Breakdown of the 2021-22 list: ball managers

With the Celtics’ training camp starting in a few days, it’s time to break down the list and give an idea of ​​what the team’s depth chart will look like heading into the 2021-22 season.

Rather than classifying players with the traditional positional tags 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, we take a page from the book of the president of basketball operations Brad Stevens by placing each athlete in one of three roles:

1. Ball Handlers – Usually played by the 1.
2. Wings – A hybrid between 2, 3 and 4.
3. Bigs – A hybrid between the 4 and the 5.

We start this series with arguably the most important role on the pitch – the ball handling position.

Boston has several players capable of leading the offense, including a few wingers and big players, such as Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, among others; however, there are only three guys who fit into a true ball handling role.

Here are the trio who will be largely responsible for controlling the pace of the Celtics this season:

Marcus Intelligent

Marcus Smart has improved significantly as a playmaker over the past two years and is recording his best career averages of 13.1 points and 5.7 assists per game in 2020-21. This season he will have a chance to shine even more.

Following Kemba Walker’s offseason start, Smart will now be Boston’s primary ball manager, a role he is expected to thrive in.

Over the years, Smart has often either backed the Boston general or replaced when needed, like last season when he replaced Walker as the former All-Star returned from offseason knee surgery. Smart played around 45% of his point guard minutes last season, which Basketball-Reference said was the highest score since his rookie season (74%) when he was backing Rajon Rondo.

Being Boston’s longest-serving player should benefit Smart in this role, as he knows the system and the tendencies of his teammates as well as anyone. For example, he’s built a solid chemistry with Brown and Tatum over the past few years and understands how to make it easy for the star tandem to open up, and he had a special bond with Al Horford during Horford’s first stint with the team.

Smart has always been relied on to be a defensive mainstay for the Celtics, but this year the team need him to continue stepping up the offense as they put the ball in his hands.

Dennis shroder

The Celtics would have been pretty light on ballhandlers heading into this season had it not been for the surprise addition of Dennis Schroder in mid-August. And what an addition it should be.

Schroder brings to the table eight years of NBA experience and career averages of 14.3 points and 4.7 assists per game. Last season, he started 61 games with the Los Angeles Lakers and was second on the team in assists (5.8 per game) behind LeBron James.

In recent years, Schroder has been the host of several high-volume Hall of Fame-related scorers, including Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and James. Such experience should come in handy as the 28-year-old walks past a few rising superstars from Brown and Tatum.

Much of Schroder’s play is initiated by driving to the basket. Last season, the devious guard averaged 13.3 practices per game, which would have placed him first with the Celtics in that category ahead of Tatum (12.4) and Brown (10.5). He chose to pass on 42.9% of those records, a trend that should bode well for Boston shooters as Schroder will look to kick them out on the perimeter if he can’t find an open look inside. .

Payton pritchard

Second-year point guard Payton Pritchard rounds out the Boston ball-handler trio. The 6-foot-1 product from the University of Oregon burst onto the scene as a rookie last season, averaging 7.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, while pulling 41.1% at 3 points. By the end of the season, it was clear the Celtics had made a steal in the previous year’s draft, considering how 25 players were selected before Pritchard and he outscored most of them.

Pritchard is set to burst even more in his second season, especially after the Summer League showing he just showed up in Las Vegas, where he averaged 16.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.8 interceptions while shooting 47.8% from the field, 46.9% from long distance and 88.9% from the free throw line.

Now that there is less traffic on the ball manager’s depth board, Pritchard should have plenty of opportunities to focus on a bigger role.