Three lineups the Celtics must explore

Preseason games are done, Boston fans. We’re almost there!

The Celtics enter the season with fewer roster questions than anyone in the league, but Joe Mazzulla isn’t one to sit on his hands. He and his staff will be tinkering with strategies, tactics, playing time, and lineups all year long in search of even the slightest edge for the playoffs.

Below, I’ve listed several lineups worth throwing at the wall; I’m confident at least one will stick. Some will definitely log heavy minutes, while others may be a pipe dream. However, even though the Celtics are money to roll through the East again this season (knock on wood), it’s always worth checking the couch cushions for spare change.

1) Bombs away / a glimpse of the future?

Kristaps Porzingis’ return will happen at some point, and once it does, I’d love to see more of arguably the league’s most potent offensive fivesome: Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, the Jays, and Porzingis.

The group only played 51 possessions last year but sported a — good basketball gods, is that right? — 152.9 offensive rating. Sample sizes that small are essentially meaningless, but with numbers like that, it would be criminal not to explore further.

This is not meant to disrespect Jrue Holiday, an excellent offensive force in his own right and a better overall player than Pritchard. But there’s a very real chance that Holiday is traded after this season, a casualty of the Celtics’ ballooning expenses. Pritchard is cost-controlled and got up half-again as many threes as Holiday (7.5 per 36 minutes compared to Holiday’s 5.1 per 36).

The starters aren’t better with Pritchard, but they may be more potent offensively. More than anything, I want Boston to know before the offseason if Pritchard is ready to step into a bigger role next to the starters.

Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images

2) Any Tillman-at-the-four lineups

Coming into the season, I assumed the Celtics would go away from their two-big lineups. Without Porzingis’ moonballs on the floor, Horford was the only proven shooter at the center position. I even pleaded with Joe Mazzulla to bring back the UniKornet!

Turns out, I was thinking about this all wrong. We’ve seen plenty of two-big lineups this preseason, even without Al Horford, and it’s all thanks to the stunning emergence of Xavier Tillman.

Tillman shot 6-for-11 on preseason threes and looked noticeably more aggressive and comfortable than his 27% career three-point shooting mark might suggest. Take a look at the preseason shooting data Jack Anderson compiled. Interestingly, only one of Tillman’s attempts was from the right side, and he made several tries from the wing and the top of the arc. I especially liked this one, in which he lifted up from the corner just enough to make an easier passing lane for Payton Pritchard:

Tillman will never be Kristaps Porzingis. But if he can settle in somewhere in the mid to high-30s percent-wise and drag defenders a half step out of the paint, can he fill Al Horford’s role? Given the natural concerns about Horford in his age-38 season, it’s worth finding out. Tillman is already the most versatile defender in the big man rotation; if the shot proves trustworthy, the Celtics may not be so reliant on their elder statesman.

3) The backups who blitzed the Raptors (plus Jaylen Brown)

This is one from the heart. I simply must see more of the reserves who annihilated the Toronto Raptors in that magical preseason game from a week ago: Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Jordan Walsh, and Neemias Queta. Let’s have Jaylen Brown step in for the departed Lonnie Walker.

Pritchard, Brown, Hauser, and Walsh (if the 37% preseason three-point shooting is real) can provide a masterclass in ballistics, and Queta can do what he does best: devour rebounds like a hungry, hungry hippo. There’s more than enough shooting and playmaking here to make hay on offense, and Brown and Walsh could create havoc in the passing lanes.

Will this unit ever play? Doubtful; they ran zero possessions together last season (mainly because Walsh barely played). Minus Walsh, the other four only logged a paltry 74 possessions (in which they annihilated opponents).

But this group came out running and gunning against the Raptors in a feast for the eyes, and you know what? My peepers are famished again.