NEW YORK — As quickly as Jordan Walsh became the revelation of this Celtics season, he slid aside to make room for a Josh Minott spark and Sam Hauser closing effort in the second half of the Celtics’ win over the Nets on Wednesday. Joe Mazzulla’s message to take each lineup and rotation with a grain of salt before this season came to fruition through constant lineup shuffling he argued as the strength of the team several times this year.
It’s unclear whether Hauser’s closing effort against Brooklyn
could translate into a return to the starting lineup he began the season with. The bigger lesson from Wednesday’s win already resonated with Josh Minott at the height of his nine-game run as starter, when he scored 21 points over Washington. He felt no staying power with the starters even as he emerged as a compelling Neemias Queta side-kick and the Celtics won 4-of-6 after an 0-3 start.
“I don’t consider if I have any staying power,” Minott said then. “I’m trying to go out there like this s*** could end tomorrow, because it can. It very much can.”
Walsh immediately thought about how he could stay in the mix after the shock wore off that he replaced Minott only four games later, and amid a three-game win streak, Minott and Hauser returned to major roles late in Brooklyn. Walsh went to the bench, and the Celtics closed 23-9 after Brooklyn tied the game 90-90 late.
Walsh shouldn’t disappear following his reduction to 11 minutes on Wednesday, though Hauser and Minott’s handling of similar demotions could prove instructive to Walsh’s next steps. Like Walsh, Minott saw his minutes cut off midway through the game in Philadelphia after three first half fouls. Minott’s ensuing appearances didn’t go great. He rallied late against Memphis after a slow start then went scoreless in 11 minutes against the Clippers. Hauser, who lost his starting job to rookie Hugo González in Detroit, averaged 5.4 points per game on 29% three-point shooting in the 12 games that followed.
Walsh, meanwhile, took advantage of a second half role guarding Tyrese Maxey in the close loss after Minott’s exit, building on successful minutes against Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner off the bench in Orlando. By the time he frustrated James Harden on Sunday against the Clippers in a starting role, Walsh’s rise appeared as consequential as what seemed like a game-changing partnership between Minott and Queta.
“A lot of the conversation has just been, earlier in the season, we were talking about how we felt like we needed a guy who could go in and guard the best player every night,” Walsh recalled on 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.‘”
Mazzulla affirmed that feedback from Brown as helpful before the game after complimenting Walsh’s attention to detail in scouting reports throughout his breakout week. His attention to detail while studying opposing player tendencies, Mazzulla noted, allowed him to guard a wide variety of assignments. On Wednesday, Walsh prepared to take on the Michael Porter Jr. assignment, but the Celtics rarely guarded in the half court in the first half, their worst ball control quarter all season featuring turnovers that spilled into a 22-0 fast break deficit.
Through little fault of his own, Walsh went from a crucial component of their recent success to no minutes over the final 22 minutes of a game that called for something else. That’s what Mazzulla wanted when he dreamed up a team without a rotation. Walsh recently thrived in a bench role, and even played alongside Hugo González as a compelling hustle duo. It’s possible he returns to that position when the Celtics and Nets meet again on Friday.
That fluctuation challenged a veteran and champion in Hauser, he acknowledged post-game on Wednesday, so it would inevitably impact a 21-year-old in Walsh who’s stressed opportunity as a his greatest hurdle. Mazzulla doesn’t want the team to think that way, stressing that minutes, starting and sitting don’t change your job.
And whether constant lineup shuffling suits development or building something sustainable throughout this season, Mazzulla proved he can press the right buttons to win games more games than not through an 8-7 start.
“The downside could be ‘hey, you may not play for two games,’” Mazzulla reflected last week. “But the upside is there’s a clear understanding of, that doesn’t change a role. That may change playing time, it doesn’t change a role. This is your role regardless of if it’s 20 minutes per night or two minutes per night … to me, the upside (is) validation that every guy has importance … there’s no entitlement.”
