Benchmark

With 6 games tucked under their belts and a split win/loss record, the bench assembled by DA during the quick pre-season has so far managed to put a significant dent on the Celtics latest campaign.

Bass is leading the way with 13.8 ppg and 5.50 in rebounding, followed by Dooling (7.5 ppg), Steimsma (5.3 ppg and 3 bpg) and Daniels (5 ppg) as against last year’s Davis (11.7 ppg), Green (9.8 ppg), Kristic (9.1 ppg) and West (5.6 ppg). They are separated by a mere 5 points. The team averages 96.5 points a game so the bench accounts for almost 1/3 of the scoring. If we can get a steady production of around 30 points a game from them that would take off a big chunk of the offensive load from the starters.

Steimsma did played as a starting center last game where he scored 13 points which would account for that higher scoring average of 5.3 ppg but, unless O’Neal is gone for an extended period of time, Steimsma is expected to come off the bench again. We might also want to consider Pavlovic’s 4.3 ppg even if it looks insignificant now since he has been relegated back into the deep end of the bench after Pierce returned, for the simple reason that he showed that given the chance he can convert his perimeter shots. So far Wilcox has been a non-factor aside from his 3 rbg while Bradley continues to mystify with his inability to fit in offensively.

As for the defense, last season’s average on points allowed and field goal percentage of the opposing team are slightly better than this young season. Points allowed so far is at 96.8 points as against last year’s 91.1 points. On the field goal percentage opponents last year averages .434 compared to this year’s .457. So far, opponents are scoring at a better rate which leads to more points. Allowing familiarity to develop along the way could improve the way they play defense.

And as the season wears on and Pietrus starts playing we should see an improvement on bench production. It wouldn’t hurt if Steimsma can be more aggressive in hitting those elbow jumpers and try mixing it up on the inside with his short hook. Daniels also needs to improve on his abysmal .325 FG% while Wilcox needs to show us some of that 7.4 ppg he contributed in Detroit last season. As for Bradley, for us to truly appreciate his defensive skills he needs to stop being too much of an offensive liability.

Still 2 questions linger: how much does Doc trusts his bench to go deep enough to play Johnson and Moore and reduce further the playing time of the starters and will DA alter the bench before the post season? We’ll see the answers as the season progress.