Poll: Your preferred backcourt

[KG Living Legend]

 
 All great choices. People will say Tatum can't play guard, he can while he's skinny. My vote is for the Smart Irving backcourt, we will see this lineup to closeout games. Although I am a big fan if Starting Brown because he won't have to do too much playing with the big 3. He can focus on defense and rebounding and hitting wide open shots, because Jaylen will be left open all day long playing with the big 3.

[Eja117]

I'd love Tatum to start at SF or fight M Morris for it, and Jaylen be 6th man/wing extrordinaire.

[KG Living Legend]

 I would too, but we need to keep the peace for now. If a young guy starts it should be Brown. Let Tatum fight and work really hard in practice first.

[positivitize]

Smart and Irving in the backcourt
Hayward the 3
then Either (Morris + Horford) or (Horford + Baynes) as bigs.

The bench would be TRO, Brown, Tatum, (Morris or Baynes) + one of (yabu, Ojelie, theise)

Sounds like a ton of fun, honestly--if it is a little small.

[nickagneta]

I think Smart is better off the bench with Brown starting. My guess is Stevens' starting lineup will be his best offensive lineup which means having Brown at SG using his size and athleticisn to overmatch other SGs. Look for Brown to do a lot of corner three shooting and cuts for dunks or alley oops.

Smart will be better bringing some veteran presence off the bench and initiate the offense with the second team. I could see Hayward playing a lot with the second team.

Rozier
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Baynes.

I could also see Smart going in for Hayward with Brown switching to small forward as the first substitution. Then slowly work the rest of the second team in until you have the second unit I listed above.

Closing unit could have Smart instead of Brown but that may depend on the matchup and how Brown's defensive game progresses.

[Eja117]

 I would too, but we need to keep the peace for now. If a young guy starts it should be Brown. Let Tatum fight and work really hard in practice first.

I think I totally agree. I'm just projecting

[billysan]

I'm starting Jaylen with Irving. Smart will get plenty of minutes when we need defense.

I hope Tatum can handle the stretch 4 role but he may end up being more of a power 3 from a defensive standpoint. At least until he matures and adds some muscle.

I'm really interested to see what our starting big and big man rotation ends up being. My preference is to start Baynes and Horford with Morris as first off the bench. I know there are a lot of choices after that but size matters so Theis  and Yabusele are likely next unless Brad does his magic on Robinson.

[billysan]

I'm starting Jaylen with Irving. Smart will get plenty of minutes when we need defense.

I hope Tatum can handle the stretch 4 role but he may end up being more of a power 3 from a defensive standpoint. At least until he matures and adds some muscle.

I'm really interested to see what our starting big and big man rotation ends up being. My preference is to start Baynes and Horford with Morris as first off the bench. I know there are a lot of choices after that but size matters so Theis  and Yabusele are likely next unless Brad does his magic on Robinson.

[ThePaintedArea]

All great choices. People will say Tatum can't play guard, he can while he's skinny. My vote is for the Smart Irving backcourt, we will see this lineup to closeout games. Although I am a big fan if Starting Brown because he won't have to do too much playing with the big 3. He can focus on defense and rebounding and hitting wide open shots, because Jaylen will be left open all day long playing with the big 3.

Brown is most likely. Brad said recently that he needs to be "a lock-down defender" - clearly Hayward is not going to be the designated wing stopper. But Jaylen'll be more than a spot-up shooter, too.  He'll get more responsibility to create offense early on, and his role will expand.

I'm not sure what it would mean for Tatum to play guard. Meaning: he's going to guard DeRozan and Klay and Avery Bradley? I'm skeptical. No way he starts in the beginning of the year at any position; but probably similar to what we saw this past season with Jaylen, he'll be worked into the rotation pretty early.

Having Brown in the starting lineup with Morris allows the Celtics to play 5-out and open the lane for Irving, Hayward, and Brown to drive. That's a juicy prospect, and I think that it means that Baynes and Smart are not starters.

Brad loves Smart. He was used as a sixth man last season (though he got starter minutes), and I'd bet that his role will be similar, allowing Irving to play off the ball.

Then again, everything has changed, hasn't it? You can count on the generals, they say, to be fighting the last war, at least until they get their asses whipped once or twice.  I'd bet that Boston's high-octane offense will lull the roster into a false sense of superiority, and they'll have to look in the mirror and get real about defense sometime in January.

[RJ87]

Whoever earns it in training camp.

[Granath]

Brownie and Irving.

We need Smart to run the 2nd team which is going to have a lot of new NBA players on it. Guys like Semi, Tatum and Yabusele will need a steady hand and that's not likely to be Rozier. We know it isn't Jaylen. That means it has to be Smart who acts as the veteran presence when all of those youngsters are on the floor.

Meanwhile, having 2 starting guards who can both penetrate and shoot from outside is pretty special. Irving has the handle, Jaylen has the athleticism. That's a pretty decent sized combo as well at 6'3" and 6'7" which allows for a lot of switching off. 

[keevsnick]

Brown/Irving. I mean we saw last year that when Bradley went down the Celtics went with Jaylen over smart. Jaylen played better with the starters and Smart is better playing PG full time where he has size mismatches on every possession which makes him a little more playable offensively. Jaylen also provides better spacing, so if the Celtics want to start a non-shooter like Baynes at C to go big to open games it makes more sense for Brown to be in over smart.

[Jamilmac99]

I voted Smart/Irving but can totally understand those that voted Brown/Irving as Smart seems great with the second unit. My problem is I was semi-disappointed with how Brown played in Summer League and I watched almost all the games. I know that doesn't necessarily mean alot but guys, help me out here. Is Brown really going to step up this year?

[PickNRoll]

I think Smart is better off the bench with Brown starting. My guess is Stevens' starting lineup will be his best offensive lineup which means having Brown at SG using his size and athleticisn to overmatch other SGs. Look for Brown to do a lot of corner three shooting and cuts for dunks or alley oops.

Smart will be better bringing some veteran presence off the bench and initiate the offense with the second team. I could see Hayward playing a lot with the second team.

Rozier
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Baynes.

I could also see Smart going in for Hayward with Brown switching to shooting guard as the first substitution. Then slowly work the rest of the second team in until you have the second unit I listed above.

Closing unit could have Smart instead of Brown but that may depend on the matchup and how Brown's defensive game progresses.

Agree with this completely.  Brown is going to need to step up his defense or we could see Hayward at the 2.

[blink]

I think Smart is better off the bench with Brown starting. My guess is Stevens' starting lineup will be his best offensive lineup which means having Brown at SG using his size and athleticisn to overmatch other SGs. Look for Brown to do a lot of corner three shooting and cuts for dunks or alley oops.

Smart will be better bringing some veteran presence off the bench and initiate the offense with the second team. I could see Hayward playing a lot with the second team.

Rozier
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Baynes.

I could also see Smart going in for Hayward with Brown switching to shooting guard as the first substitution. Then slowly work the rest of the second team in until you have the second unit I listed above.

Closing unit could have Smart instead of Brown but that may depend on the matchup and how Brown's defensive game progresses.

I agree 100%.  Really like your idea of the 2nd unit mixing time with Horford.