With the recent injuries to Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger, the Celtics have moved rookie center Fab Melo onto the active roster, recalling him from the Maine Red Claws of the D-League. But the C's brass were quick to clarify tonight that Melo's presence doesn't necessarily imply heavy minutes for the youngster right away.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," coach Doc Rivers said with a laugh when asked about the prospect of overusing the rookie Melo. "You try to give him as much as he can handle. You do try to put him in situations like when he's on the floor, Kevin [Garnett] is on the floor with him, to help him."

While today's news of the season-ending back injury to Sullinger does mean more minutes to go around, they might not be Melo's. The Celtics are in an awkward position depth-wise, as their bench already included two backup centers (Chris Wilcox, Jason Collins) and no real power forwards behind Sullinger.

Considering the C's have vowed to embrace the small-ball approach without Sully around, it's difficult to see where Melo fits in.

"There's not a ton of opportunities for Fab to play right now," executive Danny Ainge said. "The center spot is probably our deepest spot, with KG and Wilcox and Collins playing, all healthy. So I don't know. We'll see how he progresses. We still want him to play, so we may be sending him up and down this year."