How much worse is this bench than Rick Carlise, Greg Kite, Jerry Sichting, David Thirdkill, Sam Vincent, Scott Wedman and Sly Williams? How much worse is Horford than Bill Walton was at this stage in both of their careers?
Minutes/Points/Games
Bird 38/25.8/81 - Tatum 37/27.7/18 (extrapolates to 82 games)
McHale 35.3/21.3/68 - JB 34.5/21.9/17 (77 games)
Parish 31.7/16.1/81 - KP 30.3/18.9/15 (68 games)
DJ 35/15.6/78 - DW 32.2/13.9/15 (68 games)
Ainge 30.1/10.7/80 - JH 34.5/12.4/16 (73 games)
Wedman 17.7/8/79 - Hauser 22.8/9.7/18 (82 games)
Walton 19.3/7.6/80 - Horford 25.8/6.9/16 (73 games)
Sichting 19.5/6.5/82 - Pritchard 20.6/6.3/18 (82 games)
Thirdkill 7.9/3.3/49 - Kornet 13.5/4.6/13 (59 games)
Vincent 7.6/3.2/57 - Queta 10/3.5/2 (9 games)
Williams 9.0/2.8/6 - Banton 8.8/3.5/8 (36 games)
Carlisle 9.9/2.6/77 - Svi 7.4/2.0/8 (36 games)
Kite 7.3/1.3/64 - Brissett 11.3/1.8/8 (36 games) and Stevens 3.3/1.5/6 (27 games)
If you look instead at the 2007-2008 Celtics, the story is different.
In the regular season, that team had 10 players who played at least 800 minutes (I think total minutes is a better indicator of role than minutes per game. If you go 10 minutes per game as a marker, you have to include Scal, who played 512 minutes but was a healthy scratch for 34 games). Pierce, Allen, Garnett, Rondo, Perkins of course, then Posey, then House, Allen, Big Baby, and Powe. The starters missed a total of 31 games that year. (Our current starters have missed a total of 9 games through the first 18, a slightly - but only slightly - higher pace).
The 5 players who played included 2 established vets (Posey, House) and 3 young players, in their rookie (Big Baby), second (Powe), and fourth (Allen) years.
Late in the season, the Celtics, unsatisfied with the bench depth, added two more vets: PJ Brown, who had not been in the league, and Sam Cassell, a late-season buyout. Once they got here, both averaged over 10 minutes per game for the rest of the season.
The rotation shortened in the playoffs - but still there were 9 rotation players (which I'm defining as at least 250 minutes). The 4 bench regulars were Posey, Brown, Powe, Cassell (though Davis and especially House did get some opportunities outside of garbage time).
So, the addition of Brown and Cassell shifted the Celtics from a 2 vet/3 young 10 man rotation in the reg season to a 3 vet/1 young (Powe) rotation in the playoffs.
My preference would be to see something closer to the 2007-08 bench usage with this team. That was a better team than what this one is likely to be, despite giving a lot of playing time to guys that the conventional wisdom here would suggest should have stayed nailed to the bench all season. Even if some vets need to be added later (and the new cap rules make finding and adding vets harder now than then), the Celtics should want to find out which if any of these guys is our Leon Powe.