With Malcolm Brogdon out, who will step up off Celtics' bench vs. Nuggets?
BOSTON -- Malcolm Brogdon has been the perfect addition for the Celtics, serving as the ring leader of one of the league's best second units. But the veteran guard will miss Friday night's home game against the Denver Nuggets, so someone else will have to lead the charge off the bench for Boston.
Brogdon will be sidelined with right hamstring tightness, which forced him to leave Wednesday's win over the Pistons after just 14 minutes of action. Sitting him Friday, and potentially Saturday when the C's travel to Detroit, is the right move given Brogdon's injury history. It's much more important that the Celtics are getting Brogdon's bench production in the later months of the regular season and in the playoffs than a couple of November tilts.
Seeing that he hasn't played more than 56 games in any of the last three seasons, giving Brogdon a night or two off at this point to rest his bothersome hammy isn't a bad idea. But now Joe Mazzulla will have to turn to someone else to give his Celtics that spark off the bench in a difficult matchup against the 8-3 Nuggets.
The first-year head coach doesn't have to worry about his starting five. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can handle most of the heavy lifting. Marcus Smart is there to do the dirty work. Al Horford and Grant Williams have it going in the frontcourt.
And luckily for Mazzulla, the Celtics have a few other guys who can take charge off the bench.
The hoop heads in Boston are clamoring for more Sam Hauser, and rightfully so after the second-year wing played a career-high 32 minutes against the Pistons on Wednesday. His output? A career-high 24 points off 9-for-16 shooting, including 6-for-12 from downtown. Hauser has started to find his groove, averaging 13.5 points over the last four games while knocking down 59 percent of his shots from the floor. While Wednesday night was impressive, he had his best overall game last Saturday in a win over the Knicks, scoring 17 points off an efficient 6-for-9 shooting overall and 5-for-8 shooting from downtown.
Hauser has become a dangerous weapon for the C's offense, and he could be in line for a heavy workload on Friday night. Denver ranks 15th in the NBA in three-point shooting against, so if he can get open looks, Hauser may flirt with another career evening.
Derrick White is another candidate to take off in place of Brogdon. While he's contributed to Boston's wins with some solid all-around play, White hasn't done much scoring-wise since he dropped 27 against the Magic three weeks ago. He's taken less than five shots per game over the last five contests, but he should get a few more looks with Brogdon out of the mix.
The player that may benefit the most though is Payton Pritchard. The third-year guard has seen action in just four of Boston's games so far this season, and he had sat out four straight until he played 14 minutes on Wednesday. Pritchard played a season-high 13 minutes against the Pistons, scoring four points (2-for-6 overall, 0-for-4 from three) while pulling down three rebounds.
With one less guard off the bench, Pritchard will move up a spot on Mazzulla's pecking order. He could see his most action of the season over the next two nights.
The Celtics are a much better team with Brogdon. Offensively, they are one of the best in the league when he is providing the scoring pop off the bench. But we knew he'd miss games here and there, which is much better than him missing weeks -- or months -- here and there.
Luckily, this Celtics team has the depth to keep going despite an injury like this. It won't be easy against a tough Denver team on Friday, but someone will step up off the bench. It's a luxury that the Celtics have not had for years.
