Start Giddens

I'm sure Tony Allen will get the start today in place of the injured Paul Pierce, and EH will play big minutes off the bench. But I liked the days when Doc Rivers went deep into his rotation to plug holes in his starting line-up. In 2007-08, Kevin Garnett missed a handful of games with an abdominal injury. Doc responded by plucking seldom-used Brian Scalabrine from deep off the pine, inserting Vanilla Thunder into the starting line-up. The Celtics never missed a beat.

The value of this measure is clear: You don't mess up the rotation. The bench unit, which is starting to come together, gets to stick together. The starting unit is better equipped to play around the drop-off in talent than is the second unit. The second unit looks shaky even when Doc doesn't play Shelden Williams his allotted 8-12 minutes per game. I'm not the least bit curious to see how the second unit responds to futher rotational shake-ups. Meanwhile, the first unit might benefit from JR Giddens' defensive abilities and rebounding prowess, so long as he doesn't turn the ball over at a frenetic pace. Giddens, I might add, is a big dude. I've stood within inches of both him and Pierce, and Giddens looks taller, and physically not much smaller. Pierce might be bigger and taller, but only by a smidge.

Doc could start Giddens for the next three games, just to give him his one shot at 15 minutes of fame. After all, KC Jones gave Michael Smith a chance to play, and he shined. Twenty-two-year-old quarterback Clint Longley had his holiday in the sun, leading the Cowpokes back from a 23-3 deficit in a Thanksgiving tilt against the Redskins. And George Foster replaced John Vukovich in the Reds' line-up, and helped turn a 20-20 start into a 88-34 finish.

Doc could start JR for three games. But I doubt he will. In fact, JR probably won't play much at all, in which case Glen Davis would be an interesting guy to start as well.