What is our best line up for the Playoffs

[footey]

Below are the most used line ups so far and their result in terms of +/-.  The core line up is same as the regular season.  That line up has continued to do just fine.  In total, there are 12 different combinations of the core 8 players that have been used for 3 or more minutes.  There are another 12 combinations that have been used for 1 min or less.  Kornet has played for 1 minute total.

D. White - M. Smart - J. Brown - J. Tatum - A. Horford                        28 min   +13
M. Smart - J. Brown - M. Brogdon - S. Hauser - R. Williams III            10 min    +3
D. White - J. Brown - J. Tatum - A. Horford - R. Williams III                 7 min     +1
M. Smart - J. Brown - M. Brogdon - J. Tatum - A. Horford                    7 min     +3

I think a big surprise for me is that we have been limited to the 8 man rotation.  Most notably, Grant has not been in the rotation.  I checked all the other teams, 10 teams are using 9 man rotations, 5 are using 8 man rotations (including BOS) with PHO using 7 in their rotation.  Injuries and suspensions are skewing this some.

I am still surprised they are not playing Grant.  He is definitely a lesser talent than the main 7, especially the way Horford has been playing, but I see Grant as a playoff caliber player, 8th or 9th man.  Hauser has established himself as the 8th man, at least for this series.  That seems more match up based than ability based.

The Celtics top unit has been used on average about 14 min per game.  PHO for example is using their top unit over 20 min per game.  We have narrowed the core rotation but we are doing a pretty good job of spreading those minutes around, and using a bunch of combinations.  Our 1-7 are all starter level players.  Not much drop off no matter what the combination.  And Hauser has been playing at that level lately also.  He has been a solid 8th guy.

Hauser better fit than Grant vs Hawks. I expect roles could be switched next series v Sixers.

[Vermont Green]

Adding one more thing, our starters from last season have only been used together for 3 min:

M. Smart - J. Brown - J. Tatum - A. Horford - R. Williams III       3 min    -2

Because they are not using Grant, they are limited as to how much they can play Horford and RWill together I guess.

[Phantom255x]

White gave us clutch FTs at the end. Meanwhile Smart had three boneheaded plays in the final 90 seconds including that foul to give ATL the lead again 

White needs to be playing a lot more, period. Brogdon too

Sorry but Smart is making more "losing plays" than winning ones this season.

[Vermont Green]

The final results are in, at least for this series.  The most used line up was:

A. Horford - M. Smart - J. Brown - J. Tatum - D. White   82 min   +17

That isn't necessarily the best line up though.  It is hard to say exactly what the best line up was, what metric to use.

The most impactful player was clearly Al Horford.  He ended up at +60 overall.  RWill was -9 overall.  Grant was -6 (in only 3 games).  Al was the big that impacted the game all series.

[Who]

The final results are in, at least for this series.  The most used line up was:

A. Horford - M. Smart - J. Brown - J. Tatum - D. White   82 min   +17

That isn't necessarily the best line up though.  It is hard to say exactly what the best line up was, what metric to use.

The most impactful player was clearly Al Horford.  He ended up at +60 overall. RWill was -9 overall.  Grant was -6 (in only 3 games).  Al was the big that impacted the game all series.

And he got so much criticism in that series.

I thought Horford played good defense throughout particularly on those switches with Trae Young. How many centers in the league would defend Trae better when left alone on an island against Trae? A player as quick and as skilled as Trae? Hardly any. Only a small number could defend Trae as well as Horford did.

The expectations for what a center should be able to do in one-on-ones defensively against Trae were all out of whack. Horford did his job and did it well against Trae.

Any issues with Horford vs Trae were ones of coaching strategy in choosing to accept so many one-on-ones with Trae instead of using alternate strategies. That is not Horford's fault. That is the coach's fault.

Horford played really well on defense in that series. He was quiet on offense but not bad because of the value of his passing and pulling the opponent bigs out of the pain which helped ease his reluctance to shoot and so-so shooting numbers in the series.