hayward all averaging 37 minutes per game over the past five contests. Walker’s return to the fold combined with a healthy Rob Williams gives the Celtics a chance to be at full strength for the first time since November. So how exactly will Stevens his suddenly full rotation and a bench that will look better with Smart coming off it? Let’s do the math starting with the team’s six core players.

Tatum: 34
Hayward: 34
Brown: 34
Smart: 32
Theis: 25
Walker: 25

That leaves 56 minutes for the rest of the Celtics bench on average, maybe a few more if Stevens wants to keep his starters closer to 30 minutes.

Twenty of those will likely go to Rob Williams and Enes Kanter at center for most matchups, especially with the team trying to figure out what Williams can contribute ahead of the postseason. Another 15 goes to Brad Wanamaker as the steadiest bench guard, which leaves just 15 to mix in-between Grant Williams, Romeo Langford and Semi Ojeleye on most nights depending on matchups. There’s a chance G. Williams takes some of the center cut of minutes against smaller teams but it is easy to see why a lot of the Celtics bench issues go away with a healthy roster. There simply aren’t a lot of minutes to go around with everyone healthy and a couple solid bench contributors are going to be benched most nights if Stevens elects to tighten up the rotation.

The Celtics clearly weren’t getting enough out of their bench offensively in recent losses and that’s an issue that having Walker and one more starter on the floor with them should help manufacture.

“I just think — so obviously the stats are the stats,” Stevens said. “But there’s 8 to 10 points per game that they’re not really organized points, from anybody — he’s going to play off of pick and roll, there’s only one guy that can do that at that speed and that pace, right? He’s going to create a play off of his own ability that you just don’t have to account for with a playcall or something to that effect. He just has the ability to make plays with very simple spacing because of his speed, quickness, and skill. I think that, you can tell in games like we’ve had over the last week, where it’s hard to score at times, that’s when you miss his burst and that motor.”

Despite tough losses against the Rockets and Lakers, the Celtics have managed to stay afloat in this brutal stretch despite missing Walker eight of the last 12 games. Now, the onus is on Stevens to figure out how to best maximize his rotation around the core while ramping Walker up appropriately before the postseason begins.

“Like I said, this is all different,” Walker said of his recent knee pain. “I’ve had a blessed career as far as health thus far. But this year has been a little up and down. But like I said it's about me understanding what this is about and being able to compete at a high level for the playoffs. That's really all I'm thinking about.”