Help on the Way!: The Importance of the NBA’s Bench

Something that always seems to be underestimated in today’s NBA is the importance of all the players coming off the bench. The game is dominated by star players, who play for nearly the entirety every single one of the 48 minutes available. Despite the dominance of inhuman star players however, every team needs to have a great bench to be successful. It’s hard to run with the weight of gold, so maybe if your star players are tired and broken then it’s time to bring in the backup. Personally, my favorite player off the bench has been Bill Walton, during his long, strange trip with the ‘86 Celtics. Possibly the greatest team in the history of basketball, this Celtics squad was lead by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. However, it was more than just the star players that helped the team make an impact.

Coach K. C. Jones watched the team’s speed and pace throughout the game and made sure chemistry played the biggest role on the floor. Out of the first three seasons the sixth man of the year award was available, the Celtics’ Kevin McHale had won it twice. Now McHale was starting and the team needed some talent off the bench. Enter Bill Walton, former NBA champion with the Portland Trailblazers, and currently a Center for a sinking ship of fools (otherwise known as the Clippers). Walton called up the Celtics’ GM Red Auerbach and was brought into Boston. Immediately, Walton’s goal was to get to know the team and to help them out in any way. After all, what’s better than helping you teammates? Known as one of the greatest passing Centers of all time, Bill Walton helped Larry Bird and the rest of the Celtics dominate the league that year. He forced defenders to follow him, he set picks, and he always got the ball to the guy with the best shot. Walton became an important factor in each game that he played, and he did so coming off the bench. This absurd amount of chemistry and help coming from off the bench was extremely clutch and lead the Celtics to the Finals that year. Unfortunately, every silver lining has a touch of gray and the team wasn’t able to face the showtime Lakers, but instead they got to take on the Rockets. However, that was really it for the other one, as Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets were dispatched quite easily by the Celtics. During his ‘86 campaign, Walton won the 6th Man of the Year Award, making K.C. Jones’s Celtics the winner of the award three times out of the four years it was available.

Now the real beauty of Walton’s season specifically was that he wasn’t as prolific a scorer as he had been ten years previous to 1986. Instead, he came off the bench and made it his top priority to give everybody else their best shot at sinking the ball. Walton knew what his primary role on the team was. He once compared playing basketball with Larry Bird to singing onstage with Jerry Garcia. You’re working with some of the best in the business. Be grateful you get to work with them and do your job by helping the best of the best do theirs. Whether that means scoring points off the bench like Jamal Crawford, rebounding and assisting like Detlef Schrempf, or by simply being an X Factor like Bill Walton, it’s always important to support your team in any way possible. When it comes to today’s NBA, there are plenty of teams with impeccable starting lineups with not much coming off the bench. Then there are teams with depth, who have acquired stars by telling them to come along or go to the playoffs alone. These squads with depth and more to offer than just their starting lineup are the real contenders for the NBA championship. Who you think these teams are currently, I’ll leave up to your discretion. This was more of a friendly reminder to be aware of the depth of the team your root for; without a good bench, in the playoffs especially, you can say to your team “Fare thee well.”

Written by Rick Wronski