Rounding out the Boston Celtics rotation for the playoffs

One thing you can say for these late season games is that they have a quasi-training camp feel to them. You have the vets playing limited minutes and young guys and new guys getting extended looks. That gives the coach a good chance to evaluate his bench in game situations and lets him figure out who he can trust when the playoffs begin.

Paul Pierce takes a personal day | Boston Herald

Rivers then added, "We don’t have our playoff rotation set. Most teams do. We don’t. We have, I know, seven for sure, but we want to play eight or nine, and we don’t have that. So it gives us a good look at all the other guys to figure out the one or two other guys that it’ll be."

I can already hear you counting off the names in your head so I'll save you the trouble. The top seven are Garnett, Pierce, Green, Bradley, Lee, Terry, and Bass. That seems to indicate that Chris Wilcox isn't necessarily a given in the rotation. Shavlik Randolph is giving him a run for his money. Wilcox has more talent and length but Randolph seems to be more consistent.

Also, Doc needs to figure out how to work in Crawford and/or Williams without losing too much hair in the process. Jay King summed it up nicely.

Chris Wilcox' spot in danger? Doc Rivers says Boston Celtics still haven't settled on playoff rotation | masslive.com

Randolph is a better rebounder than Wilcox (and looks more like actor Josh Holloway), but Wilcox is a better finisher at the rim (note that he leads the league in true shooting percentage among players with at least 40 games played). As for Crawford and Williams, they're a bit like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

I'm not a smart man, but I know that playoff rotations are shorter, so these guys better impress the coach soon. Who do you think should be in the 8 or 9 man rotation?