Boston Celtics: Time to be concerned about Ime Udoka’s coaching decisions

The Boston Celtics are off to a rough start to begin the season. In their first seven games, we’ve seen them get blown-out, take three games into overtime (including two double-overtime games), and we’ve seen the entire team fail to connect from behind the arc in multiple games.

With an improved team of both players and coaches, it’s fair to question some of first-year head coach Ime Udoka’s decisions to start the season, specifically his lineups and rotations.

The Boston Celtics need to question some of Ime Udoka’s decisions

To start this off, Udoka needs to first figure out his rotation. This is especially important since this is the first time in a few years that the Celtics have adequate depth throughout the roster.

However, Udoka rarely utilizes more than four players off of his bench. In fact, the Boston Celtics have only deployed greater than four players from the bench in four out of the seven games this season.

Furthermore, Udoka falling to utilize his full roster is beginning to cost the Celtics games. In all three of the overtime games, Udoka elected to play only four and five bench players, respectively.

There have even been games where Udoka has decided not to play Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmith, who are two young contributors that were poised to produce in a big way for Boston in just their second year.

As the head coach of the team, Udoka hasn’t set his team up for success to start the season. He needs to create a rotation that will work for the duration of a game and not just one half.

Although the double-big lineup has worked up to this point in regards to the starting unit, it depletes the unit rotating in. In turn, this forces the Celtics to run small more often than what’s truly necessary.