Why Isn’t Theis Playing?

[nickagneta]

And Theis just isn't as good as those four guys. As I said, Theis will get some minutes. When he is needed. But right now he isn't and the team is playing off the charts good. I see This getting some run, but not a lot, unless there are injuries. Next year, I think we a lot of Theis if Al is gone.

I of course don't know but I find it hard to believe that they did this trade so that they would have Theis next year.  I get that GWilliams has been playing well and that they play 1 big sometimes.  If after doing this trade, the reality is that Theis is not good enough to even play unless someone gets injured, it is a very questionable trade.

And if Theis is not good enough to play this year, it is not likely he will be good enough next year either.  Kind of a waste if that turns out to be the case.

I said at the time of the trade that this could be a next year trade as much as a this year trade, or, more specifically, that the C's were not planning on paying Al $26.5 million next year.  This year, Theis is insurance for 35-year old Horford and oft-injured Rob Williams.  The Celtics seem committed to two bigs for the majority of the game, and Theis makes that possible even in the event of an injury, as he can fill in for either of the two (as well as Grant, who's generally been healthy).  Next year, however, Horford is not going to be kept on his massive contract unless the C's win the title and thus it fully guarantees.  Maybe there will be a trade, maybe he'll be waived or stretched.  But if Al is only here for one season, the team won't be in the same bind as they were the last time he left.

Exactly...TP4U for saving me the time to not have to write all that.

[droopdog7]

I was curious how ime would rotate him in as it didn't seem like there was enough room for all four at once.  I guess we have our answer.  Theis was brought as insurance. 

Like it or not, short rotations are part of Ime's philosophy.

[wikkid1]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight. Hopefully he’s ok.

Couldn’t agree more.  Theis gives it his all and should be out there at least 10-15 min a game.  Al ain’t getting any younger.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

[Kiorrik]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

[ozgod]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

I vote that as Quote of the Week 

[GreenlyGreeny]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

We were playing Timelord some ludicrous minutes in early March. My guess is he was pushed too far, they then backed off somewhat, but clearly did not back off enough.

Timelord is clearly the type of player we should rarely, if ever, have playing more than 30 minutes in a game. Load management, or lord management if you will, should be a priority with Timelord. Keep him fresh for the games/minutes we really need him. Get Theis and GWill more minutes instead. Gotta keep hoping that Pritchard grows so we can use the MLE on a 4/5.

[gouki88]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

We were playing Timelord some ludicrous minutes in early March. My guess is he was pushed too far, they then backed off somewhat, but clearly did not back off enough.

Timelord is clearly the type of player we should rarely, if ever, have playing more than 30 minutes in a game. Load management, or lord management if we prefer, should be a priority with Timelord. Keep him fresh for the games/minutes we really need him. Get Theis and GWill more minutes instead.

3 games above 35 minutes in an entire month = "ludicrous minutes"? What?

He averaged 28.3MPG over the course of March, your theory is bogus.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

We were playing Timelord some ludicrous minutes in early March. My guess is he was pushed too far, they then backed off somewhat, but clearly did not back off enough.

Timelord is clearly the type of player we should rarely, if ever, have playing more than 30 minutes in a game. Load management, or lord management if we prefer, should be a priority with Timelord. Keep him fresh for the games/minutes we really need him. Get Theis and GWill more minutes instead.

3 games above 35 minutes in an entire month = "ludicrous minutes"? What?

He averaged 28.3MPG over the course of March, your theory is bogus.

How about all the MPG in Feb. and Jan.? We had some games where he was quite beyond 35 minutes. His body can’t handle that. We gotta keep it to 24-28ish depending on the game. We’ve got adequate players in Theis and GWill, especially given that Horford can play the 5 when needed.

35 might not sound like a whole lot more than 28, but it’s actually 25% more. It’s the difference between playing a little over a half versus pretty much 3/4ths of a game. The dude is just not built/conditioned like Karl Malone so we gotta stop giving him Malone-esque minutes in certain games.

The only criticism I have of Ime is playing starters too much. We gotta have fresh legs come the playoffs because other teams will be fresh.

[gouki88]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

We were playing Timelord some ludicrous minutes in early March. My guess is he was pushed too far, they then backed off somewhat, but clearly did not back off enough.

Timelord is clearly the type of player we should rarely, if ever, have playing more than 30 minutes in a game. Load management, or lord management if we prefer, should be a priority with Timelord. Keep him fresh for the games/minutes we really need him. Get Theis and GWill more minutes instead.

3 games above 35 minutes in an entire month = "ludicrous minutes"? What?

He averaged 28.3MPG over the course of March, your theory is bogus.

How about all the MPG in Feb. and Jan.? We had some games where he was quite beyond 35 minutes. His body can’t handle that. We gotta keep it to 24-28ish depending on the game. We’ve got adequate players in Theis and GWill, especially given that Horford can play the 5 when needed.

35 might not sound like a whole lot more than 28, but it’s actually 25% more. It’s the difference between playing a little over a half versus pretty much 3/4ths of a game. The dude is just not built/conditioned like Karl Malone so we gotta stop giving him Malone-esque minutes in certain games.

