It's time to give Jordan Mickey some run


In the 3rd quarter of a close win over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night, Celtics fans got a chance to see big man Jordan Mickey get some meaningful minutes in a very competitive game. The media was surprised, and very intrigued:




With the C's struggling to rebound the basketball to start the season, giving Mickey - a very good rebounder - a look was well received. I talked about the Celtics rebounding woes on Friday, and I can't forgive myself for not mentioning Mickey as an option to bolster the effort on the boards. He's only played a total of 65 minutes in the NBA (that's including the 8 minutes he played on Saturday night), but he's been an outstanding rebounder at every level he's played at thus far. Last year, he averaged 17.4 points and 10.3 rebounds for the Maine Red Claws in 23 games. Throughout his collegiate career as LSU he averaged 14 points and 8.8 rebounds in two seasons.

Mickey is only 6'8, so he loses some credit around the NBA for being a little undersized to play power forward; however, we've seen a guy that size make a huge impact playing that same position on championship level teams here in Boston in Leon Powe. Even in his limited minutes thus far on the floor, he always seems to make an impact. Sometimes the plays he makes don't show up in the stat sheet either:


This kind of effort will not be lost on Celtics coach Brad Stevens. We pretty much know at this point what we are getting from our other big guys. Obviously, you want to give everybody a chance to become accustomed to playing alongside the newly acquired Al Horford, but at the same time giving Mickey a little more run might be the best way to shore up the rebounding. There's definitely a dimension to explore by adding Mickey to the rotation. He can help on the boards, on defense, and I for sure wouldn't mind seeing some more of this:




Photo Credit - Boston Globe

Follow Mark on Twitter: @MarkAL401
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