Celtics roster evaluation, Part 2: Reviewing the top players off the bench and coach Joe Mazzulla
Related
:
Still, Horford remains impactful, as evidenced by the fact that the Celtics were 4.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor this season, the second-best differential among regular rotation players.
When the team held exit interviews on Tuesday, players sounded devastated when
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Payton Pritchard
Advertisement
With
Pritchard's 3-point shooting remains a weapon. He averaged a career-high 7.8 attempts this season and connected on 40.7 percent. But his impact is felt elsewhere, too.
Payton Pritchard, winner of the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award this season, averaged a career-high 7.8 3-point attempts this season and connected on 40.7 percent.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
It's remarkable to watch a player his size essentially move larger defenders out of the way as he finds space closer to the rim. Also, his 1.3 offensive rebounds per game led NBA guards shorter than 6 feet 4 inches. Pritchard is generously listed at 6-1.
Advertisement
Sam Hauser
Opponents have hunted Hauser on defense for years, and there have been times when their pursuit of matchups against him compromised their offense because they were straying from their general principles.
But this season, Hauser did regress at that end of the court a bit. A season ago, opponents shot 1.4 percentage points above their average with Hauser serving as the primary defender, and this season that number sprouted by 4.8 percentage points.
Hauser's consistency as a 3-point shooter has been a boon. He has made at least 41.5 percent of his attempts in all four of his NBA seasons, a remarkable run for a former undrafted free agent.
Hauser had a sparkling plus-17.5 net rating during the playoffs, so maybe the ankle injury he sustained in Game 1 against the Knicks was more damaging than many realized. The Celtics could have a tough decision to make this summer. Hauser will receive a reasonable $10 million salary as his
Luke Kornet
If the Celtics had overcome the 3-1 deficit and defeated the Knicks,
Advertisement
Nevertheless, the backup big man had an excellent season, and as an unrestricted free agent will certainly command more on the open market than the minimum-salary deal he had this season.
Kornet drew Mazzulla's constant praise for knowing where he needed to be in just about every situation on both ends of the floor, and he quickly moved ahead of Neemias Queta on the depth chart.
Mazzulla embraced double-big lineups much more frequently this season, and Kornet thrived in them. He and Kristaps Porzingis had a plus-24.7 net rating when paired together, and Kornet was plus-20.5 with Queta and plus-14.5 alongside Horford.
Kornet does not play above the rim, but he has turned into an excellent shot-blocker and rebounder. His offensive rebounding percentage (13.4) was more than Porzingis and Horford combined (10.0).
Joe Mazzulla
Through three full seasons, Mazzulla's .740 winning percentage is the best in NBA history by a wide margin, with former Bulls and Lakers Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson second at .704. Still, an argument can be made that the Celtics should have two NBA championships under Mazzulla, and perhaps even three, rather than one.
Related
:
The Celtics' reliance on the 3-pointer ultimately proved costly this season; their 25-for-100 shooting through the first two games of the Knicks series was part of the reason they fell into an 0-2 deficit. The Celtics fired up an NBA-record 48.2 per game during the regular season, leading the league for the second consecutive season. But their shooting percentage dipped from second last season to 10th this season.
Still, Mazzulla showed a willingness to adapt in other areas, from shifting to successful double-big sets to using timeouts more urgently.
Advertisement
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cade Cunningham Tops NBA List With Other Elite Young Players
Cade Cunningham Tops NBA List With Other Elite Young Players originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Detroit Pistons are perhaps the most exciting young team in the NBA, and it's all thanks to Cade Cunningham. He broke out as a first-time All-Star this season and made the All-NBA team, and it's expected that he will lead the Pistons deep into the playoffs next season. Advertisement In the NBA, there is a clear hierarchy of young guards. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic, both MVP frontrunners, lead the way, although Cunningham is ahead of some players who looked to be better than him earlier in their careers. Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham© Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Lou Williams, after winning three Sixth Man of the Year Awards, knows talent when he sees it, and he thinks Cunningham will have a better career than Paolo Banchero and LaMelo Ball. "I got Cade still having the highest ceiling, Paolo was right there, and then I got to cut LaMelo Ball as having the highest ceiling," listed Lou Williams. "This was a tough one. All of these guys still got a lot of basketball to be played, a lot of things to accomplish in their careers. But for the most part, I feel like I got a good sense of where LaMelo Ball is in his career and what type of player that he's going to be. We're still writing a book on these other two guys. So I'm going to start Cade. I'm going to bench Paolo. And I'm going to have to cut LaMelo." Advertisement Both Banchero and Cunningham have led their teams to the playoffs, and both have given a higher seed some trouble. Ball, on the other hand, struggles to command his team and stay on the court. All three stars play in the East, although as the years tick by, the conference will likely run through Detroit and Orlando, once again passing Charlotte over. Check out the All Pistons homepage for more news, analysis, and must-read articles. Related: Pistons' JB Bickerstaff Reveals What NBA Coaches Have To Do To Not Be Fired Related: Detroit Pistons To Test Free Agent Waters With Two Elite Centers This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trendlines: The smallest markets are winning the NBA finals
Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers is defended by Luguentz Dort #5 of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter in Game One of the 2025 NBA Finals. -Welcome to Trendlines, your weekly installment of what's trending up and what's trending down in sports. This week we're talking about the NBA Finals, and the emergence of the small market team. Think about the iconic NBA franchises: The Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and, if you indulge me, the New York Knickerbockers. Advertisement This NBA Finals features two nicknames to never win an NBA title: the Thunder and Pacers. These two teams are from not-so-iconic American cities: Oklahoma City and Indianapolis. So let's start there with a big downswing. Trending down – The combined size of the home media markets for NBA finals' teams: Down 3 million homes from 2024 I'm being a bit charitable here with being down 3 million. I've rounded down. Indianapolis has a little over 1 million homes in its media market. Oklahoma City has well under a million. Combined they have a little less than 2 million homes. What a change from 2024 when the Finals teams (Boston and Dallas) each have over 2 million homes in their media markets. Advertisement But it's not just from last year from which we've seen a tremendous shift. Indeed, I plugged in the current media market size for every Finals team since the early 1980s. Based on the current rankings, this is the Finals with the smallest teams' media markets in at least the last 40 years. Trending down – The average NBA Finals' team worth: Down $1.4 billion from 2024 It's not just the media markets where we can see how the Pacers and Thunder are small markets. Take a look at the valuation for each franchise. Both teams are worth under $4 billion. Now, that is still a billion with a 'b', but last year the two teams were worth about $5 billion on average. Advertisement The fact that we have one small market team in the Finals isn't that unusual. Both of these teams have been in the finals before. What makes this year truly unique is that we have two teams worth so little at the same time. In fact, there hasn't been an NBA Finals' with two teams in the bottom 10 in the league in terms of worth since at least the early 1990s. Trending up – Players under the age of 25 on NBA finals' teams: Up 2 players from 2024 Small market doesn't mean unexciting. Tyrese Haliburton ridiculously clutch shooting in Game 1 proves that. What makes Haliburton's production so amazing is he was still 24 on February 1 of this year. He's one of 18 players who have suited up for these squads who were under 25 on that date. Advertisement That's a record since at least the early 1980s These are young and fresh players beyond just Haliburton. Thunder's star Jalen Williams clocks in at a mere 24 years old. His teammate Chet Holmgren is 23. We're looking at squads that could be good for years to come. Dare I say that, by the time it's all done, it may be Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Lakers… and Pacers or Thunder on the pantheon of iconic NBA teams. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Trendlines: The smallest markets are winning the NBA finals
Welcome to Trendlines, your weekly installment of what's trending up and what's trending down in sports. This week we're talking about the NBA Finals, and the emergence of the small market team. Think about the iconic NBA franchises: The Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and, if you indulge me, the New York Knickerbockers. This NBA Finals features two nicknames to never win an NBA title: the Thunder and Pacers. These two teams are from not-so-iconic American cities: Oklahoma City and Indianapolis. So let's start there with a big downswing. I'm being a bit charitable here with being down 3 million. I've rounded down. Indianapolis has a little over 1 million homes in its media market. Oklahoma City has well under a million. Combined they have a little less than 2 million homes. What a change from 2024 when the Finals teams (Boston and Dallas) each have over 2 million homes in their media markets. But it's not just from last year from which we've seen a tremendous shift. Indeed, I plugged in the current media market size for every Finals team since the early 1980s. Based on the current rankings, this is the Finals with the smallest teams' media markets in at least the last 40 years. It's not just the media markets where we can see how the Pacers and Thunder are small markets. Take a look at the valuation for each franchise. Both teams are worth under $4 billion. Now, that is still a billion with a 'b', but last year the two teams were worth about $5 billion on average. The fact that we have one small market team in the Finals isn't that unusual. Both of these teams have been in the finals before. What makes this year truly unique is that we have two teams worth so little at the same time. In fact, there hasn't been an NBA Finals' with two teams in the bottom 10 in the league in terms of worth since at least the early 1990s. Small market doesn't mean unexciting. Tyrese Haliburton ridiculously clutch shooting in Game 1 proves that. What makes Haliburton's production so amazing is he was still 24 on February 1 of this year. He's one of 18 players who have suited up for these squads who were under 25 on that date. That's a record since at least the early 1980s These are young and fresh players beyond just Haliburton. Thunder's star Jalen Williams clocks in at a mere 24 years old. His teammate Chet Holmgren is 23. We're looking at squads that could be good for years to come. Dare I say that, by the time it's all done, it may be Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Lakers… and Pacers or Thunder on the pantheon of iconic NBA teams.
