I am not sure when the 2024-25 season thread should start and the off-season thread should end, but with the Sox pretty much out of it and the Patriots not inspiring much excitement, it is hard not to be thinking about the Celtics. What I have been thinking, is that with Porzingis out and with Horford a year older, Kornet and Tillman are going to have pretty important roles.
Last season, between Porzingis, Horford, Kornet, Tillman, Queta, and Brissett (basically our bigs, not including Tatum), they played 5,690 total minutes or about 70 minutes per game. Porzingis is likely to miss at least 25 games to start the season and maybe more as the season goes on so I am going to pencil him in for 50 games and 1,500 minutes. Horford played about 1,700 min last season so that will probably be less, say 1,500 minutes. That leaves 2,700 minutes or so for other bigs if they match last season (with the amount they play small vs big).
That is a lot of minutes for Kornet, Tillman, and Queta. It is 33 minutes per game on average of some combination of these bench players. How well these guys play in these minutes could decide some games. They could also play more small but I am not sure where those minutes would come from, Lonnie Walker? I don't think they will be able to play small any more than they did last season. I think we are going to see a lot of Kornet, Tillman, and to a lesser degree Queta.
