Known Unknowns

So when we acquired Isaiah, nobody knew he was going to be this Isaiah. Going into it nobody knew he was going to be the player that he was last year. When we got Jae Crowder in the trade for Rondo, nobody knew who Jae Crowder was. They just knew he didn’t play very much in Dallas. You have to let these things transpire. It doesn’t do any good to talk about it or predict who they are going to be. You have to let them earn who they are going to be. Part of that is earning their teammates’ trust and their coach’s trust, like Isaiah and Jae did.

-- Danny Ainge


There is more to what Danny is saying than meets the eye.

Look at the Celtics' bench. What do you see? Well, one answer might be "not much."

Barry, er uh, Shane Larkin. Abdel Nader. Terry Rozier. Semi Ojeleye. I can tell you right now these names aren't striking fear in anyone. Now let's say we start Marcus Smart at the 2, and move Gordon down to the 3. This means we've got Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Daniel Theis, Aron Baynes, and the Dancing Bear coming off the bench. Maybe they all disappoint. But maybe two, three, or more of them surprise and turn out to be beasts. Maybe Shane Larkin is IT coming off the bench. Maybe Rozier has a break out season.

You don't know.

In 2008, did we know that Eddie House and James Posey were gonna kill it in clutch time? Did we know that Big Baby and Leon Powe were gonna exceed expectations? Did we know that Rondo and Perkins would be perfect complements to the Big Three?

No, no, and no.

We do know one thing, however.

Brad Stevens is an optimizer.

And there's plenty of talent on the bench to be optimized.