BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 3: Jae Crowder #99 of the Boston Celtics celebrates after scoring against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 3, 2017 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images) Adding the 6-8 Gordon Hayward to the team makes the Celtics a bigger group overall.
The term “small ball” is a misnomer. Sure, every modern team wants to play with pace and space, and have an entire lineup full of shooters who are able to stretch the court.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to be “small” to do it. Height and length still help quite a bit, in terms of contesting on defense and rebounding. In fact, the nature of the 3-point shot lends itself to longer rebounds, which is more in play for perimeter players as well. You want all 5 of your players to be able to contribute in that regard.
Some of the best teams — like Golden State — play their best with their “small” lineups, but in actuality, they’re not that small. When you have 6’7″ Klay Thompson at SG and 6’9″ (listed) Kevin Durant at SF/PF, you’re going to be a fairly long team. In fact, the average height of the Warriors last year, weighed per minute, was over 6’8″.
Contrast that with the Boston Celtics. When I did the math for their offseason blueprint, I discovered that their average height (again, weighed per minute) was a shockingly low 6’5.3″
Much of that can be blamed on tiny Isaiah Thomas, but not all of it. The Celtics played the 6’2″ Avery Bradley as an undersized SG quite a bit, as well as minutes for 6’4″ Marcus Smart at SF. All told, that combined for the shortest team in the league. Al Horford got a lion’s share of the blame for their rebounding troubles in the playoffs, but their lack of size all over the roster hurt the team.
Clearly, remedying that has been a priority for Danny Ainge this summer. He’s not going after huge centers, and in fact, he’s losing some of his taller role players (like Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk). However, he’s putting an emphasis on wings and forwards with solid size like Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Morris. That should go a long way to avoiding three guard lineups and improving their total size.
But exactly how much…? I tried to do the math to figure that out. To calculate it specifically, I used the following minutes’ projection, with conservative tallies adding up to a total of 240 minutes:
PG: Isaiah Thomas (32), Marcus Smart (28)
SG: Jae Crowder (28)
SF: Gordon Hayward (32), Jaylen Brown (24), Jayson Tatum (24)
PF: Marcus Morris (26)
C: Al Horford (32), Ante Zizic (14)
A few quick notes on that:
— You may immediately recognize that some of the positions exceed 48 minutes, like point guard for example. That’s because these players aren’t locked into a set position — I’d expect Marcus Smart to play plenty of SG minutes. All in all, the total is an even 240.
— There are a handful of role players who may log minutes for the team this year, including Terry Rozier, Semi Ojeleye, Demetrius Jackson, Jordan Mickey, etc. I excluded them for the sake of simplicity (and I wouldn’t project more than 10 or so for any one of them anyway).
— I understand the team’s not set yet and that they may add more players. I can only assess them at this moment.
Total result
Using this conservative and simplistic minute tally, the average height of the Celtics roster (weighed per minute) would be 6’6.3″. That’s still well short of the Cavs and Warriors, but that would be an improvement of a full inch on last year’s regular season number.
