without PREDICTING injuries where do you rank Celtics out of east?s 15 Squads ?

[Moranis]

As someone above noted, you can itemize the adds and deducts:

Deduct:          Replacement:
Tatum             Niang
Porzingis         Garza
Holiday           Simons
Horford           Minott
Kornet            Williams (Rookie 2-way)

It ain't pretty.  That is a major down grade in every case except maybe Holiday to Simons.

And yes, I expect Brown to miss games coming off surgery.  He missed his fair share anyways.  That is not a big difference between last season (or any season) and this though.  They will likely be more cautious with him than usual.

Deduct:          Replacement:
Tatum             Niang Luis Boucher
Porzingis         Garza
Holiday           Simons
Horford           Minott
Kornet            Williams (Rookie 2-way)

Hard to keep up.  Looks way better with Boucher.

Does it? One of these guys was Boucher and one of these guys was Niang, last year

10 p, 4.5 r, 0.7 a, 0.5 s, 0.5 b, 61.5 TS% (36.3% from 3)
9.9 p, 3.4 r, 1.4 a, 0.4 s, 0.2 b, 60.7 TS% (40.6% from 3)

Niang played 79 games to Boucher's 50 and Niang was 21.5 mpg to Boucher's 17.2.

Pretty similar players except Niang is pretty much always healthy and Boucher is less so.

[mobilija]

As someone above noted, you can itemize the adds and deducts:

Deduct:          Replacement:
Tatum             Niang
Porzingis         Garza
Holiday           Simons
Horford           Minott
Kornet            Williams (Rookie 2-way)

It ain't pretty.  That is a major down grade in every case except maybe Holiday to Simons.

And yes, I expect Brown to miss games coming off surgery.  He missed his fair share anyways.  That is not a big difference between last season (or any season) and this though.  They will likely be more cautious with him than usual.

Deduct:          Replacement:
Tatum             Niang Luis Boucher
Porzingis         Garza
Holiday           Simons
Horford           Minott
Kornet            Williams (Rookie 2-way)

Hard to keep up.  Looks way better with Boucher.

Does it? One of these guys was Boucher and one of these guys was Niang, last year

10 p, 4.5 r, 0.7 a, 0.5 s, 0.5 b, 61.5 TS% (36.3% from 3)
9.9 p, 3.4 r, 1.4 a, 0.4 s, 0.2 b, 60.7 TS% (40.6% from 3)

Niang played 79 games to Boucher's 50 and Niang was 21.5 mpg to Boucher's 17.2.

Pretty similar players except Niang is pretty much always healthy and Boucher is less so.

Throwing up similar stats of two players says nothing about which player is better or a better fit for the Celtics. You can probably find 30 NBA players w that stat line. Data is meaningless without substantive analysis.