Could a lack of experience hurt the Boston Celtics?

The Boston Celtics are destined to reached the playoffs this season. However, could lack of experience hurt the team make a deeper run than anticipated?

The average age of the Boston Celtics, according to Basketball-Real GM, is 25.1 years. That makes them as the fifth-youngest team in the NBA. Because the team is so young, it could be assumed that their record would show a .500 team. Of course, that is not the case, as the Celtics are the best team in the East with a 24-6 record.

But there is a big distinction between the regular season and the playoffs. For one, the intensity is obviously much higher, and the games have a lot more on the line. It’s not your simple game at home where if you lose, you can say “there’s still 81 more games.” In the playoffs, it’s win or go home.

In most cases, the NBA is usually pretty predictable, which means for the most part it’s the higher seed winning. It’s also the time where the same teams are in the playoffs. Meaning that it’s the same players, the veterans who know how to operate in a playoff scenario.

The crowds are bigger, there’s more energy, it’s louder, the intensity picks up and minutes played increase. For someone who has never experienced the playoffs, this all may come as a surprise, or at least an adjustment process. For the Celtics, this could become an issue in the playoffs seeing as how young their team is.

The following chart shows the experience of each player on the Celtics’ roster.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/15/2017.

The Celtics currently have seven rookies on the roster. Not only that, but this is Jaylen Brown‘s second season in the league. Of course this team did make the playoffs last season, but Brown did not start in the 17 postseason games he played in. In that span of time, he managed to average just 12.6 minutes a game.

Keep in mind that with the two-way contracts, a player is only eligible to spend 45 days with the team. Kadeem Allen, and Jabari Bird are listed as players who are under a two-way contract. But if you were to add them in the mix of the roster, then seven of the Celtics’ 16 players are rookies.

Brown, while he’s in the middle of his second season, is still very new to the league. You could then make the argument that eight of their 16 players lack significant playoff experience.

Live Feed

Hardwood Houdini

After these eight players, you’re looking at two other young guys in Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier. Rozier has been in the league for three years, while Smart has been in the league for four years. In retrospect, both of these players are still just 23 years of age. Both are very young, and do not carry the same amount of experience as say, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, John Wall and DeMar DeRozan. So it’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Lastly, we have the veterans in Aaron Baynes, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris and Kyrie Irving. In this scenario we will count out Hayward, as we don’t know if he will be 100 percent for the playoffs.

If Boston wants to advance further in the playoffs, then they will need to rely heavily on their veterans. One veteran has only played in four games, and that man is Marcus Morris. Those four games resulted in a sweep by the Cleveland Cavaliers back in the 2016.  So while Morris does provide veteran leadership, he lacks playoff experience as well.

Now we get to the final three players with the most experience. Baynes has played a total of 26 postseason games in his career. Most of them have come from his time with the San Antonio Spurs. Any time spent with Gregg Popovich and the Spurs is time well spent, and one of his playoff runs resulted in a ring during the 2013-14 season.

All of Irving’s playoff experience has come with the Cavaliers. In his time there, he has had a run of three straight Finals appearances. Each time it resulted in a date with the Golden State Warriors. Three straight Finals appearances, and one ring; Irving has shown us that he knows what it takes to win on the biggest stage.

Lastly, we have the old man himself, Al Horford. At age 31, he leads the team in 92 playoff games. He has seen the most action in the playoffs by far, but of course it also helps that he has been in the league for a long time. Because he has played in 92 games and leads the team in playoff experience, Horford may be the Celtics’ biggest asset come playoff time.

Now that we have looked at the teams experience, let’s in turn look at some teams they could face. In this scenario we are going to look at the Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.

• Golden State Warriors: 656 games
• Cleveland Cavaliers: 990 games

The Cavaliers are the oldest team in the NBA, and perhaps a team with the most experience. This team is of course led by future Hall of Famer LeBron James. Behind him with the most played games is Dwyane Wade. He knows what it takes to win and play a game in the playoffs. In fact, all of them do, except the ones that are rookies. James and the Cavs know what it takes to win, and they will be the Celtics’ hardest task at hand.

On the other hand we have the Warriors, a super-team. This is still the team to beat, and is always assumed as the favorite to go to the Finals. We know that the Houston Rockets may be challenging the Warriors, but for now it’s still assumed that it’s Golden State who will be in the Finals. The Warriors know how to win and of course have a slew of veterans.

Next: The 50 greatest NBA players of all time (updated, 2016-17)

The Boston Celtics’ path to the Finals is not going to be easy, but if they can work past their inexperience, they should have great success. They are currently the best team in the East, but can it translate over to playoffs?