BOSTON — Brad Stevens didn’t know what to expect after the Celtics lost five of last year’s eight rotation players in the offseason.
Stevens knew that the team was bringing back several proven, championship players — Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard — but also that the team’s ceiling could hinge on the play of young forwards who lacked NBA experience.
And so far, that quarter of young talent has exceeded expectations, with Jordan Walsh headlining the pack.
- Walsh has started the past 14 games, and is averaging 9.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in that span, while shooting 64.6% from the field and 50% from three. All the while, he’s begun to establish himself as one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.
- Minott has tripled his minutes from last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, tallying 7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 19 minutes per game this season.
- Scheierman went from spending most of the year in the G League to becoming a fixture of the Celtics’ rotation, averaging 12 minutes per game and shooting 44.7% from three.
- And the 19-year-old Gonzalez has yet to spend even a day with the Maine Celtics, averaging 11.8 minutes per game and shooting 47.8% from three, while showcasing flashes of a high defensive ceiling.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Stevens credited the team’s more veteran players, such as Jaylen Brown, for creating an environment that has allowed the young guys to thrive.
“All of our young wings have shown that they’re capable of something — and I think that’s largely due to the fact that we have all of these older guys that are really even some of the guys that aren’t playing as much right now, like Xavier [Tillman] and Chris [Boucher] and Luka [Garza], that are giving them that environment,” Stevens said. “And I think it starts with Jaylen. I think it starts with Derrick, Payton, obviously, those guys that have been there.”
Stevens acknowledged that the Celtics lost a ton in the offseason and that the veterans could have approached this season with less patience than they did.
“It’s not easy when you go through the changes we went through, and the talent that’s lost, to have that kind of patience, he said. “To start out 0-3, and to just be focused on getting better, I thought it was a really good sign.”
Jordan Walsh has been a particular bright spot this season
The 21-year-old forward has started the last 14 games, and the Celtics are 10-4 with him in the lineup.
Stevens said it was no surprise Walsh didn’t crack the rotation in his first two seasons in the NBA, and reiterated just how young Walsh still is — especially relative to the college prospects he scouts regularly.
But this year, with Jayson Tatum sidelined with an Achilles rupture, an unprecedented opportunity emerged.
“I knew he had no prayer on the first team,” Stevens said with a smile, reflecting on the overflow of talent that the 2023-2024 championship team had. “The team was really good, and last year’s team was basically the first team. And so it was going to be hard to crack that one, too.”
Given that it’s Walsh’s third year with the Celtics, it might feel like his success is delayed. But he was 19 when he was drafted with the 38th overall pick in 2023, and he remains younger than many college prospects today.
“These guys are young,” Stevens said. “I go to college games almost every weekend, and I’m watching prospects that are the same age or older some of the time, so you have to give them the grace of time. And then also, sometimes you’re not going to get the opportunity that they get. And I think that’s why you see such a desire to take advantage of it, and that comes with a burden you put on yourself, and that ends up creating more ups and downs generally.”
Walsh was able to get on the court because of his defense — so far this season, he’s done a tremendous job guarding a slew of players, from Tyrese Maxey to Austin Reaves to Donovan Mitchell. And now that he’s a regular fixture of the rotation, Walsh has showcased a versatility on offense as well.
“He’s got a role, and I think Joe and his staff have done an excellent job of defining what those guys need to do to be good,” Stevens said. “And sometimes it takes steps — you start to see Jordan now occasionally more driving closeouts and dumping it to Neemy for a dunk, or dumping it to somebody else off of a roll, or kicking it out off of a roll — your role expands when you show that you can consistently be good in the simplest of things. And I say simplest, it’s hard to play that hard, especially against the guys he’s guarding, and he’s doing a good job.”
