There are rookies and players in their sophomore and junior years in the NBA that you want to season with experience, but there are also vets on expiring contracts that could use a few weeks of showcasing before the trade deadline. You'd think that going into this season with a more well-rounded roster would be a blessing for Brad, but with so many players with potential and only 240 minutes to dole out, it could be a problem. Playing time is gonna have to be earned." "It's not just spots, but we have a lot of evenness. "There's no question people are working with a sense of urgency," Stevens said.
Stevens has seen glimpses of that intensity during voluntary workouts at the Celtics' practice facility this summer. Indeed, the fight for floor time in Boston will be as intense as we've seen it in years as several players will try their best to impress Stevens and the Celtics coaching staff in the coming weeks. But it's a puzzle that's going to figure itself out once we start practice."
"I thought last year we were pretty hard to figure out. And more so than last year," said Stevens who used 24 different starting lineups last season. "If you go through it, like really go through it, there's about 150 variations of this you can go with. Before we get to the 2K rankings, here's head coach Brad Stevens on the "evenness" of this year's roster and the different combinations he could throw out on the floor: