Draft

Marc D'Amico

Jordan Walsh stepped out of the rain and into a sea of screaming children Monday afternoon amid his debut appearance as a Boston Celtic.

Walsh, just as every Celtics rookie since 2008 has done before him, made his first team appearance Monday afternoon at a community event put on by the organization. The 37th&nbsp;overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft helped to conduct a clinic with kids at the freshly renovated Cambridge Community Center before speaking to the Boston media for the very first time.

The 6-foot-7 wing emerged from a black van outside the community center and was greeted by a brief downpouring of rain. It was all sunshine just a few steps later, however, as he entered the gym that was full of excited screams. Walsh soon grabbed a microphone and returned the favor by showcasing his excitement to be in town as a member of the Celtics. The very first sentence that came off his lips was as follows: “Obviously, it’s a dream come true to be a part of the best organization in the NBA.”

Walsh’s feelings of gratitude continued to shine through as he met with the media about an hour later.

Walsh, who is just 19 years old, gushed constantly about landing with the Celtics. He is intrigued by the program and enamored by the history.

“I know what type of organization Boston is,” he stated with confidence. “I know that being able to be with guys like (Jayson) Tatum and (Jaylen) Brown, who can give me wisdom and who are in a winning environment, and been to the Playoffs so many times. An organization that has so many championships.

“To be in that environment, to grow in a place like that as your first place, so they set the foundation for your career? I feel like that’s the most important part is that foundation, and Boston has a great foundation for that.”

Walsh said he could feel that environment around him when he was inside the Auerbach Center for his two pre-Draft workouts.

“I got to be in the atmosphere of a Boston workout, and feel what it feels like to be in a winning culture’s workout in their gym. And you could feel it in everything you did,” Walsh said. “Even just doing ball handling drills and stretching; it’s always loud, people are screaming, people are always cheering you on.”

To think, that was just with the coaching and basketball operations staffs in the building for the workouts. Throw the likes of Tatum, Brown, Al Horford and Derrick White onto the court around him and the atmosphere will spike to a whole other level.

Within that atmosphere, Walsh said, he is hoping to be taken under Horford’s wing.

“I talked to Al Horford once,” he revealed. “We just texted, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m coming to the city, I’m glad to be here, I’m ready to work. Hopefully I can be under your wing and you can show me the ropes.’”

One rope that no one will need to show Walsh is how to play hard. The rookie made it clear that he understands what Bostonians love and appreciate from their athletes, and that he’s going to provide such effort| every time he steps onto the floor.

Asked what the city is getting in him, Walsh responded without hesitation: “A guy who harps on defense. Who player super hard. Who is tough. Who is going to be consistent in that aspect of the game. Who is going to do the simple things that help winning, that maybe other people may overlook: diving on the floor.”

He continued, “I heard that Boston likes people who dive on the floor more than people who dunk the ball. So that guy’s going to be me.”

That surely is music to Bostonians’ ears. Truthfully, so was every other comment that Walsh made during his first appearance as a Celtic. This was an A-plus foray into the City of Boston. Some might even call it a slam dunk.

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Walsh Gushes Over Celtics While Making Debut in Boston

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The Boston Celtics used their lone 2021 Draft pick Thursday night, No. 45 overall, to draft 18-year-old Juhann Begarin out of France.

The selection of Begarin marks the second consecutive Draft during which the C’s have used their second-rounder to select a young prospect from overseas. Last year, they selected Yam Madar, who has quickly become a highly-regarded international prospect, with the 47th overall pick.

“We really like Juhann,” Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens said following the Draft. “I think that he’s a guy that’s a big, strong, versatile guard that can guard up (one position) with his strength and athleticism.”

Stevens then shared his takeaways from a recent visit Begarin made to Boston’s practice facility.

“He came in for a workout the other day. We got to see him up close, and we’ve been paying attention to him for a long time,” Stevens commented. “He’s a guy that we think, at his age, and his body, and his physical abilities, and the way that he works and the time that he’s put in thus far, he’s gonna have a really long career ahead of him.”

Stevens said that “the most likely avenue” for Begarin is that he will continue to play overseas next season, although that decision has not been finalized. Likewise, no decision has been made as to whether or not Begarin will be a part of Boston’s Summer League roster that is set to begin play Aug. 8.

Regardless of the outcome of those decisions, Stevens believes that the competitive level of Begarin’s French league will serve as a strong developmental environment for the young guard should he continue to play as a draft-and-stash pick overseas.

“I do think that it can be very, very beneficial,” the coach-turned-executive said of Begarin continuing to play overseas. “And that level of basketball is awfully good, and the coaching in all the different countries and all the different places around the world, as we see, awfully good. And so great preparation for next steps should that be the avenue that Juhann follows, and certainly what Yam has done.”

Begarin hails from Les Abymes, Guadeloupe – the same French commune and island as former Celtic wing Mickael Pietrus. He began playing professionally in 2017 with Centre Federal Du Basket-Ball of the French NM1 league at the age of 15. He remained there for two seasons before moving on to Paris Basketball of the French LNB Pro B league for the last two seasons, where he began to gain traction as an NBA prospect.

