During the 1985-1986 season, Bill Walton and Jerry Sichting averaged just less than 20 minutes per game off the Celtics bench. Scott Wedman averaged over 17 minutes per game, while Rick Carlisle averaged 9.6 minutes per game.
In retrospect, these numbers seem to comport with our memories. Walton was a force off the bench, ultimately winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Sichting wasn't too shabby either, shooting .570 from the field and .924 from the stripe. Wedman filled in ably when McHale missed 14 games from an ankle injury .
As clear as this all seems now, it was far from clear who the top bench players were in November and December of 1985. Sam Vincent was seeing significant playing time in November and part of December, and it took the Celtics most of October and November before deciding to cut Sly Williams in favor of David Thirdkill.
And so it goes with this year's Boston Celtics bench.
The only two constants off the bench are James Posey and Eddie House, with Posey averaging 21.4 minutes per game, while House is averaging just under 20, or about the same number of minutes as Walton and Sichting averaged in 1985-86.
Once you get to roster spots 8, 9, and 10, the only reliable guideline is to say that playing time is being divvied up "situationally," which is to say Doc will play Pollard, Scalabrine, Glen Davis, or Tony Allen based on match-ups, foul trouble, and who seems to be making the biggest impact upon entering the game.
I'm also going to throw in Gabe Pruitt's name.
Pruitt had a couple of big games in the NBDL, which prompted Rivers to recall his rookie to the major league squad. This move coincided with another injury to Tony Allen, who wasn't playing all that well before the injury. I observed elsewhere that since Gabe Pruitt and Tony Allen are about the same height and can play the same position, Tony Allen might want to consider getting healthy fast and returning to form just as fast.
TA did return to action, and provided solid play off the bench during the second half against the Sixers, while Pruitt's performance off the bench was uninspiring, and won him a return ticket to the D-league. TA is getting the minutes now and probably into January, but I don't think this battle is over. Much will depend on the development of Gabe Pruitt and the recovery of Tony Allen.
Meanwhile, Brian Scalabrine's role has taken a dramatic downturn, while Big Baby's role appears to be on the rise. Over the first six games, Scalabrine played 20, 16, 15, 18, 13, and 10 minutes. Over the last six games, he's played 6, 5, 22, 6, 8, and 2 minutes. Big Baby's role is going in the opposite direction. After three DNPCDs and four games where he played 6 minutes or less over the first eight games, he's seen his PT increase to 31, 21, and 15 over the last four games, with the other game being a DNPCD against Miami.
For deep rotational players, minutes are bound to ebb and flow over the course of the season, just as they did during the Celtics last championship year. Not surprisingly, the first round of the Tony Allen-Gabe Pruitt saga was won by Tony Allen. I say stay tuned for later rounds in February and March. As for Scalabrine and Davis, we may be noticing an early sign that Davis has supplanted Scalabrine as the third player off the Celtics bench. It difficult to gauge this battle with any confidence, though, as Big Baby is a rookie, and at some point is likely to hit the proverbial wall.
But if Doc can manage his minutes, and Davis can continue to provide an emotional spark off the bench, plus offer some tough D and timely O, he could see his minutes climb into the Posey-House neighborhood, which, I assume, would be welcome news to KG.
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