During the other night’s Celtics-Suns game, Hubie Brown first praised the depth of the Boston Celtics, and then opined that given that depth, Celtics coach Doc Rivers will have a difficult time whittling the rotation down to eight players in time for a successful playoff run.
Ah, the old “championship teams are made up of eight-players and no more” canard.
From whence came this theory?
I think it started in the mid-1980s.
The great Lakers teams of the 80s had an eight-player rotation. Take a look at the 1987 squad: Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kurt Rambis, Michael Cooper, AC Green, and Mychal Thompson.
The 1986 Celtics team had perhaps the greatest 8-man rotation ever: DJ, Ainge, Bird, McHale, Parish, Walton, Wedman, and Sichting.
And since these two teams had such great success rotating their top eight players, the recipe for every title contender's success must be eight players to a rotation, no more and no less.
Or so the theory goes.
I’m not buying.
Reasoning backwards from an observation may have a place in sports discourse, but this isn’t it.
The 1986 Celtics were not as rigidly adherent to playing their top eight as our faded memories might tell us. David Thirdkill played 47 minutes in 13 games during the playoff run, alternating with Rick Carlisle to defend Michael Jordan in the first round after the rotational players had gotten themselves into foul trouble. Carlisle's playoff stint included 54 minutes over 10 games, scoring 19 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and dishing 8 dimes. Greg Kite played 78 minutes over 13 games, scoring 18 points, grabbing 19 rebounds, and adding four blocks.
Doesn’t sound like a strict eight man rotation to me.
I won’t apply a similar analysis to the Lakers 1987 championship run because, well, I don’t like the Lakers, and I'd rather spend as little time thinking about them as possible.
However, I will point out that the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons went nine deep from the start of the season to the end of it. Most of the Chicago Bulls championship squads adopted a center-by-committee approach that was very similar to Chuck Daly's Pistons. This resulted in a rotation that also went nine or ten deep.
Which brings me to the current edition of the Boston Celtics.
The top seven players in the rotation are set in stone.
Starters
Rajon Rondo
Ray Allen
Kevin Garnett
Paul Pierce
Kendrick Perkins
Bench
James Posey
Eddie House
Best of the Rest
Leon Powe
Big Baby
Sam Cassell
PJ Brown
Tony Allen
Sam Cassell hasn't earned enough playing time to be included with Posey and House in the first wave off the bench. Nonetheless, Doc's gonna need to figure out a way to keep giving Sam a good 8-15 minutes per game, if he wants to improve the chances that Cassell actually contributes when his number is called. Otherwise, we've all seen what a rusty Cassell looks like, and it's not something many of us would like to see again.
Bottom line is that like the 1986 Celtics, the 1989 Pistons, and most of the Chicago Bulls' championship teams, the Celtics are simply deeper than eight players. And like those teams, Doc will probably go with a rotation of seven or eight core players, and then pick and choose the appropriate times and match-ups to deploy the deeper bench, ie., players 9-12.
And also like those teams, tactical deployment of the deeper bench will not impede Doc from coaching this team to a championship.
Ah, the old “championship teams are made up of eight-players and no more” canard.
From whence came this theory?
I think it started in the mid-1980s.
The great Lakers teams of the 80s had an eight-player rotation. Take a look at the 1987 squad: Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kurt Rambis, Michael Cooper, AC Green, and Mychal Thompson.
The 1986 Celtics team had perhaps the greatest 8-man rotation ever: DJ, Ainge, Bird, McHale, Parish, Walton, Wedman, and Sichting.
And since these two teams had such great success rotating their top eight players, the recipe for every title contender's success must be eight players to a rotation, no more and no less.
Or so the theory goes.
I’m not buying.
Reasoning backwards from an observation may have a place in sports discourse, but this isn’t it.
The 1986 Celtics were not as rigidly adherent to playing their top eight as our faded memories might tell us. David Thirdkill played 47 minutes in 13 games during the playoff run, alternating with Rick Carlisle to defend Michael Jordan in the first round after the rotational players had gotten themselves into foul trouble. Carlisle's playoff stint included 54 minutes over 10 games, scoring 19 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and dishing 8 dimes. Greg Kite played 78 minutes over 13 games, scoring 18 points, grabbing 19 rebounds, and adding four blocks.
Doesn’t sound like a strict eight man rotation to me.
I won’t apply a similar analysis to the Lakers 1987 championship run because, well, I don’t like the Lakers, and I'd rather spend as little time thinking about them as possible.
However, I will point out that the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons went nine deep from the start of the season to the end of it. Most of the Chicago Bulls championship squads adopted a center-by-committee approach that was very similar to Chuck Daly's Pistons. This resulted in a rotation that also went nine or ten deep.
Which brings me to the current edition of the Boston Celtics.
The top seven players in the rotation are set in stone.
Starters
Rajon Rondo
Ray Allen
Kevin Garnett
Paul Pierce
Kendrick Perkins
Bench
James Posey
Eddie House
Best of the Rest
Leon Powe
Big Baby
Sam Cassell
PJ Brown
Tony Allen
Sam Cassell hasn't earned enough playing time to be included with Posey and House in the first wave off the bench. Nonetheless, Doc's gonna need to figure out a way to keep giving Sam a good 8-15 minutes per game, if he wants to improve the chances that Cassell actually contributes when his number is called. Otherwise, we've all seen what a rusty Cassell looks like, and it's not something many of us would like to see again.
Bottom line is that like the 1986 Celtics, the 1989 Pistons, and most of the Chicago Bulls' championship teams, the Celtics are simply deeper than eight players. And like those teams, Doc will probably go with a rotation of seven or eight core players, and then pick and choose the appropriate times and match-ups to deploy the deeper bench, ie., players 9-12.
And also like those teams, tactical deployment of the deeper bench will not impede Doc from coaching this team to a championship.
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