Six games ago Celtics head coach Doc Rivers decided to take the last guy on the end of his bench, veteran big man Jason Collins, and insert him into the starting lineup at center. While Doc insists that Collins contributes in ways that don’t show up in the box score, it’s comical how bad his stat lines have been. Through 6 games as a starter Collins has just 2 made field goals (both of which came in the same game), and a total of 9 points (1.5 PPG). Against Golden State on Saturday he picked up fist first and only assist, of the season.
These number’s might not stand out so much if Collins was at least getting his fair share of rebounds, but since his promotion he’s pulling down just 1.8 boards each night. The thing he averages by far the most of is personal fouls; 4 per game. In fact, if you add up all the fouls (24) and turnovers (5) he’s committed as Boston’s starting center (29), it’s more than the total of his points (9), rebounds (11), assists (1), blocks (3), and steals (2) combined (26).
By no means am I blaming the Celtics horrific 0-3 California road trip (their worst three game stretch in 35 years) on this, but it obviously hasn’t helped. What’s funny to me is that Doc clearly knows his team is not better when Collins is on the floor. Despite starting Collins, he’s playing him less than 16 minutes a night. So why continue with the charade?
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