How important is bench scoring?
I’m a Boston Celtics fan, and I think one of the biggest keys to our success has been Payton Pritchard bringing a lot of offensive power off the bench. Even in the early part of last season when we moved Payton into the starting lineup, we had Anfernee Simons being that hot scorer off the bench.
As we move into this new season, it seems that Pritchard will be back in the starting lineup again, with 39-year-old Mike Conley being the lead guard off the bench, along with the other young wings in Baylor, Walsh and Hugo.
I’m concerned that we won’t have someone who can score consistently off the bench, but then I looked around the league last season and not many of the top teams have a prolific or consistent scorer on the bench.
While the Celtics (as above) and the Spurs (in Keldon Johnson) had offensive firepower on the bench, the Pistons (who won the East) and the Knicks (who won it all) didn’t. Jordan Clarkson was the Knicks player with the highest PPG off the bench - a meagre 8.6 compared to Simons’ 14.2.
The Knicks as a team were also 28th in the league in total bench scoring, only 31.6 points per game, compared to the Thunder and the Spurs (both in the top 10) with 41 points per game coming from the bench.
So, what do y’all think? How important really is bench scoring in today’s NBA? If you have a starting 5 that can consistently give you buckets like the defending champions, is that the most important thing?