Danilo Gallinari Injury (Expected to miss entire '22-23 Season)

[sgrogan]

When Al and GWIII are both active I imagine the great majority of Gallo's minutes will go to Gwill and White.
Tatum plays about 12ish minutes at the 4.

[Hoopvortex]

Figured it would be November. Hope Sam Hauser can contribute anything until Gallo returns. Have think Hauser gets Gallo’s minutes as the primary back up wing, which is a scary thought.

Extremely unlikely that Hauser cracks the rotation. He'll get spot minutes unless really drastic things happen.

Ime played a lot of lineups last season with two ballhandlers; and that practice is likely to increase with the introduction of Brogdon. The question is, will we see any lineups this year with NO wings, such as Pritchard/Smart or White/Brogdon/GWill/RWill.

I guess I saw Gallinari's role differently.  I see him as a PF who can play some C in a pinch.  I doubt he was going to play much if any as a wing.  To me, him being out is an opportunity potentially for Volneh or Caboclo.  Much less so for Hauser.

I think you're right about Vonleh or Caboclo. But one of them would really have to distinguish himself to get into the rotation, whereas Gallo is probably headed for rotation minutes.

I don't want to see any of Hauser, Vonleh or Caboclo being relied upon for meaningful minutes in regular season games.  Games count just as much in the standings at the beginning of the season as they do at the end. 

I'm more agnostic about Vonleh and Caboclo. I don't have any great insight into where they are right now with their games; they've certainly both played productive NBA minutes - and also been out of the league completely.

But they've both got intriguing skills, and Caboclo especially has some remarkable physical traits: springy with a 7'7" wingspan, and he's got a shooting touch.

Given their histories, you'd probably bet against them breaking into the rotation. But maybe they just need a coach who can figure out roles for them that they can succeed in. The risk is low for both, in any case. For a contender, those are good bets to make.

Brad needs to upgrade the roster.  He's done the "fill the end of the roster with crap" thing two seasons in a row.

It always bothers me when people refer to pro athletes as "crap". I've known a fair number of them from my work, and every single one of them, without exception, has been a remarkable human being, self-aware and intelligent. They would not be where they are - even if it's twelfth man on an NBA team - without an unusual commitment and work ethic.

Alright, enough of my little speech - I realize you are making a point worth discussing.

The bench was excellent last season - fourth in net rating, according to NBA.com - so adding two rotation-quality players in the off-season inarguably has made the bench a big plus. Brogdon is starter-quality, in fact, so the 82-game slog looks well prepared-for.

I realize that you were talking about "the end of the roster", rather than "the bench", which is a big difference. And it is predictable that rotation players will miss time, and that there is only so much shortening of the rotation that is practical, especially in a long season.

Having said that, Boston is unusually deep in rotation-quality players, so the need to elevate an eleventh man might not arise the entire season.

[jay]

I think Brad had a lot of really young players on the end of the roster when he coached. Not only that, he had really young players that had to actually play. It seems like in his role now that he is aware that he needs vets at least 12 deep and maybe just 2-3 spots for really young guys.

[Vermont Green]

Our first game is 18 Oct 2022.  That is about 7-8 weeks from the injury.  Games are games for the end of the year standings but I think we will be fine for the first month or so of the season without Gallinari.  We are still going to have Brodgon added to pretty much the same core rotation that was the best team in the league down the stretch of the regular season and made it to the finals.

Now if Horford or RWill get injured too, it is more serious but we are still a good team even in that case.  Say Gallinari misses 15 games (that would be him coming back in Mid November, healing for 12 weeks).  Are we 10-5 with him but 9-6 without?  8-7?  Again, of course those 1-3 extra wins would be nice to have at the end and may impact home court in the ECF or something but not that big of a deal to me over the course of a long season.  Every team is going to lose a couple of games due to injury along the way.  We may pick up those wins along the way catching teams when they have a key injury.

[Hoopvortex]

We are still going to have Brodgon added to pretty much the same core rotation that was the best team in the league down the stretch of the regular season and made it to the finals.

Not sure what you mean by “core”, but Daniel Theis was a rotation player down the stretch - 18.7 minutes per is a big chunk. He was basically ninth man, since Pritchard got a big bump in minutes after the all-star break. Boston will undoubtedly be replacing Theis’ key contribution as the third big at some point.

