Jae Crowder is reportedly going to miss at least a few weeks with a high ankle sprain. How does this impact the Boston Celtics’ playoff positioning?
According to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens told the national NBA writer that forward Jae Crowder “will miss a couple of weeks” due to a high ankle sprain.”
Brad Stevens said drops a bomb, says Jae Crowder (high ankle sprain) will miss a "couple of weeks." #Celtics
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) March 13, 2016
While the Celtics are way ahead of schedule in terms of high-end competitiveness under Stevens’ watch, Boston doesn’t have the prototypical star player of a top seven team in the NBA.
Though Crowder didn’t make the Eastern Conference All-Star team like his teammate point guard Isaiah Thomas did this winter, one could argue that Crowder is perhaps the most valuable player on the 2015-16 Celtics for his ability to play multiple positions.
Through the Celtics’ first 66 games of the 2015-16 NBA season, Boston finds itself at 39-27 and in third place in the Eastern Conference Standings, eight games back of the first place Cleveland Cavaliers (46-18) and two games back of the second place Toronto Raptors (44-20).
While it was highly unlikely that Boston was going to do any better than third in the East this late in the season, the Celtics could drop significantly in the Eastern Conference hierarchy without having Crowder available for possibly the rest of the regular season.
Entering play Sunday, the fourth-place Miami Heat were a game back of Boston, the fifth-place Charlotte Hornets were a game and a half back, the sixth-place Atlanta Hawks were two games back, the seventh-place Indiana Pacers were three and a half games back, and the eighth-place Detroit Pistons were only five games back.
Boston should be able to make the 2016 Eastern Conference Playoffs, but conceivably those five and maybe the .500 Chicago Bulls in ninth-place could all surpass the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Standings in an absolute worst case scenario.
Realistically, Boston feels like an at-worst top six team in the East, but with No. 3 through No. 9 being so tightly packed, there are no guarantees that the Celtics will have home court advantage in the first round or even make the Eastern Conference Playoffs if the team plummets in Crowder’s extended absence.
Boston is having a fantastic 2015-16 NBA season, but losing arguably its most important player in Crowder down the stretch in mid-March doesn’t bode well for the Celtics’ playoff positioning going forward. Look for them to finish fourth to sixth in the East at the end of the regular season.