Projecting Celtics' Depth Chart, Rotation After 2024 NBA Free Agency

The Boston Celtics are running it back.

Why wouldn't they?

They just went wire-to-wire as the NBA's best team, following a 64-win season with their record-setting 18th title. They've since scrambled to re-sign their key free agents and extend their core contributors.

That makes this exercise pretty simple, but let's lay out the projected depth chart and rotation anyway before examining the few unanswered questions about this club.

Point Guard

Jrue Holiday

Payton Pritchard

Shooting Guard

Derrick White

Jaden Springer

Baylor Scheierman

Small Forward

Jaylen Brown

Sam Hauser

Power Forward

Jayson Tatum

Jordan Walsh

Center

Kristaps Porziņģis

Al Horford

Luke Kornet

Xavier Tillman

Neemias Queta

When healthy, Boston's top six—the five starters and Al Horford—is pretty clearly basketball's best. Its top eight might be, too, considering Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser both delivered breakout performances this past season.

Rotation questions, then, revolve around how many other players actually matter.

The Celtics will clearly need their backup bigs to eat some innings, but will coach Joe Mazzulla develop any clear preferences between Xavier Tillman, Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta? Their minutes figure to be mostly matchup-dependent, but one obviously outplaying the others would add a new twist to rotation talks.

If there's any potential excitement here it's tied to whatever chances young players like Jaden Springer, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh have to secure regular or even semi-regular roles. Scheierman, this year's No. 30 pick, might already be the most polished, but he'll also need more than perimeter shooting to stand out from the crowd. Springer and Walsh are interesting wild cards if the Celtics aim for more athleticism and defensive versatility.

Boston is mostly a team without question marks, but there is one rather massive exception.

It's the health and recovery process of 7'3" center Kristaps Porziņģis, who followed the championship run by having surgery for the rare leg injury he suffered during the Finals. He had that procedure in late June and was initially given a five-to-six-month timetable.

The unicorn big man was nothing short of a difference-maker during his first season with the Shamrocks. In the playoffs, his floor presence bumped Boston's net efficiency rating by 4.3 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com.

The Celtics figure to exercise caution in hopes of having him healthy at the most critical times, but his recovery is clearly the biggest mystery with this group moving forward.