Boston’s secret weapon this year has been the play of guys that were, basically, afterthoughts in assessments of the team coming into the season.
Sure, among Boston cognoscenti, there were expectations that Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, Neemias Queta, and Sam Hauser would be able to fill in some gaps caused by the loss of Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis. But even among these fans, there was little expectation that the C’s would see such massive steps up in production from players that had pretty uneven playing time last season, and there were few expectations for the C’s rookies, Amari Williams and Hugo Gonzalez, as well.
First of all, it’s my belief that your typical NBA bench player has a fair bit more to show than what his role allows him. These guys are all pretty much All-Americans—at least the ones that come up through the US college system. Some of them come in raw and need training to develop their games up to a point where they can contribute meaningful minutes; other guys are closer to finished products who need game reps to get used to the NBA’s pace and intensity. But I am firmly convinced, and I use the Boston Celtics as my chief example, that a lot of bench talent in this league is being wasted by teams that are focused primarily on their stars—or the process of acquiring stars.
The difference between the Celtics and most teams in this league is the way they evaluate and develop all of the talent on their team.
Last week I wrote about how the Celtics had been scouting Baylor Scheierman for years—and along with that, they probably had broken down more film on him than your typical draft analyst. They also had another thing going for them that the typical draft analyst doesn’t. They’d actually interviewed him. Twice.
The Celtics saw something different, though. They saw a gifted basketball player who was willing to put in the work. The results speak for themselves. This season, the C’s are ten points per 100 possessions better than their opponents when Scheierman is on the floor.
Of course, the Celtics haven’t just drafted ‘proven quantities’ into supporting roles. They’ve also taken flyers on 19-year olds like Walsh and Gonzalez. We tend to forget that Jordan was taken after just one season at Arkansas.
Here’s where the C’s player development coaches have really shined. Walsh was an incredibly raw prospect coming out of the Razorbacks program, and the C’s player development team have basically spent the last two and a half seasons providing the sort of assistance with skill acquisition that used to take place in college.
With Walsh, the Celtics knew going in that they he was a work in progress. Their expectations for him differed from Scheierman. Stevens said after drafting Scheierman, “he’s a basketball player now.” His comments about Walsh last December were different, “When he got here, he was young,” adding, “You have to give [young players] the grace of time.”
The C’s have shown patience with player development that seems to be a rarity in the NBA. Neemias Queta is an example of Boston benefiting from another team’s lack of patience. Queta was drafted by Sacramento, given a two-year contract, and then ditched. Their loss was Boston’s gain. Queta signed with Boston as a free agent, and has grown into a starting caliber center for an upper division team in the NBA. This only happens when a team is willing to invest time in player growth.
In 2023, when the C’s signed Queta to a standard contract, Stevens said, “we think [Queta] is more than just a right now player. We think he’s a guy that can help us in the future.” He was right.
In comments after drafting Gonzalez, Stevens gave a window into what the team looks for when they’re acquiring players, either through the draft or free agency: “when we interviewed Hugo a couple of weeks ago on Zoom, it’s really clear that he’s about the team and he accepts and is willing to play any role it takes.”
Where other teams saw Gonzalez as a high-risk player because he’d not even cracked the starting rotation for Real Madrid, the Celtics saw a player who had valued and learned how to make the most of limited minutes. Adding to his comments above, Stevens said that Gonzalez benefited from logging a lot of time on the bench: “with that comes a humility and also an understanding that you’ve gotta invest every day just to take advantage of whatever opportunity you get.”
The Celtics were also willing to bring Gonzalez over right away. There were teams ahead of Boston who had strong interest in Hugo, but they wanted him to stay in Europe for a year or two. Gonzalez is still very much a rookie, but he’s shown flashes of brilliance that the C’s player development team can hone much more effectively than spending a couple years in Europe playing against weaker competition.
Another factor that the Celtics have going for them is the personnel in their front office.
The Celtics haven’t just shown skill in drafting players and putting together a solid coaching staff; they’ve also rolled out the red carpet for free agents like Neemias Queta and undrafted rookies like Sam Hauser.
For Sam, the choice came down to offers from the Heat and the Celtics.
The Heat wanted Sam to compete for a two-way spot during Summer League, while the Celtics had a two-way deal on the table.
At the time, Miami had a strong reputation for developing overlooked talent, and Boston didn’t.
But what sold Hauser and his family on Boston was former head coach and President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens. Talking about it after the fact, Sam’s mom said, “everything about him was very trustworthy. So the fact that he saw things in Sam had a lot of value to us.”
That comment, by the way, is a Midwesterner’s way of saying, “We didn’t trust Pat Riley.”
Mies van der Rohe, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, was fond of replacing the old phrase “The devil’s in the details” with “God lives in the details.”
Now that might not be the case, but the Celtics have been far more detail-oriented when it comes to roster construction than their peers. They have spent more time and attention on these players and it has unquestionably paid off.
