NEW YORK — Just as Jordan Walsh became the revelation of this Celtics season, he stepped aside to make room for Josh Minot’s spark and Sam Hauser’s closing effort in the second half of the Celtics’ win over the Nets on Wednesday. Joe Mazzulla’s message before this season to take each lineup and rotation with a grain of salt came to fruition through the constant lineup shuffling he argued as a strength of the team at times this year.
It’s unclear whether Hauser’s closing effort against Brooklyn can translate into a return to the starting lineup with which he began the season. The bigger lesson from Wednesday’s win already resonated with Josh Minott at the height of his nine-game run as the starter, when he scored 21 points on Washington. He felt he had no staying power with the starters, even as he emerged with a compelling Neemias Quetta side-kick and the Celtics won 4–6 after an 0–3 start.
Minot then said, “I do not consider whether I have any power to last.” “I’m trying to go out there like this shit could end tomorrow, because it could. It very much could.”
Walsh immediately wondered how he could stay in the mix after such a shock that he replaced Minot after only four games, and amid a three-game winning streak, Minot and Hauser returned to leading roles late in Brooklyn. Walsh went to the bench, and the Celtics closed out 23–9 after Brooklyn tied the game at 90–90 late.
Walsh shouldn’t be missing after being cut 11 minutes on Wednesday, though Hauser and Minot dealing with similar demotions could prove instructive for Walsh’s next steps. Like Walsh, Minot had his minutes cut midway through the game after picking up three fouls in the first half in Philadelphia. Minot’s subsequent presentations did not fare well. He rallied late against Memphis after a slow start and then went scoreless in 11 minutes against the Clippers. Hauser, who lost his starting job in Detroit to rookie Hugo Gonzalez, averaged 5.4 points per game on 29% three-point shooting in the following 12 games.
Meanwhile, Walsh took advantage of a second-half role in guarding Tyrese Maxey in a close loss following Minot’s exit, producing successful minutes against Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner off the bench in Orlando. By the time he frustrated James Harden against the Clippers in a starting role on Sunday, Walsh’s emergence seemed to be the result of a game-changing partnership between Minot and Cueta.
“There’s been a lot of conversations right now, at the beginning of the season, we were talking about how we feel like we need a guy who can guard the best player every night,” Walsh recalled Wednesday morning in New York. “(Brown) kept saying, ‘I think it’s you, I think it could be you… I’ll have a conversation with Joe and we’ll go from there.'”
After paying detailed attention to scouting reports throughout his breakout week, Mazzulla found that feedback from Brown before the game helpful. Mazzulla said his attention to detail allowed him to defend a wide variety of actions when studying opposing player tendencies. On Wednesday, Walsh prepared to take over for Michael Porter Jr., but the Celtics rarely defended in the half court in the first half, having their worst ball control quarter all season, featuring turnovers in a 22–0 fast break deficit.
Through little fault of his own, Walsh missed a vital component of his recent success by going without any minutes in the final 22 minutes of the game, which required something more. This is what Mazzulla wanted when he dreamed of a team without any rotation. Walsh has recently thrived in a bench role, and even starred as a compelling hustle duo with Hugo Gonzalez. It’s possible he’ll return to that position when the Celtics and Nets meet again on Friday.
That ups and downs took a veteran and champion in Hauser, he admitted after the game on Wednesday, so it will inevitably affect the 21-year-old in Walsh, who has seen opportunity as his biggest hurdle. Mazzulla doesn’t want teams to think that way, stressing that minutes, starts and sitting times don’t change your job.
And whether the constant lineup shuffling is conducive to growth or building something sustainable throughout this season, Mazzulla proved he can press the right buttons to win more games than his 8-7 start.
“The downside could be ‘Hey, you can’t play up to two games,'” Mazzulla reflected last week. “But the good thing is that there’s a clear understanding that it doesn’t change the role. It may change playing time, it doesn’t change the role. It’s your role, whether it’s 20 minutes per night or two minutes per night… For me, the positive side of it is that every person is valued… There’s no entitlement.”
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