The Boston Celtics projected to have an embarrassment of riches at the wing position when the year began. All-Star Gordon Hayward was returning from injury, young wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would have an offseason’s worth of development, and Marcus Morris would provide a veteran presence off the bench.
Fast forward to today, and things look very different for Boston. Tatum is scoring slightly more but with less efficiency. Hayward and Brown are playing well below what they’re capable of. Morris is over-performing. With all these wings within five points per game of each other, the question deserves to be asked: which one is playing the best? Let’s split it up into categories before we begin ranking Boston Celtics wings.
Scoring
Tatum leads the quartet of wings in scoring with 16 PPG. Marcus Morris is second, averaging 14.2. Jaylen pours in 13 a night, and Hayward is averaging a mere 10.9.
Looking at points per 36 minutes gives us a clearer divide between three of the wings and the fourth. Tatum, Brown, and Morris all hover between 18.1 and 18.3 points per 36, but Hayward lags behind with only 15.4 points.
This makes sense, as Hayward has been criticized for his passivity on the offensive end this season. All four players shoot similar percentages, with Tatum marginally less efficient than the other three. Still, I’d say Tatum is the best scorer of the four, followed by Morris and Brown, who are relative equals, and Hayward at the caboose.
Passing
Distribution of the ball is important for any wing, especially when there’s an offensive supernova named Kyrie Irving on the same team. The Celtics’ wings all seem to struggle with passing, except for Gordon Hayward. He averages 3.4 APG, which improves to 4.8 per 36 minutes. Tatum is second with a mere 2.1 APG, while Brown and Morris average 1.3 and 1.5, respectively. Those meager numbers put them at a disadvantage. Hayward easily leads the pack in terms of passing, followed by Tatum, then Brown, and Morris.
Defending
Finally, there’s the part of the game when the ball is not in your hands! The Celtics wings are all solid defenders, so there’s not a huge gap in this category. Their per-36 steals and blocks per game give Tatum the advantage, who averages 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks per 36. Second is Brown with 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocks. Hayward has 1.2 steals and 0.4 blocks. Morris rounds out the group with only 0.8 steals and 0.4 blocks per 36. However, steals and blocks are not the full measure of defensive impact.
Defensive box plus-minus, a metric used to grade how a player performs defensively over the course of the game compared to other players, also gives Tatum the advantage. His DBPM score is 0.5, followed by Hayward at 0.3. Brown’s score is negative at -0.6, and Morris’ is -1.0. These metrics are not fully representative of a player’s defensive efforts, but they seem to peg Tatum as the best defender of the group, followed by Brown and Hayward, then Morris as the worst.
Overall
So, it seems that there’s been one player that’s stood out over the three categories, placing first, second, and first. That player is Jayson Tatum. It seems that his performance this season has surpassed that of his peers. The other three Celtics wings are much closer to each other.
Hayward has likely been the second-best for the Celtics. Though, he’s been very passive on offense, that’s more forgivable because the Celtics have other scorers on the team. His passing sets him apart from Jaylen Brown, and his defense puts him above Marcus Morris.
In third comes Jaylen Brown, who slightly edges out Marcus Morris with his superior passing and defense.
Finally, Marcus Morris has been the worst of the four. He started the season off hot, but his percentages aren’t better than the other wings, and he doesn’t distribute or defend like the other three.
So, the ranking Boston Celtics wings comes in as: Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Morris.
What do you think? Is this accurate or totally off? Let me know!