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BOSTON, MA – The Boston Celtics announced today that they have signed 2017 first round draft pick Jayson Tatum and 2016 first round draft pick Ante Zizic.
Tatum, selected third overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, averaged 16.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.35 steals, 1.14 blocked shots and 33.3 minutes in 29 games (27 starts) in his lone season at Duke. During his single season at Duke he set a single-season record with six games of at least 10 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks. The 19-year-old Missouri native ranked second on his team and second among ACC freshmen in both points and rebounds en route to being named Third Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference and to the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2016-17. He was named as one of the five final candidates for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award. As a senior at Chaminade College Prep in St. Louis, Missouri he was named as the 2016 Gatorade Boys National Player of the Year.
Zizic, selected with the 23rd overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, competed internationally with Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul in Turkey and KK Cibona Zagreb in Croatia last season. He played in a total of five different competitions last season; the Euroleague, Basketball Champions League, Adriatic League, the Turkish BSL and the Croatian A-1 league and played a total of 65 games. He appeared in 21 games for Darussafaka Dogus in the Turkish BSL where he averaged 8.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and shot 68.8 percent from the field in 17.8 minutes per game. He also appeared in 20 games for Darussafaka Dogus in the Euroleague, helping them to a quarter-finals appearance against Real Madrid. In those 20 games in the Euroleague, Zizic averaged 9.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and shot 64.9 percent from the field. He had his highest scoring average per game in the Adriatic League for KK Cibona where he averaged 20.0 points and 9.2 rebounds while blocking 1.23 shots per game. He was named as the 2015-16 Adriatic League Top Prospect which is given to the league’s best young player, aged 22 or under. Previous winners of this award include current NBA players Nikola Jokic and Daric Saric.