In many cases, the lineup a team like the Boston Celtics uses on opening night means little if they have a lot of unsettled internal concerns to work out. But in a lot of cases, it will at minimum tell us things about the philosophy of the team and their style of play heading into a new campaign.
In an effort to collect some information to see what can be gleaned from the starting lineups of all 30 teams in the league for the current 2022-23 NBA season, Synergy Sports’ Todd Whitehead put together a total of 11 visual aides to display the data he collected about the opening night starting lineups around the league to kick off this season. Some are just for fun, but others have clues about the season to come baked in.
The Celtics, of course, were among those teams; let’s take a look at what he found in 10 of them (age and birth year were close enough that we found them redundant).
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— Ronnie 2K 2K23 (@Ronnie2K) October 24, 2022
Opening night starting lineups
Here's everything you need to know about each NBA team's opening-night starting lineup in 11 easy charts!
More details available @SynergySST:https://t.co/gTzPwEMOnf pic.twitter.com/DSdiPhRr2y
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Boston kicked off the season by starting Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford.
Opening-night starting lineup heights.
Opening-night starting lineup heights. pic.twitter.com/QAt7Z41aSn
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
The Celtics had one of the taller opening lineups in the league with two players at 6-foot-4 (Smart and White), another at 6-foot-6 (Brown), one at 6-foot-8 (Tatum), and another at 6-foot-9 (Horford).
Opening-night starting lineup positions
Opening-night starting lineup positions. pic.twitter.com/YK9XfA7Rne
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Boston was, unsurprisingly, leaning hard on (using Synergy’s positional designations) forwards to start the season, with two guards (Smart and White), a guard-forward (Brown), a forward-guard (Tatum), and a forward-center (Horford).
Opening-night starting lineup offensive roles
Opening-night starting lineup offensive roles. pic.twitter.com/lyUnwZcD8w
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
The Celtics played a pair of playmaking wings (White and Brown), a playmaking ball handler (Smart), a scoring ball handler (Tatum), and a playmaking big (Horford) to start 2022-23.
Opening-night starting lineup ages
Opening-night starting lineup ages. pic.twitter.com/dtKzLvL4h7
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Boston is a younger team, with only one player over 30 (Horford at 36) in their first starting lineup of the season. They also had players in their age 28 season (Smart and White), at age 25 (Brown), and 24 (Tatum).
Opening-night starting lineup birthplaces
Opening-night starting lineup birthplaces. pic.twitter.com/VGFgNyfDde
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
The Celtics carried a starting unit on opening night that was among the most domestic in the league, with four players (Brown, Smart, Tatum, White) born in the US, and only Horford abroad in the Dominican Republic.
Opening-night starting lineup last attended
Opening-night starting lineup last attended. pic.twitter.com/IpANZQxorI
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
The Celtics have assembled a team with a national reach in terms of the last school each opening night starter attended: Brown (Cal); Horford (Florida); Smart (Oklahoma State); Tatum (Duke); White (Colorado State).
Starting lineups by draft pick
Opening-night starting lineup draft pick. pic.twitter.com/Iv0opgdtxQ
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Boston seems to have nearly cornered the market on No. 3 picks (Brown, Horford, Tatum), with Smart (No. 6) and White (No. 29) both checking in at opposite ends of the first round.
Opening-night starting lineups by the NBA team for which each player debuted
Opening-night starting lineups by the NBA team for which each player debuted. pic.twitter.com/tQmqU5AzDh
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
The Celtics are mostly an in-house affair here with Brown, Smart, and Tatum starting their careers in Boston. Horford was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, and White by the San Antonio Spurs.
Opening-night starting lineup tenures (rminutes w/ team prior to year)
Opening-night starting lineup tenures (regular season minutes played with current team prior to this year). pic.twitter.com/ZdGwZqshEc
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Smart is the longest-tenured Boston player with over 15,000 minutes played for the team. Brown and Tatum have played about 12,000 minutes with the club, Horford around 8,000, and White has yet to crack 1,000.
Opening-night starting lineup salaries
Opening-night starting lineup salaries. pic.twitter.com/IMjWPCHSf3
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) October 24, 2022
Finally, the Celtics sport a fairly moderate salary collection among their opening night starters, with Smart and White earning close to $17 million each, Horford $27 million, Brown $29 million, and Tatum $30 million.
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