The Boston Celtics acquired Kristaps Porzingis to add another high-level player around Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum who can average over 20 points per game on 50/40 shooting splits.

That’s the level of production Porzingis adds to the Celtics. He averaged 23.2 points per game in 65 games last year, which is the most games that he’s played in since his second year in the NBA back in 2016-17.

The Celtics needed to address their center position as it’s been held together by an aging veteran in Al Horford and a somewhat injury prone Rob Williams who is an absolute game changer when he’s healthy.

Boston staggered the workload of Rob and Al last season so neither of them played in back-to-back games. This method, however, won’t work this year with Porzingis in the mix, who’s already injured and the season hasn’t even started yet.

The Celtics need to be smart and disciplined when it comes to the planning of their big man position and the logistics that’ll go along with it. Porzingis on the court with Al is going to be different than when he’s on the court with Rob. But if one of the three becomes injured the entire equation changes. 

The C’s got by last year with Grant Williams and Blake Griffin to play the position when needed but it doesn’t seem like they have another player besides Luke Kornet who can play the center position if one of these guys gets hurt this season. However it’s worth mentioning Kornet is on a non-guaranteed contract for 2023-24.

One thing is for certain, Horford needs to be limited throughout the regular season to allow him to avoid fatigue in the playoffs.

He’s limited himself to taking mostly 3-pointers on offense while still carrying a heavy workload on defense as he had the most field goals attempted against him in isolation in the playoffs this past season, holding opponents to 16-of-55.

Horford’s shooting variance between 3-pointers and 2-pointers is 171, meaning he took 171 more 3’s than he did 2’s last season. It just shows where he stands at this point in his career on a team that wants to shoot as many 3-pointers as possible in a game.

It’s fair to say the days of Al knocking bodies under the basket are just about done.

The big factor for Boston this season is that it looks like Rob is having the first healthy offseason of his career. We’ve seen the videos of him working with basketball skills trainer Aaron Miller who has been helping him create more of a pull-up shot for himself.

Boston still has some work to do in regards to their roster. It’s hard to believe more resources will go to the center position after acquiring Porzingis during the summer. Maybe it’s Kornet staying and they bring back Griffin for another run.

Griffin still has some gas left in the reserve tank for another season and it gives Boston some flexibility as he can play three through five if needed as we saw at times last season.

The Celtics still have an available two-way contract to offer after signing two guards in JD Davison and Jay Scrubb. Perhaps there’s a versatile big man in the pipeline in Maine that Boston would tag with a two-way just to have. Reggie Kissoonlal is a name that comes to mind if that’s the case.

Other than that, it seems like this is the team that the Celtics are rolling with this season. A move still has to be made, perhaps it’s for Griffin, TJ Warren, or someone that’s not on anyone’s radar, similar to the Mike Muscala addition last year. 

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