The Boston Celtics enter the 2018-2019 season with an roster that has made no secret of their ambitions of unseating the Golden State Warriors as Finals champions. With an incredibly talented and versatile starting five, dubbed The Funk Five by Celtics twitter, they are primed to compete with the best the NBA has to offer.
While their starting five can keep up with any unit in the league, it will be their bench that takes them from being a young and talented team, to NBA champions. The Boston Celtics bench possesses the grit, heart, and quality of game to truly turn this band of skilled characters into a dynasty the basketball world will immortalize.
BWA, the Bench With an Attitude as coined by Marcus Morris, are led by two pitbulls at the guard spots in Marcus Smart and “Scary” Terry Rozier. Last year, the playoffs allowed for Rozier’s talent to be showcased while he filled in for the injured all-star Kyrie Irving, out-battling the Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe en route to a deep postseason run.
With the national spotlight on him now, the talented Scary Terry looks to compete for the Sixth Man of the Year award. The team’s longest tenured player, the veteran Smart figures to once again be the team’s unsung hero. Tthe Celtics will need every second of his electric play style to raise their eighteenth championship banner.
The Celtics bench wings Semi Ojeleye and Marcus Morris are two defensive minded hybrids at the forward positions. Ojeleye, now a second year player, will look to expand his role from defensive ace, to a productive 3 and D player. With quick feet, good shooting form and biceps the size of watermelons, Ojeleye will build on his successful rookie campaign and look to rise through the ranks of fan favorites.
Marcus “Mook” Morris, the Beantown Bully, is a defensive dynamo with a solid offensive skill set who has never seen a shot he didn’t like. Morris won’t back down from anyone, a recurring theme throughout this bench unit, evident from his playoff battles with Ben Simmons, the Greek Freak, and Lebron James.
“All of Australia” Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis, the Celtics bench big men, take defending the paint very seriously. Theis, a mobile 4-5 hybrid can be plugged in for Al Horford and the team does not miss a beat defensely. This will be key for the Celtics, as Al Horford unlocks this team’s defensive potential with his rim protection and ball-screen switching ability, and he will need rest in order to keep fresh for the playoffs.
Aron Baynes on the other hand, is a hulking pure center that would rather take physical punishment then allow the other team an easy look at the rim. For every time he has been dunked on from fearlessly defending the rim, he has stopped ten more easy looks.
The Celtic’s bench would function just as well as a group of schoolyard bullies hellbent on taking an entire city’s lunch money as they do a basketball unit, and that’s the essence of their game. Rozier and Morris are both talented offensive players, yet their games are both predicated on their hard-nosed play style. Every member of this bench will spend a good portion of the 2018-2019 season diving all over the floor, taking elbows to teeth, and getting in opposing players faces.
I for one can’t wait.