The only criticism I have of Ime is playing starters too much. We gotta have fresh legs come the playoffs because other teams will be fresh.

32MPG in Jan, 31MPG in Feb, and then 28 in March - so his minutes were actually getting lower and lower. I agree that Ime had played the starters too much, but it was something he was improving on. An injury to Timelord was inevitable

[GreenlyGreeny]

Running Horford 34 minutes when we’ve got Theis on the bench makes zero sense. Horford should be given load management just like Duncan in the early/mid 2010s. Save the 34 minute games for close-out or elimination games in the playoffs.

Ime is getting through to the fellas, but consistently running 4-5 guys for over 35 minutes of a game, particularly your starting 35 year old PF, is not going to lead to the right results come playoff time. What eventually happens is what happened to JB tonight.Hopefully he’s ok.

Hard to fault Ime, whom I love, but perhaps if we had played Theis more, Timelord does not become injured?

Happy to see him resting JT/JB/Horford tonight, especially with us still being competitive against the Raptors. Given what happened to Timelord, load management the rest of the way until the playoffs makes more sense than going for the one seed. It would be nice to avoid the Nets, Bucks and 76ers until Timelord is better.

Honestly I can't even.

Yes, Greenly. You're right. If Rob wasn't playing he'd not get injured.

We were playing Timelord some ludicrous minutes in early March. My guess is he was pushed too far, they then backed off somewhat, but clearly did not back off enough.

Timelord is clearly the type of player we should rarely, if ever, have playing more than 30 minutes in a game. Load management, or lord management if we prefer, should be a priority with Timelord. Keep him fresh for the games/minutes we really need him. Get Theis and GWill more minutes instead.

3 games above 35 minutes in an entire month = "ludicrous minutes"? What?

He averaged 28.3MPG over the course of March, your theory is bogus.

How about all the MPG in Feb. and Jan.? We had some games where he was quite beyond 35 minutes. His body can’t handle that. We gotta keep it to 24-28ish depending on the game. We’ve got adequate players in Theis and GWill, especially given that Horford can play the 5 when needed.

35 might not sound like a whole lot more than 28, but it’s actually 25% more. It’s the difference between playing a little over a half versus pretty much 3/4ths of a game. The dude is just not built/conditioned like Karl Malone so we gotta stop giving him Malone-esque minutes in certain games.

The only criticism I have of Ime is playing starters too much. We gotta have fresh legs come the playoffs because other teams will be fresh.

32MPG in Jan, 31MPG in Feb, and then 28 in March - so his minutes were actually getting lower and lower. I agree that Ime had played the starters too much, but it was something he was improving on. An injury to Timelord was inevitable

Yeah, I do have to give credit to Ime for improving on that front. Sadly, an injury to Timelord probably was inevitable, just like an injury to CP3 was inevitable. Hopefully we can keep rolling forward like the Suns have. Hopefully Timelord can find a way to better condition himself and play a bit safer in the future. Love the guy, but not so much when he’s injured. There has to be a happy-medium for the guy.

[Vermont Green]

This whole narrative that Ime played the starters too much is kind of taking on a life of its own.  RWill averaged 29.6 min in 61 of 74 games while Horford averaged 29.0 min in 64 games.  They rank 84th and 94th in the league on a per game basis.  In total, Al is at 1853 minutes, RWill at 1804 minutes, 95th and 102nd respectively in the league.

This is on a team that barely had playable bigs on the bench, other than GWill.  The team traded for Theis to add to this depth.  If 1800 minutes is too much, what do people want, 1600?  Is that going to avoid injury?  You are barely a starter at that level of minutes.  How about 1200 minutes?

I don't buy into any of this.  Al and Rob are our starting bigs and you just have to go with them.  Not be stupid with minutes but you have to play them.

[Kiorrik]

Captain Hindsight wears many cowls this time of year.

You have a young big on the same restricted minutes as old man Al.

The rotations were fine. Don't act like Rob wouldn't have gotten hurt if he'd gotten that bump after playing 5 fewer minutes back in Jan/Feb.

Even if it were true, that'd be some ridiculous crystal ball nonsense.

[ozgod]

I have a feeling that Ime might start Theis one of these games, to see what that starting lineup looks like with Theis slotted in for Timelord, and keeping the bench rotation the way it was previously, with GWill and White first off the bench as wing/big and wing/ball handler replacements, and Pritchard as the combo guard cover. Then he can compare if those lineup permutations work better than having GWill in the starting lineup.

[gouki88]

I have a feeling that Ime might start Theis one of these games, to see what that starting lineup looks like with Theis slotted in for Timelord, and keeping the bench rotation the way it was previously, with GWill and White first off the bench as wing/big and wing/ball handler replacements, and Pritchard as the combo guard cover. Then he can compare if those lineup permutations work better than having GWill in the starting lineup.

I'd do it. It would get some (not nearly all, but some) of the vertical presence on both ends that TL provides. Theis was really solid again against Miami