That Have A Ring To It?

It was a rhetorical question, but maybe one that Celtics boss Brad Stevens should to take a bit more literally. In looking at Boston’s current crop of point guards, one Eastern Conference executive was asked whether the team could really go with Derrick White as the starter. There was a brief snort.

And then: “What else can they do?”

What else, indeed. The Celtics, as of now, are committed to a starter at point guard who simply has not played much point guard in the last four seasons of his career. According to the numbers over at Basketball-Reference.com, White has been at the point in only 15% of his possessions since 2018. It’s not easy to win a championship that way.

But for a team that still considers itself a legitimate contender for an NBA ring, there is no other feasible choice—not yet, at least. The Celtics will keep reigning Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon on the bench, and do have some concern about Brogdon’s health after he suffered an arm injury that limited him in the playoffs. He’s expected to be back by the start of the season, though that will depend on whether and when he requires surgery.

Payton Pritchard, assuming he stays with the team, will be the third point guard after falling out of the rotation last season, appearing in just 48 games. White, Brogdon and Pritchard—that’s not a bad group. It’s just not a group big on high-level playmaking.

You might have to send your memory all the way back to the 2022 NBA Finals against the Warriors to recall that the Celtics were diagnosed by many an expert as severely lacking playmakers. Boston committed 97 turnovers in that six-game series, and the Warriors—notorious for being loose with the ball—committed 79.

The offense bogged down repeatedly. The Celtics needed more help initiating, and, recognizing the problem, Stevens brought in Brogdon in a brilliant move last summer.

A year later, here we are: The Celtics traded away their best playmaker, Marcus Smart, to acquire center Kristaps Porzingis. There are injury concerns about Brogdon, while Pritchard’s development has been stunted by a lack of playing time. And the plan now is to hand over the keys to the offense to White, a career shooting guard.

While it is true that not every team needs a traditional point guard, especially in today’s NBA, that only really applies when there is another de facto point guard on hand, usually a major star through whom you can run your offense, like LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Nikola Jokic.

The Celtics have seen strides from both of their stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, as playmakers, but neither should have the offense entirely funneled through him. Tatum and Brown do a lot of things well, but neither can match James when it comes to playmaking. Or Antetokounmpo for that matter.

Options To Boost PG Spot Limited For Celtics

So … what else can they do?

“I don’t know if they guy who will be their point guard in the postseason next year is on their roster right now,” the executive said. “It may happen in the next few weeks, it may happen during the season. But they will probably have to look at another move for a 1 (guard).”

The options to bring in someone else are limited with the financial tools Celtics have available—essentially, just the taxpayer midlevel exception, at $5 million. And maybe the Celtics feel that, after the terrific season he had (12.4 points and 3.9 assists in 28.3 minutes, with 46.2% shooting and 38.1% 3-point shooting), White is ready for a crack at the point-guard spot. At the least, the Celtics could open the season with White as the starting point guard, then change course with a trade if that does not work out.

There’s a chance the team could use a sign-and-trade of Grant Williams to add a point guard, but the deal would have to be with a team significantly under the salary cap, like Indiana or Orlando. That way, the Celtics could trade Williams and take back a player at a much lower salary, like Jalen Suggs of the Magic
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or T.J. McConnell of the Pacers.

Even still, there would have to be salary-cutting elsewhere if the Celtics are to avoid the luxury tax’s dread second apron, which adds draconian punishment for teams $17.5 million above the tax threshold—that’s about $179.5 million this year, and the Celtics are already at $173 million. Adding a point guard and dodging the second apron could, in the end, cost them oft-injured big man Robert Williams.

That is a tough price to pay, and it would be surprising if the Celtics paid it. But if the goal is to not have to use White as the starting point guard, well, what else can they do?