Opinion: Best small ball lineups

[KG Living Legend]

 Any lineup you choose.  Your the coach here. We are down by 10 points in the third quarter,  you decide we need to shake things up and go small. Who ya got?

 I'm going to go with...

Tatum
Brown
Richardson
Prichard
Schröder

And a shooting lineup

Horford
Tatum
Brown
Schroder
Prichard

[Moranis]

I'd rather go big than small honestly.  I think that causes far more match-up problems, at least offensively.

Williams, Horford, Tatum, Brown, Richardson

[Csfan1984]

Kind of tough. I know PP and Nesmith did a solid job giving energy and sparks end of game. And I hate to admit GW does some times too. Smart though can get big stops or gut rebounds. TL provides an x-factor too as you can't leave him due to lobs.

PP, Smart, Nesmith, Brown and Tatum if I need a bucket.

Smart, Richardson, Brown, Tatum, TL if I need a stop.

If you need a 8 or more point run then PP, Schroder, Nesmith, Brown, and Tatum.

[Ogaju]

You need Smart if you are trying to make a run…..runs are driven by defensive stops.

SMART SHROEDER NESMITH BROWN TATUM

[Roy H.]

If we're going truly small:

Tatum
Brown
Richardson
Schroder
Smart

It's tough leaving Pritchard on the bench, but he's not the defender the other guys are. 

[Goldstar88]

After last season, I hope to never see another small ball lineup.

[Somebody]

Any lineup with Horford at centre isn't really a small lineup.

[Celtics4ever]

Death to small ball, it should be a tactic not a team building strategy.

[yelkao]

Death to small ball, it should be a tactic not a team building strategy.

Isn’t that the conceit of this thread? It’s asking ‘If forced to go small in a specific situation, what 5 guys do you choose?’

I don’t think it’s about building a small ball title contender.

[yelkao]

Definitely need Smart in a small ball unit.

Schröder
Pritchard
Smart
Brown
Tatum

[KG Living Legend]

Any lineup with Horford at centre isn't really a small lineup.

So

Horford
Dunn
Smart
Prichard
Schroder

You wouldn't consider this a small ball lineup?

[Surferdad]

I'd rather go big than small honestly.  I think that causes far more match-up problems, at least offensively.

Williams, Horford, Tatum, Brown, Richardson

Agreed.  What if a small-ball lineup is already on the floor?

[SHAQATTACK]

Death to small ball, it should be a tactic not a team building strategy.

Amen

[BudweiserCeltic]

The thing with this team is that we can go "small", but still be quite big in all positions but potentially PF/C depending on who you go with.

To some extent, starting Tatum on PF already seems to say that we're playing small... but since many of our rotation players have length on the wings and guard positions, then we're never truly small.

Kinda like those Golden State Warriors circa 2007 that used Bendris and center but had length through a lot of the other positions.

So the question is... what kind of flavor of small ball you want? Maybe a 3-guard line-up or such, 3-SFs, etc.

[action781]

Small ball is about being fast, having shooters spread the floor, and being switchable on defense.  It's a nice tactic to use when you can put a lineup on the floor that utilizes those skills for better basketball than you'd achieve when playing your 2nd/3rd string center.

I don't see us needing to go small a lot because we have two players who can be very productive on the floor at center and a 3rd who is effective in pinches.  A small ball lineup for us would be an answer to the question "Assuming Horford and Time Lord are not in the game, what lineup would you like to see the Celtics play that does not include Enes Kanter because the speed/spacing of the 5 in the game is better than what Kanter brings?"

I think Smart, Jaylen, and Tatum all must be on the floor because of their 1-5 switchable defense.  Nesmith would be an ideal member for his hustle, defense, and shooting.

I could see cases where Smart - Jaylen - Nesmith - Tatum - Grant Wiliams (on one of his good nights) gives us better basketball than Smart - Jaylen - Nesmith - Tatum - Kanter.

Same with Scroder/Pritchard - Smart - Nesmith - Tatum - Jaylen (defending the 5).  Schroder if you want to create hectic defense.  Pritchard if you want to really spread the floor.