The Boston Celtics were alleged to have the most depth leading into this season. After the moves they made to bolster the All-Star duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum that resulted in the team parting ways with Marcus Smart, Grant Williams, Rob Williams, and Malcolm Brogdon, Boston suddenly finds themselves without adequate depth along their bench.

To put it into perspective, Boston’s bench has scored a total of 46 points over three games, which ranks them dead last in the NBA at 15.3 points per game this season. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has stuck with an eight man rotation that mostly features Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser on most nights. Oshae Brissett also sees the court more often than most do on Boston’s bench.

On Monday night in Washington, the Celtics took care of business quite early in the game and went on to win 126-107 without the help of their bench. In fact, Pritchard and Hauser each played 25 minutes and Dalano Banton and Brissett each played 10 minutes and all combined to be a plus-minus of -39.

The slow start for Pritchard on offense is kind of dragging things for this bench unit. After a standout summer, the expectations were high for Pritchard to continue being an elite shooter from behind the arc but it just hasn’t connected for him yet, as he’s 1-of-10 on 3-pointers to start the season.

It’s not only Pritchard who’s been struggling, however. Hauser hasn’t been able to produce either. He’s only made 3-of-15 from behind the arc and is 4-of-16 overall from the floor. Hauser is expected to be the best shooter on the team, mostly because he says he is, but also because he can usually back it up by hitting the tough shots from deep.

The bench minutes are limited as Mazzulla is trying to establish a legitimate and consistent rotation for his team. In doing so, Pritchard and Hauser are averaging 16.3 minutes per game during the first three games for Boston. It’s fair to say that if Pritchard and Hauser don’t start to produce, then Mazzulla should make a switch towards other players on the bench.

The thought always needs to be long term, as the Celtics are always competing for championship and are going to be in deep playoff runs to get there. But in order to get to the championship, the team cannot be burned out by the time that they get there and that could happen if the Celtics aren’t confident in their depth.

Boston’s next game will be at home against the Indiana Pacers, who have the highest scoring bench in the NBA this season at 50.0 points per game. This will be a test for the Celtics and it’ll be interesting to see how the bench can perform in this game.

It’s something worth tracking during the beginning of the season.

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