BOSTON -- Finally.

After a whole summer of guessing and a week of trying to get some hints from practices, we have a game to analyze and at least start ourselves down the path of some answers.

Before we lock arms and skip down this road like Dorothy and friends, we have to make one thing absolutely crystal clear.

This was one preseason game against the Charlotte Hornets.

Take a breath. Get up and walk around if you need. We’re not going to overreact to this thing.

We are, however, going to take a look at what happened with the bigs last night and see if we can get any closer to figuring out how this rotation at center is going to work. The one bit of new information we have from this game is 5:43 of Vincent Poirier on the floor.

The first question is obvious. Why only 5:43? Brad Stevens will tell you not to read into anything. It could be that 5:43 is all he needed to see. I, personally, would have liked to see more, especially since he was the best defensive big on the floor in this game.

Let’s start, though, at the same place as Stevens. Robert Williams started both halves against Charlotte. He was coming off a very solid summer league where focused on fundamentals like his positioning, communication, and staying out of his own head.

He did pretty well. He progressed as the days wore on and he showed some real promise, which made me think his biggest need was consistent minutes so he could hammer these habits into his muscle memory.

My opinion has not changed.

Williams had some of his typical highlights, but his fundamentals were poor.

Get wide, get low.



Rob Williams is dropping in pnr coverage.. he's not deterring any passing lanes, he's not low so he can spring left or right to get any deflection, and he loses sight of the big who literally just passed right by him. pic.twitter.com/eTS0IvgfHX — John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) October 7, 2019

This play is inexcusable. Williams almost seems surprised the ball went to the guy who literally just walked right past him. Williams is standing too tall, he’s not wide enough to discourage a pass like that, and he’s clearly not focused here.

Nor is he here.

I don't know what Williams is doing here. I don't know if he's supposed to double but he doesn't even do that. It forces Hayward to pick up Zeller which leaves a wide open corner 3.



Williams is so athletic, he can hang with his guy & come over to challenge if the shot goes up. pic.twitter.com/z9A5PJRgl6 — John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) October 7, 2019

I feel like his heart is in the right place. He sees a player backing Kemba down and he’s going to come over to help out and block the shot.

He over-committed to this, though, leaving his man alone on the left block. That’s the opposite of rim protection because one easy pass equals a layup. Giving up layups is a cardinal sin in basketball, so Gordon Hayward abandons his man to prevent that. However, that requires committing the second-worst sin in basketball, giving up an open corner 3.

Charlotte missed, so this play probably fell out of everyone’s minds, but it’s bad. Williams has a lot of work to do as a player, but these are bad mistakes even for him.

“Rob’s just got to get more comfortable out there,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “He was so antsy and ready to go that by the 10 minute mark he was out of breath.”

Remember the big caveat from the top? No overreactions?

Williams gets a pass on this performance because it was so bad, so out of character, that we can almost throw it out as an outlier. It’s like dragging a file from your desktop to the trash but not emptying it yet. We need to see what he does in the next few games before we can permanently delete this performance.

Enes Kanter proved to be exactly who he is. He was good offensively. He can get the ball in the post and score. He can set a pick or two offensively. Defensively, you’ll get this from time to time.

Kanter doesn’t have the lateral speed to keep up with any guards on a switch. He didn’t even keep trying to ride the guard out of bounds. He opened up his hips and left himself wide open for a reverse layup.

There’s also this.

There really is no need to step up here. Kemba wasn’t really in trouble, though he could have maybe gotten to the spot a bit quicker. That communication needs to be better.

Jayson Tatum should also have helped there by tagging the big as he rolled down the lane. He needed to disrupt that timing somehow.

The best defense of the night came from Poirier, and it really wasn’t anything spectacular. In fact, by being unremarkably good, he proved a consistent point about team defense and protecting the rim.

Blocks and rebounds are certainly part of rim protection, but sliding and keeping defenders from even getting in the paint is also a huge part of that.

The highlight here is Grant Williams helping and getting the block, but this is the first time in this game that I've seen a big slide and stay in front of his man, so defensive points here to Vincent Poirier pic.twitter.com/26IwAF0CFU — John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) October 7, 2019

Grant Williams gets the highlight, but the real work is being put in by Poirier. He gets through a screen, cuts Cody Zeller off twice, and Williams swings over to finish the play off.

SLIDING! POSITIONING!



This is rim protection. This is what I keep talking about with Rob Williams. Slide... cut guys off... this is just as important as blocked shot.



So far, Poirier has defended 3 drives w/his positioning & all have been stops pic.twitter.com/yoZqtciv0o — John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) October 7, 2019

Again, it’s a fundamental slide to cut the driver off. Sure, Dwayne Bacon slipped, but we can also say he wouldn’t have slipped if he didn’t have to change direction.

Regardless, Poirier’s positioning was pretty good in the few minutes that he played.

I’ll just repeat myself one more time here.

DON’T OVERREACT!

But at the same time, Poirier’s performance injects and interesting possibility here.

IF Robert Williams does need time in the G League to work on his game by getting 30-35 minutes of playing time… and

IF Enes Kanter continues to struggle defending in space… then

MAYBE Vincent Poirier and his desire to do “the dirty job” for the Celtics fit better with a backcourt full of offensive-minded wings.

He’s a 7-footer who sets screens and rolls hard to the basket. He’s showing at least some ability to maintain good positioning. If this is a real thing that he can keep doing, then it’s a real possibility that he can see more time.

I won’t go any further than that. I feel like I’ve already stretched the possibilities a little too far after five minutes of preseason playing time. However, strong fundamentals are what they are, and there’s reason to be optimistic about a guy who shows them even in short bursts.

The Celtics face Orlando next, and the Magic have some bigs who are tough to defend. We’ve seen some interesting things in the first game. Now let’s see if they can carry over to the second.

*Footnote: You may be wondering where Tacko Fall is in this discussion. At this point, he’s just not a viable option for big minutes despite last night’s wild finish. Another note: Daniel Theis did not play yesterday, so he’s not in this evaluation just yet.