Over the past 10 days, the Boston Celtics showcased some up-and-coming talent as part of Summer League action in Las Vegas.
We’ve put together a list of some of the top performers from the five-game session, each of whom will have a chance to make their mark on the NBA roster and/or with the Maine Celtics this coming season.
Dalano Banton
We didn’t see a lot of Dalano Banton this summer, but the newest Celtics signee still showed enough during his limited action to earn a spot on this list.
The 6-foot-7 guard played in the third and fourth games of the session, the latter of which featured him as the star performer. Banton went off for team highs of 18 points and nine rebounds against the New York Knicks, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers along with a 5-of-6 clip from inside the arc.
Banton is an exciting offensive player, who can gallop upcourt in transition, drive through contact and finish at the rim, and can operate as a pick-and-roll ballhandler.
The former second-round draft pick has two years of NBA experience under his belt with the Toronto Raptors. He's already proven to the Celtics that he can score in bunches, as he did during their April 7 matchup when he tallied 10 points in the final 90 seconds of the game.
Boston’s front office clearly sees promise in the 23-year-old, as shown by the fact that they signed Banton to an NBA contract the day after Summer League ended.
Justin Champagnie
Justin Champagnie was a rebounding machine this summer, grabbing a team-leading 8.3 boards per game. That number might not seem too high at first glance – until you take into account that the player who produced it is just 6-foot-6.
Champagnie, whom the Celtics signed in early April, ranked second among all small forwards in total rebounds per game and first in offensive boards with an average of 3.8 per game. He had 23 total rebounds in Boston’s first two games, including a whopping 13 on the offensive end.
During Game 2 against Washington, Champagnie logged arguably the most impressive individual stat line of any Celtics Summer League participant: 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and one block in just over 28 minutes of action.
He had a few hot shooting stretches over the course of his four appearances, showing off his ability to hit threes in transition. Like Banton, he was also quick to get to the cup and had some creative finishes.
J.D. Davison
For the second straight year, J.D. Davison led the entire Summer League in assists, dishing out 36 helpers in five games. Twenty of those dimes came in the first two games, including his personal high of 11 in Boston’s opener against the Miami Heat.
Along with his 7.2 assists per game, the 6-foot-3 point guard produced 9.8 points and a team-high 1.4 steals per game.
One area where Davison struggled was the turnover department, in which he averaged 4.4 per contest. However, that was largely due to one poor performance – a 10-turnover performance in the second game against Washington. If you take that game out of the equation, his turnover average drops all the way to a much more respectable 3.0.
As he showed with Maine last season, Davison is an elite lob-thrower and an explosive athlete who can rip the rim off the basket. And at just 20 years old, he still has plenty of time to grow, as he will continue to do this coming season while on a two-way contract with the Celtics.
Jay Scrubb
Jay Scrubb may not have been on the radar of Celtics fans prior to this summer, but he sure is now.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard averaged 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 40.0 percent from 3-point range, and was easily the most consistent player on the team.
Not only did Scrubb show off an efficient shooting stroke, but he had some quick, shifty drives to the basket that landed him a handful of impressive finishes and and-one opportunities.
He was a high-level scorer in the G League last season as well, averaging 22.3 points per game (eighth in the league) while being one of six players to earn at least 100 trips to the free-throw line.
By the end of Summer League, Scrubb did more than enough to earn a two-way contract with the C’s, so we should see more of him this coming season both in Boston and in Maine.
Jordan Walsh
If there was a team MVP handed out this summer, Jordan Walsh would’ve had his name on it.
After being drafted No. 38 overall in June, Walsh was labeled as an NBA-ready defender. However, there wasn’t a lot of talk about his offensive skill set.
Well, now people are talking about it.
Walsh led the team in scoring with 18.0 points per game, including Boston’s highest individual scoring output of the summer – a 25-point outpour against the Lakers.
The 19-year-old was the most prolific 3-point shooter on the team, knocking down 11-of-27 from deep for a 40.7 percent clip. That's not bad for a guy who shot just 27.8 percent from long range during his lone year in college.
Walsh also dished out some really nice passes throughout his five appearances, which emphasized his decision-making skills and overall basketball IQ.
On top of that, he lived up to the hype as a high-energy defender both on- and off-ball.
Walsh looked more like a lottery pick than a second-rounder, and he showed that he has a legitimate chance to carve out some NBA minutes in his rookie season.
