In the final two weeks of 2021, the Hospital Celtics patched together a rotation with young players, two-way call ups, and hardship exception signings. Payton Pritchard was the biggest beneficiary, breaking out of a sophomore slump and averaging over 15 points in a five-game stretch in late December. Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith both had chances to start in place of Jayson Tatum. We even got a Joe Johnson sighting.
Now, outside of a few nagging injuries and Pritchard currently unavailable and in the league’s health and safety protocols, the Celtics are healthy. They’ve had their regular eight-man rotation since the new year (January 5) for the last four games.