2026 Celtics Playoff Discussion

[Vermont Green]

The other threads relate to the regular season.  These can be merged but I wanted to start a playoff discussion.  I think it is safe to assume that BOS will end up with the #2 seed and play whoever emerges from the play-in round as the #7 seed.

What I was curious about was how the rotation would work out for the playoffs.  There has not been a stretch where both Tatum and Vucevic have been available so there is some question (but probably not a whole lot of question). 

Jaylen Brown          36 min
Jayson Tatum         36 min
Derrick White         36 min
Payton Pritchard     32 min
Neemias Queta       24 min
Sam Hauser           28 min
Nikola Vučević        24 min

Total                     216 min

The above is pretty much in line with the regular season minutes for the top 7 players.  Tatum has actually been averaging more like 32 min.  There are 240 minutes needed so this means in the range of 24 more minutes from some combination of Scheierman, Walsh, Hugo, and maybe Garza.

On the season, Queta has never played with Garza or Vucevic, so I am not sure that their minutes will increase in the playoffs (zero minutes for Garza + Vucevic also).  Scheierman is not likely to play 24 minutes in the playoffs, I don't think, but that is about what he has been playing since Tatum came back.  24 minutes is a lot of minutes to have Scheierman or Walsh or Hugo on the court.

[smicker16]

TP for starting this up as I have been thinking about this too. However I feel differently than you. I am not worried about those minutes from Baylor Hugo or Walsh. But I do think we see Hauser down to about 22 or so. Joe has not always trusted him in the playoffs and I think he can be picked on at times in a 7 game series. Last year he played around 14 a game in the playoffs and the year they won it all too. That feels like a big jump for him. I see him at 22 and those six minutes being picked up by Brown Tatum White and the Hugo Walsh and Baylor crew. But I do think this is going to be very interesting to see how the rotation shakes out come playoff time.