Most known for posterizing Joel Embiid, Darius Bazley finally hits the injury bug β a knee bone bruise, and will have 4-6 weeks to work on his Tik Tok profile.
It was just awkward contact by a Celtics player early in the 1st half, which stretched the bench thin the remainder of the game. Now, Billy Donovan will be making adjustments to fill in Bazley’s absence, which is usually about 17 minutes per game. There’s really only a few candidates given this team’s depth.
Mike Muscala
Listen. Muscala gets a lot of hate. By I have a statistic that will blow your flipping mind. There are only three 5-man lineups that include CP3, SGA, Schroder, and Gallinari. Those three lineups are with Steven Adams, Nerlens Noel, or Mike Muscala. Want to guess which lineup has the highest net points per 100 possessions?
| Player | Minutes played | Net points |
| Steven Adams | 145 | +26.7 |
| Nerlens Noel | 72 | +24.7 |
| Mike Muscala | 38 | +59.0 |
Obviously the minutes could be skewing things a bit, but 59 points? This has to be good, right? Right? RIGHT?
Isaiah Roby
According to ESPN Fantasy, Roby is ranked 95th at his position. I can’t imagine there’s more than 95 shooting forwards in the NBA. Troublesome. The statistics from his only NBA game, you ask? It was a Tony Snell special but with significantly fewer minutes.
However, Sam Presti didn’t have to trade Justin Patton for this guy, so he must see something in him. Turns out, this guy shows great potential as an outside shooter and as an all-around hustle guy. Check out the 2nd half highlights from this recent OKC Blue game vs the Kings
(Unrelated: The announcers and this game are amazing. The play-by-play guy makes every single play electric, and Nick Gallo is the color guy? Love it.)
All this to say that Roby hasn’t had too many opportunities to prove himself yet, but he has the potential to be a hidden gem.
Small Ball
One adjustment that has done wonders for Billy Donovan is the three guard lineup of SGA, Shai, and CP3 to end games. They are the best three-man lineup in terms of net rating, and we could see that come into play more with Bazley’s absence.
Don’t be surprised to see Billy go small with Ferg, Diallo, and Dort getting extra minutes with the 3-guard lineup (we still need a good nickname for that group, btw). We know that Diallo has been antsy to get more time, and with Dort’s rise in this rotation things have been a little cramped. This is a nice opportunity to give these guards some more area to develop.
This is all to say that we’ll be fine. Bazley has been a pleasant change from what we’ve usually seen in our rookies, but he’s still very far from a starting position. For now, enjoy these highlights from his season thus far.