If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
As cliché as that may be, it’s something that NBA coaches tend to live by in terms of player rotations. However, sometimes things break, and it’s the coach’s job to fix the mess.
The Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics both have had to deal with adversity of late and have had to make the tough choice to put their most productive sparks off the bench – Gordon Hayward and Jeff Green, respectively – into the starting lineup.
While this isn’t necessarily what they would have preferred at this juncture of the season, it’s what they have to deal with. So far, both players are making the best of the situation, both individually and as a team.
When it was announced that Kevin Garnett would miss two weeks with an ankle injury, Celtics fans couldn’t help but cringe at the idea of losing yet another All-Star after losing Rajon Rondo back in January.
When Avery Bradley came in for the injured Rondo, he played well. When Green came in for KG, the same thing took place. In the six games he has started this month – replacing Garnett as well as a spot start for Paul Pierce – he has put up 19.8 points per game, including game-winners against Indiana and Cleveland.
Granted, the numbers are a bit skewed because of a career-high 43-point outburst against Miami. But it would be hard to say that Green hasn’t done a very fine job thus far. With Garnett set to miss at least a few more games, Green will have a chance to sustain some of the best basketball he has played in his career.
When the Jazz decided to put Hayward in the starting lineup, it wasn’t due to a scarcity of resources from injuries. It had more to do with the personnel that they had at small forward. Marvin Williams and DeMarre Carroll, while adequate, have shown through lack of production that they do not belong in the starting lineup of a team competing fo
r the playoffs.
As good as Hayward has been off the bench for Utah, coach Tyrone Corbin decided it was time for him to start. In seven games as a starter, he has put up 17 points per game and has shot over 50 percent in all but two.
On the other hand, there are some teams that would rather play guys out of position than mess with what is working with a successful scorer off the bench. Gregg Popovich has used this method with Manu Ginobili for a number of years now.
The same can be said in New York, where Mike Woodson has seen a slew of injures to his frontcourt. Iman Shumpert missed the early portion much of the season, but instead of elevating J.R. Smith to starter, he continued to bring his sparkplug off the bench and started Jason Kidd, James White or Pablo Prigioni.
It seems Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro has taken a similar approach with Jamal Crawford. The Clippers have played Willie Green and point guard Chauncey Billups at the off guard to continue to bring Crawford off the bench. While Crawford is a combo guard, he also is the only guy in LA’s backcourt rotation to have a true shooting guard’s scoring mentality.
Either way, he fits so well in his role, the Clippers see no reason to make a move.
But we will move, on to the rankings: