Celtics Preparing for Multiple Starting Lineups After Holiday Trade

BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla joked that he wanted to begin the preseason with a surprise starter against the 76ers on Sunday. Remember Juancho Hernángomez in 2021. Whether Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard or a newcomer this time, Mazzulla relented to someone on the team who talked him out of the idea, but he urged everyone to discount the lineups and rotations in the exhibition. The Celtics want to experiment now, but it’s clear Mazzulla plans on mix-and-matching into the season.

“We have 8-9 starters,” Mazzulla said. “One of the things I thought was a strength of our team last year was when guys were out. I remember the game at Toronto, we had three or four guys out and we won, and then at Milwaukee, we lost at the buzzer with four guys out. So the season just breeds challenges and opportunities and we have a lot of good players and whether I start one (for) one game, or not one game, I think we just have to be ready for that and just know each decision makes the most sense for us to win.”

His comments on Saturday previewed Mazzulla’s most visible greatest coaching challenge entering his second season, deciding whether to start Al Horford or Derrick White with Jrue Holiday joining the rotation as a starter. Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porziņģis will inevitably round out the front court, and Mazzulla acknowledged Boston’s lineup could change on a matchup basis. That’s not typical for a championship contender, Boston mostly started White last postseason, and sets up nightly rotation decisions that could swing games. Still, he views having flexibility as a strength for navigating the regular season while expressing confidence in the team’s depth and ability to adjust.

Boston tips-off the preseason on Sunday against the 76ers at 6 EST, and plan to play all of its regular contributors for 15-20 minutes ahead of a back-to-back at New York.

White played off the bench after arriving from San Antonio, shooting inconsistently and nearly falling out of the team’s trusted playoff group. He started in all but 16 games last year and emerged as the team’s best guard, Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon departing in trades last year, before Mazzulla declared White the team’s 2023-24 point guard. With confidence always a priority for White, and the defensive possibilities of pairing him with Holiday tantalizing, sitting White will prove difficult even if he’s willing to come off the bench.

“I was excited (when Boston traded for Holiday),” White said at media day. “I’ve only heard great things about him. From everybody that knows him and talks about him, they’ve only heard great things. Adding a guy like that on our team, you can’t be upset about it.”

“We both can play on the ball,” he continued later in the week. “We both can play off of it. I don’t think either of us are worried about positioning. As the season goes on, we’re just gonna be more and more comfortable playing with each other.”

That opens the door for Horford to start sometimes next to Porziņģis. Horford said in 2021 that he prefers playing in the starting lineup, as he’s only come off the bench 14 times in his NBA career. He’ll leave the decision to Mazzulla this year, he said on media day, while Brad Stevens teased that the Celtics will continue to court some double-big lineups despite the departure of Robert Williams III. Horford’s absence on back-to-backs and rest needed across the roster will clear up some playing time questions. Others will fall on the head coach. Oshae Brissett described Boston planning on playing the long game in camp, preparing for a long postseason run.

A similar dilemma existed before the trade in the front court, where the team needed to choose between the defensive versatility and long-term promise of starting Williams III alongside Porziņģis, with the present-day advantage Horford presents offensively over Williams III. The Celtics will need to manage Horford at 37, which would happen more easily on the bench, but a smaller starting lineup would require more switching and high pick-and-roll coverage from Porziņģis. Mazzulla said the Celtics will demand defensive versatility from their new big man.

“I can’t stress enough the idea of flexibility on our team,” he said. “We just have a lot of options and we’re going to take advantage of those as best as we can. I think there’s a lot of freedom and a lot of opportunity when you have the flexibility that we do, and credit to our guys, they have the open-mindedness to do whatever it takes to win. And so we have to keep that and whatever decision we make, it’s the right decision at that time, regardless if it goes well. We’ll learn from it and we’ll make better ones as we go.”

That’s the challenge of a starting lineup by committee. Beyond the difference in preparation for players juggling roles, he Celtics’ staff will need to hit the right notes each night. Most contending teams like the Bucks set rotations and mostly forget them, riding with their best players as starters with the reserves evident.

Boston presented that challenge to Mazzulla’s staff one year ago between Smart, White and Brogdon, while Williams III typically became the team’s backup center to allow for small ball. That left many games where a guard playing well sat in crunch time and Williams III could’ve helped out more. White remains important as a secondary playmaker and Horford’s physical defense at the big man position brings something the rest of the roster can’t replicate in certain matchups. That could pull Porziņģis into the closing lineup conversation, but between him and the team’s three other stars, the Celtics created more lineup certainty.

Questions remain about the fifth, including picking-and-choosing between old and new role players for a variety of matchups. One solution for stability could include starting Horford, pulling him quickly in favor of White, then staggering the team’s two most reliable centers for the bulk of the game.

The Celtics enter the year high on Hauser and Pritchard, the likely mystery starters, despite the arrival of wings like Oshae Brissett, Svi Mykhailiuk and Lamar Stevens. Uncertain depth at the five, another factor in deciding whether or not to start Horford, could force the team to make a deadline move like last year. Mazzulla praised Luke Kornet as a backup if Horford starts, the big man effective in 2023, but his game proved matchup-dependent. Time lies ahead for experimentation. Mazzulla shook off questions about patience though. He understands the expectations he learned in year one, and sounded like he’s already selling his plan on Saturday.

“Matchups. Second night of back to backs. Are we winning or are we losing? Do we need a certain lineup out there because we have to score at the end of the game or do we need a lineup out there because we have to just get stops at the end of the game, and our offense will take care of itself,” Mazzulla said. “I think the one thing we learned is you can’t just have a fastball, and I think some of the lineups, people out there at certain times will give us curveballs that we need when it matters most.”