Starters*
Starters with an asterisk — why the qualification, you ask? They are able to start on any night they are asked, even though on this team, they may not be. With a certain degree of matchup-adaptability built into this roster, both or either of this duo can find themselves on the parquet for tip or subbed in later when their skills are better used.
Marcus Smart
Smart is as hard to grade as he is to score on, as much of the value he brings is hard to measure in counting stats and shooting percentages. Even when he was a terrible offensive player, he still made winning plays for the team, and now … he’s actually kind of good shooting the ball.
While he’s taken steps backwards with two-point accuracy — dropping from 51.1 % last season to 42.9 % — his 3-ball has mostly stayed honest even after a severe eye infection notably impacted his offense over several contests.
He’s shooting over two more per game, too, making the gravity drawn from defenses keep lanes open for teammates to cut to the basket. And his defense is everything it has been in previous years and more, with him turning in a borderline Defensive-Player-of-the-Year performance guarding 1-through-5.
While it may not be Smart’s fault when he gets hurt, the way he plays probably called for a game or two more rest this season, which he declined as is his right. But as he ages, he may not retain that wolverine-like healing ability, so a little more rest against inferior opponents is probably in order.
Daniel Theis
The German big is also hard to grade, as his play last season was impacted by a long recovery from the injury that took Theis out of Boston’s 2018 NBA Playoff run. But he seems to have healed from that mishap, the rare night missed to knee soreness aside.
He’s had some huge games for the Celtics, surpassing anything we could have reasonably expected from a player we weren’t even sure could start sometimes at the beginning of the season, and he’s mostly claimed that role for himself this season, ceding it to Kanter against the biggest fives.
But he’s also had some quiet nights where he fades into the background. Still, even in those games, he rarely makes mistakes, with the third-fewest turnovers per game per 100 possessions on the team.
He’s quietly become a rim protector as well, jumping up to 1.6 blocks per game from just 0.6 last season; the only significant decline has been in his 3-point shooting, which has fallen to 32.1 % from 38.8 %.
Here's an up-close look of Theis' block on Giannis pic.twitter.com/gctKOcpBKP
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) January 17, 2020