[SparzWizard]

I'd assume he'd come back mid-November and we'll prob be like 8-5 (at least I hope we're above .500 at that point still, I don't want 2021 Celtics/16+ TO Celtics to show up again).

But Gallo will need to help contribute hard once he's back. He can rest up.

[Vermont Green]

We are still going to have Brodgon added to pretty much the same core rotation that was the best team in the league down the stretch of the regular season and made it to the finals.

Not sure what you mean by “core”, but Daniel Theis was a rotation player down the stretch - 18.7 minutes per is a big chunk. He was basically ninth man, since Pritchard got a big bump in minutes after the all-star break. Boston will undoubtedly be replacing Theis’ key contribution as the third big at some point.

Theis hardly played until RWill got hurt and didn't play all that well.  But yes, he was in the mix so that is one player we don't have.  I don't consider him part of the core.

[tenn_smoothie]

Gallinari or not, we still need to add a traditional post player, hopefully with some size and a strong rebounder.
Someone who will knock people on their ass on occasion as well would be a big plus for this team.

Has Stevens talked to Dwight Howard at all ?? Is Howard a little too mean and nasty for Brad's sensibilities ?
We want to win the title and this team needs some attitude to do it - plus we are injury prone at the post position.

[SparzWizard]

Gallinari or not, we still need to add a traditional post player, hopefully with some size and a strong rebounder.
Someone who will knock people on their ass on occasion as well would be a big plus for this team.

Has Stevens talked to Dwight Howard at all ?? Is Howard a little too mean and nasty for Brad's sensibilities ?
We want to win the title and this team needs some attitude to do it - plus we are injury prone at the post position.

That post player need to be able to shoot 3's consistently or else they can't qualify to play for the Celtics 

[Muzzy66]

Gallinari or not, we still need to add a traditional post player, hopefully with some size and a strong rebounder.
Someone who will knock people on their ass on occasion as well would be a big plus for this team.

Has Stevens talked to Dwight Howard at all ?? Is Howard a little too mean and nasty for Brad's sensibilities ?
We want to win the title and this team needs some attitude to do it - plus we are injury prone at the post position.

I'd love to bring in Dwight to be honest.  Horford is getting on in the years and even last year he had to pace himself during the reg season.  Williams is great, but clearly is not dependable to suit up every night.  There almost certainly *will* be nights when both of those guys are out, and we are going to need to rely on Grant Williams or Noah Vonleh to man the starting 5 sport - which could be a little disastrous. 

We need another true big who can control the boards, get easy points around the basket, protect the paint, and provide us with an extra big body when going up against teams like Philly and Milwaukee.  I think Dwight would be perfect.

[gouki88]

Best time it could happen to be honest. Still time to sign someone and plenty of time for him to get back.

Well, even better would have been 2 months ago, but I get your point: Ime faces his first injury challenge, and the new depth of this roster should make the team resilient to this event.

I would go further and say this should be possible without signing somebody else. Using a $6M TPE will cost a lot more than that (lux tax), and for what? to fill in a backup spot for a month? I doubt the C's do it.

Rob?

[SHAQATTACK]

Moses B.  were are thou ?

[Goldstar88]

These reports of Gallinari coming back in November are being given by Italian reporters and not the Celtics organization. Has he seen doctors in the US or had surgery? Doesn’t sound like it.

[Erik]

I know it's counterintuitive, but things like this can sometimes lead to better overall results... Gallinari isn't a spring chicken and we have more than enough firepower to get through the regular season without him. Keep him rested and healthy for the playoffs and bring him back sometime in 2023

[Vermont Green]

These reports of Gallinari coming back in November are being given by Italian reporters and not the Celtics organization. Has he seen doctors in the US or had surgery? Doesn’t sound like it.

This seems like reporting based on typical recovery time for similar injuries.  I feel 100% confident in saying that the Celtics have not defined even a preliminary time line for his return.  Or if surgery or not is required.  But if Gallinari's recovery follows a typical timeline, mid-November is the range.  In this case, I am taking this as the earliest he would be back on the court, considering his age, his place in the overall rotation, etc.