Celtics 2025-26, Off-Season/Training Camp Thread

[jmr07019]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

[phincsfan]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Knowing Joe, White will play close to 35mpg, Simons 35mpg. Tillman will take minutes away from Neems and Garza.

[cloverleaf]

Walsh beating Lofton to the free-throw buffet today.

[cloverleaf]

Baylor +21 in 17.

[cloverleaf]

Lofton grabbing that rebound from Bassey just to refuse to pass it and instead to run out the clock.

[Hal14]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad but that mins number for Baylor seems high. I can see 15 MPG, maybe 20. 25 seems high. If we traded Hauser I could maybe see him getting closer to 25. Maybe a few more mins for Hugo?

Also, I think they will try to avoid using Niang at the 5. Or at least I hope so. He's mainly a 4 of course. But I think he's more of a 3 than a 5. I think he could *maybe* play a little bit of small ball 5 but only in situations where it's like later in the season and like all of our other bigs are either injured or in foul trouble or something..like he's an emergency break glass type of small ball 5 imo.

I think Amari and Tillman will see more mins at the 5 than Niang..or at least I hope so.

[Fierce1]

If the Cs sign Bassey then Tillman will be gone and Amari will be in the G-League.

[redslastlaugh]

I think it's unlikely Niang and Simons are both on the roster opening night
maybe neither, maybe one but unlikely both

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad but that mins number for Baylor seems high. I can see 15 MPG, maybe 20. 25 seems high. If we traded Hauser I could maybe see him getting closer to 25. Maybe a few more mins for Hugo?

[hugepatsfan]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

I wouldn't put Hugo in the rotation like that. I think when you only put a guy in for 6 minutes it can make a guy play scrambled. IMO, unless you're going to play a guy 12-15 minutes which is enough time to actually cut the rotation down. You have a 10 man rotation there, just cut it down to 9 and spread those 6 minutes around. I feel like with 6 minutes you'd be playing him just to say you did vs. actually giving him an actual shot at development. If foul trouble comes up then he can get those 6 minutes, but I wouldn't build an actual rotation where the plan is to only play him that.

Anytime someone is out for a game there will be opportunities.

[jmr07019]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

I wouldn't put Hugo in the rotation like that. I think when you only put a guy in for 6 minutes it can make a guy play scrambled. IMO, unless you're going to play a guy 12-15 minutes which is enough time to actually cut the rotation down. You have a 10 man rotation there, just cut it down to 9 and spread those 6 minutes around. I feel like with 6 minutes you'd be playing him just to say you did vs. actually giving him an actual shot at development. If foul trouble comes up then he can get those 6 minutes, but I wouldn't build an actual rotation where the plan is to only play him that.

Anytime someone is out for a game there will be opportunities.

I hear what you’re saying. My thought was he gets two stints of playing time (one each half) against the lesser teams and rides the bench against the better teams. That, combined with a somewhat short leash and likely foul trouble in some games, will bring the average down to 6 mpg even if he plays 14 minutes one game and 0 the next.

[jmr07019]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad but that mins number for Baylor seems high. I can see 15 MPG, maybe 20. 25 seems high. If we traded Hauser I could maybe see him getting closer to 25. Maybe a few more mins for Hugo?

Also, I think they will try to avoid using Niang at the 5. Or at least I hope so. He's mainly a 4 of course. But I think he's more of a 3 than a 5. I think he could *maybe* play a little bit of small ball 5 but only in situations where it's like later in the season and like all of our other bigs are either injured or in foul trouble or something..like he's an emergency break glass type of small ball 5 imo.

I think Amari and Tillman will see more mins at the 5 than Niang..or at least I hope so.

Maybe 25 is high for Baylor but the options behind him are so unappealing I would rather give
The minutes to Baylor. Especially after the most recent Jordan Walsh performance. And I agree it would be nice to get a few more minutes for Hugo. See previous post. If Hugo performs well there will certainly be minutes available for him.

And I agree Niang at the 5 is scary from a defensive and rebounding perspective but again the options are limited. Trying to make chicken salad out of chicken ****. It is what it is. I would rather put actual NBA players out there instead of playing guys who don’t belong in the NBA - like Amari Williams.

[Larry_Russell]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad????

That is **** horrible.

No actual point guard, 2 ball hogs who love to kill momentum in Simons and Brown.

Brown playing PF? thats an injury waiting to happen
Queta starting?
Garza on the team?

**** that team sucks and isnt even in the play in. lolol

[cloverleaf]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad????

That is **** horrible.

No actual point guard, 2 ball hogs who love to kill momentum in Simons and Brown.

Brown playing PF? thats an injury waiting to happen
Queta starting?
Garza on the team?

**** that team sucks and isnt even in the play in. lolol

Bob Cousy's not walking through that door. And if he did, he'd be very, very, very old.

[Curmudgeon]

I would bring Simons off the bench and start Pritchard. But my real preference would be to trade Simons and keep Davison. But that's a very long shot.
As for playing Brown at PF it will almost certainly happen against some matchups.

