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Since the beginning of last season, several different players have been called the Celtics' third best, their third option, or a member of their Big 3.

They have six starters, since Horford starts more games than he comes off the bench, and a guy who does play off the bench who is doing pretty well this year.

Do they even have a Big Three? Or is it a Big Other Number? Or is it two complete sets of Big Threes? Or do they have a regular season Big Three, and a somewhat different playoff Big Three?

Poll expanded (and accidentally reset) to include Drew Peterson.

There is no big 3. It’s Elite 8

Really though Brown, Tatum, White and Porzingis have that top 30 in the league, all star/ all nba vibe…so I’d call them a big 4.

brackdan70 wrote:There is no big 3. It’s Elite 8

Really though Brown, Tatum, White and Porzingis have that top 30 in the league, all star/ all nba vibe…so I’d call them a big 4.

And Pritchard is slowly, but surely sneaking in as an all-star type player at this point.

Tatum, Brown & Porzingis. When any of those 3 are Out, then White steps in.
As Brackdan wrote though, we do more or less have an Elite 8. After that, it trickles down.

We have an Elite Primary Bench, and then a Very Good Deep Bench.
Basically, we're Stacked like a hill of pancakes at IHOP.


Celtics Proposed Roster, 2024-25:
Our Starters: Holiday - White - Brown - Tatum - Porzingis
1st Rotation: Pritchard - Hauser - Horford
2nd Rotation: XXXX - Walsh - Tillman - Kornet - Queta
Reserves: Springer - Scheierman

Two-Ways: Davison - Peterson - Watson


P. S. #1: Bring Lonnie back, and our Bench will be even more Stacked.
P. S. #2: Ship Out Springer.

brackdan70 wrote:There is no big 3. It’s Elite 8

Really though Brown, Tatum, White and Porzingis have that top 30 in the league, all star/ all nba vibe…so I’d call them a big 4.

Agreed with the bold.

Cohesive and fluid roster.

To me the core is White, Tatum and Porzingis.

This season Tatum and White are again proving they are the best players.
Surprisingly it might be Pritchard who comes third if we strictly look at performances this season.

JB JT KP. it even rhymes.

Strictly in terms of who I feel are the three best all around players, assuming perfect health, I’m taking Tatum, White and Porzingis.

Tatum is our best player.

DWhite is DWhite.

Jrue might as well be our captain IMO. His poise, selflessness, and quiet leadership by example are underrated and not easily replaced.

That's my big three in that I think those guys are most important to our success, and/or are the toughest pieces to replace. But...

KP is our lone star big and he makes everything click on the court.

Jaylen is a star, can be our best player on any given night, and is obviously a tremendous luxury for any team to have outside of its "big three."

Hauser is an absolutely perfect fit alongside Tatum (and/or the rest of our pieces). I think his value to our team is underrated, and I do not think he would be as valuable to a random other team. Jaylen is clearly a better player, but if Tatum is on his game, you can swap Hauser in for Jaylen and our starting lineup will play better IMO.

And that's our advantage, IMO our core goes 6 deep and then you have guys like Pritch and Al and even Queta and Tillman etc.

Tatum, Brown, Stevens

Jrue and increasingly PP are DWhite spares, and JB is the JT spare. Queta not there as, at least for now, and AH past being, the KP spare.

I don’t know if we have a big three so much as a do it by committee roster. If I’m stack ranking the main rotation guys so far this year, it’s:

Tatum
White
Porzingis*
Pritchard
Brown
Holiday
Horford

Obviously KP is an asterisks but he’s looked really good. Pritchard out preforming what you’d expect, and Brown under. Slightly controversial but I don’t think there’s a non-case for that order.

Honestly, It's

1. Tatum
2. Porzingis
3-4. Tie Between JB and Derrick White
5. Payton Pritchard (better offensively than Jrue, but Jrue's defense seems to have slipped lately. Wondering how much, and how long, that hip injury has been affecting Holiday).
6. Jrue Holiday
7. Al Horford
8. Sam Hauser

You didn't give the option for half votes so I just voted Tatum and Porzingis. Both Brown and White have a HUGE IMPACT at the defensive end. Brown may be more impactful at the offensive end with the attention he draws, the pressure he puts on defenses with his drives and post ups, and his willingness to attack the opposing defense.

We don't have a big at all. We have the most "total talent", both ends of the floor. But we don't have a superstar.
We have a large mean, low standard deviation, statistically speaking.

Lee Van Cleef wrote:We don't have a big at all. We have the most "total talent", both ends of the floor. But we don't have a superstar.
We have a large mean, low standard deviation, statistically speaking.

Stats went out the window when the Cs won the championship and every series, from 1st round to finals, didn't even reach a Game 6.

Poll expanded (and accidentally reset) to include Drew Peterson.

If I have to pick 3 it's Tatum, Brown, and White.
I like Porzingis and his fit a lot, but he's a part-timer.
I'm curious if Jaylen-led units are getting better this year. He's had some seemingly good stretches in non-Tatum minutes.

31to6 wrote:If I have to pick 3 it's Tatum, Brown, and White.
I like Porzingis and his fit a lot, but he's a part-timer.
I'm curious if Jaylen-led units are getting better this year. He's had some seemingly good stretches in non-Tatum minutes.

On offense, yes (100th percentile). Defense (2nd percentile) goes to the tank though. +5.4 net rating which isn't bad though worse than last season so far.