One of the most common criticisms for this year's Celtics is that their bench got weaker with the losses of James Posey and PJ Brown. I've seen discussions on whether Tony Allen can replace/is worse than/is better than Posey, but I haven't really seen much light shed upon the most important thing: how the bench as a whole works.
Last season, by playoffs time, the Cs' bench was IMO like a team of specialists without an underlying theme. Doc kind of reached down the bench and chose a specialist at need, but there wasn't much continuity. Posey was the constant: the first wing off the bench, strong and versatile defender (from SG to PF), clutch spot-up shooter from 3-point range. You had two shoot-first back-up PGs, one (Cassell) that dominated the ball and shot a lot but in theory was a better ball-handler, the other (House) that liked to spot-up shoot a lot. Allen was a tweener back-up in every way, playing some PG (not well), tentatively driving out of control (an oxymoron caused in part by his knee making him tentative, and in part because the 2nd unit didn't have much room for his scoring mindset next to Cassell), and playing spurts of tough defense. And in the frontcourt we had an inexperienced (read: inconsistent) two-some in scorer Leon Powe and wide body Glen Davis, then when PJ Brown came along he added the experience but further muddied Powe's and Davis' roles to the point that neither seemed confident or proficient on a consistent basis.
The Cs made it work, and the bench was a net positive against the Lakers, but it was FAR from an ideal situation.
This season, people have focused on the fact that Posey and Brown aren't here, and the loss of what they brought to the table as individuals. While there is definitely truth that their skill sets could be missed, this type of analysis smacks to me of the position-by-position matchups that many like to do when comparing teams (i.e. Rondo = Fisher, Kobe > Allen, Pierce > Vlad, KG > Odom, Pau > Perk, etc.) that to me miss so much of the point.
Because this season, the Cs have a bench with a purpose and definite roles. On the second unit, House is the long-range gunner that hassles opposing PGs on defense. Tony Allen is the penetrator that breaks down the defense and gets to the rim, while aggressively defending the opposing wing. Either Pierce or Ray Allen stays in the game as the overall offensive engine that drives the unit. Powe is the low-post scorer/hustle rebounder. And Big Baby is the big body that throws his weight around in the paint on defense, but operates a lot in the high post on offense to open up room for Powe. Even (shockingly) Scal seems to be growing into a 10th man role as a back-up hustle forward that is consistently hitting the 3.
The point is, Posey and Brown have skill sets that will be missed. Brown in particular, as the part of our bench that could most be upgraded is the height/length at the big man spot. But as a whole, I think the bench unit this year works better than last year's. Everyone knows their roles, there is much more balance (i.e. last year the only consistent bench offense was long jumpers, and if they weren't falling there was nothing to hang their hat on), and this allows everyone to get into a rhythm with each other and the starters. I don't know, I just think it's a bit ironic that one of the big perceived weaknesses of this team with respect to last one is actually (IMO) an area of greater strength. And if we DO add a PJ-Brown type upgrade before the season is out (or even better, yet more unlikely, O'Bryant proves himself to be capable of a quality 10 minutes if needed) that would take care of the only question mark that I really have left.