[playa-hater]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

If nothing changes and that is our roster, I have a hard time seeing anything better than a play-in. By all means, limit White and Brown and go into a Mid level Tank. Or in other words. Get a pick between 5-10 (better if we get lucky) but getting a pick in the teens is likely not going to get us a high level future starter like a much higher pick.. Yes I know a great player can be drafted anywhere. But the Odds are higher earlier for sure.

[Curmudgeon]

I expect them to win 50 games and be a 3rd or 4th seed. I'm a believer in Queta.

[Riverwalk2021]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

Aside from that it’s not bad. Brown is a multi time all star, White is a borderline all star, Pritchard is reigning 6th man of the year, Hauser, Simons and Niang are rotation players. Scheierman and Hugo are question marks but that’s a small percentage of minutes. I see anywhere from 5th seed to 9th seed. Jaylens ability to be the lead guy and how the bigs play the two biggest variables but there’s some gold offensive talent in this team and they should put up points. You know Joe will give everybody the green light.

Not bad????

That is **** horrible.

No actual point guard, 2 ball hogs who love to kill momentum in Simons and Brown.

Brown playing PF? thats an injury waiting to happen
Queta starting?
Garza on the team?

**** that team sucks and isnt even in the play in. lolol

As the British Bull Dog used to say, "We're fooked" lol

[dortmunder]

pritchard White Brown hauser queta
Simons scheierman niang bassey
hugo minott garza

Tatum lillard
Shulga williams

13th player should be a PG in minimum contract. Like cam payne.
Even like that with bassey, getting rid of tillman, walsh and davison, frontcourt is terrible. PF is a disaster.
If we cant move niang or simons......
Im honestly concerned.

[jmr07019]

I’m envisioning a rotation like this:

White (18) / Pritchard (30)
Simons (29) / White (13) / Hugo (6)
Hauser (23) / scheierman (25)
Brown (35) / Niang (11) / hauser (2)
Queta (20) / Garza (20) / Niang (8)

Basically a 9 man rotation with Hugo on a short leash.

The bigs are atrocious. If they are not the worst group in the league it’s a win.

If nothing changes and that is our roster, I have a hard time seeing anything better than a play-in. By all means, limit White and Brown and go into a Mid level Tank. Or in other words. Get a pick between 5-10 (better if we get lucky) but getting a pick in the teens is likely not going to get us a high level future starter like a much higher pick.. Yes I know a great player can be drafted anywhere. But the Odds are higher earlier for sure.

Idk I mean Orlando New York Cleveland look good but not sure any of them are a champ.

ATL is trying (harder) this year but they still got trey’s skinny, ugly mug leading the way and they’ve been trying to win. Probably end up close to .500 once again

Detroit is up and coming but outside of Cade who are you scared of? They lost Malik Beasley and it was too late to replace him… no second star… idk barring a Thompson breakout are they really that good or do they have that high of a ceiling?

Bucks were a mess last year. I like what they did getting Turner but their perimeter talent is not good.

And those are the good teams in the east! Celtics may not be all that good but the conference is weak.

Are the celtics better than the Hornets Raptors Wizards Nets and Bulls? If you said yes… they’re in the play in.

And while I’m trashing everybody…. The 76ers suck too. Embiid and George should retire

[165bows]

The way to do it is estimate the offense and the defense, it's more effective than just guesstimating the value of all of the individual guys.

Offense currently they have two volume scoring average efficiency guys (Brown/Simons) then their typical stable of high efficiency lower usage guys who aren't that good at creating their own shot, so they need someone to create shots for them. So it is basically up to White/PP to have above average scoring volume AND efficiency plus creating other guys shots for the offense to be anything significantly above average. If any of the aforementioned aren't doing what we'd at least expect as a baseline the offense will fall hard with the caveat they will win absolutely win some games against sleeping teams due to having elite three point shooting. So I'd say average outcome is like 13th-17th in the league in offense if the shooting carries them but could easily fall to say 20ish+ if JB isn't the guy he thinks he is.

Defense won't be awful but it's very hard to see it being in the top third either with a weak front court. And again the floor is low here if their key guys aren't performing well and bringing it with regularity. So again I don't see them getting into the top third of the league and will honestly have to fight hard to get into the middle third and stay out of the 20s.

Rebounding they will be lucky to not be bottom 10 and turnovers will drop way down compared to prior seasons playing all these young guys, which is where it can get really unhinged. Ie, JB doing too much, tons of young guys handling the ball, weak rebounding means they can be susceptible to getting crushed on the possession game which combined w three point shooting variance will lead to some really ugly nights.

I see it going down to the wire where there will be only a few games separating 11th-6th seed and I think there are a bunch of other teams that would rather go for it and be buyers while the Celtics will sort of stand pat or reorganize for the following season so while I see a tinge of upside give me the downside for actually happens just get a top-10 pick and come into 2026 strong and ready.