Begarin, who stands in at 6-foot-5 and 192 pounds, is coming off of a strong season with Paris Basketball, where he averaged 11.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game while playing an average of 26.6 minutes per game over 39 contests. He is an improved shooter who connected on 45.6 percent of his shots and 34.2 percent of his 3-pointers this past season. During one stretch of the season, he logged five consecutive double-digit scoring performances while helping to elevate his squad to the French LNB Pro A League.

The selection of Begarin is the first made by new Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens. Stevens traded away Boston’s first-round pick, No. 16. overall, in the Al Horford-Kemba Walker deal just days after taking over his new position.

The next order of business for Stevens and the Celtics is to finalize their Summer League roster, including a decision on Begarin’s status, prior to the group’s first practice Aug. 3. The team will then dive head-first into free agency, which begins Aug. 2.

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Celtics Select 18-Year-Old French Guard Juhann Begarin at No. 45

Boston Celtics

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BOSTON, MA – The Boston Celtics selected Juhann Begarin in the second round (45th overall), marking the team’s lone selection in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Begarin, 18, was selected by the Celtics after averaging 9.3 points on 45.6% shooting, 3.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.2 steals in 52 games over two seasons with Paris Basket of the Pro B League (2019-20 – 2020-21).

The Abymes, Guadeloupe native averaged 11.9 points on 45.9% shooting (36.4% 3-PT) in 33 games this past season, including three games of 20+ points. He produced double-digit scoring in five consecutive games during the team’s seven-game winning streak from May 25 through June 11, helping elevate Paris Basket to the French Pro A League.

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Celtics Draft Juhann Begarin in Second Round of 2021 NBA Draft

BOSTON – The Boston Celtics addressed a glaring need during Wednesday night’s NBA Draft by selecting two of the most accomplished shooters out of the prospect pool.

Boston used the 14th overall pick to select sharpshooting guard Aaron Nesmith out of Vanderbilt, and then selected Oregon guard Payton Pritchard with the 26th overall pick.

Nesmith, a self-proclaimed “sniper,” is regarded by many as the top shooting prospect in the entire 2020 Draft pool. He shot a mindboggling 52.2 percent from 3-point range on 8.2 attempts per game before his season was cut short due to injury after 14 contests.

Nesmith’s shooting ability is borderline extraordinary, as ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas outlined on his network’s broadcast of the Draft.

“There’s nobody better catch-and-shoot in this Draft. Nobody better shooting off of screens,” Bilas said. “He’s got 1.4 points per possession in jump shots off of screens. That is ridiculous.”

Pritchard is not quite on Nesmith’s level with regard to 3-point marksmanship – truthfully, not many are – but he is indeed an accomplished shooter in his own right.

Pritchard connected on 41.5 percent of his 3-pointers this past season while attempting 6.8 shots from long distance per game. He shot 38.0 percent from beyond the arc over his four-year career at Oregon, which featured Pac-12 Player of the Year honors this past season.

Pritchard’s resume extends well beyond his shooting and conference Player of the Year honors as well. He also earned the 2020 Lute Olson Award as the nation’s top non-freshman, the 2020 Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard, and he was a consensus first-team All-American.

By adding two established shooters like Nesmith and Pritchard, the Celtics addressed a significant need on their roster. Last season, not a single role player on their team shot better than 37.8 percent from 3-point range. Only one player overall, Jayson Tatum, shot better than 38.3 percent from long distance.

The lack of 3-point marksmanship certainly affected the playmaking abilities of the team’s top scorers in Tatum, Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown. There is less room to operate and break defenses down when shooters are not surrounding those stars.

Nesmith and Pritchard have the ability to open things up for that trio and the rest of the roster merely by standing on the court. Their shooting ability demands respect, which could very well provide the team’s top players with more shooting, driving and passing lanes.

Shooting is one skill that translates well from the collegiate ranks to the NBA ranks. It also just so happened to have been a skill the Celtics needed and found during the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft.

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Celtics Address Need by Drafting Two Gifted Shooters During First Round

Taylor Snow

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BOSTON – This year’s pre-Draft process has been unlike any other for scouting staffs across the NBA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were fewer college games from which to draw information, there were limited in-person meetings and workouts with prospects, and there has been an unprecedented eight-month gap from the last time most of these prospects have played in a competitive basketball game.

For the Boston Celtics’ basketball operations staff, such changes have required several adjustments to be made leading into Wednesday night’s Draft, of which assistant general manager Austin Ainge detailed Monday afternoon during a Zoom teleconference call with the media.

The most notable difference for Ainge and the rest of the crew has been the lack of in-person meetings. Typically, the team hosts several dozen prospects for workouts and interviews, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, each team has only been allowed 10 such meetings.

Adding onto that limitation was the fact that all 10 of those meetings and workouts operated on an individual basis, as opposed to a normal draft workout which allows several prospects of the same position to battle it out against each other.

“It helps to have guys in and put them in situations that we didn’t get to see in college,” Ainge said of the importance of the pre-draft workout process. “If a guy is not a great shooter, we have him shoot a lot. If a guy is not great at running pick-and-rolls, we put him in a lot of pick-and-rolls. If a guy, we’re worried about his closeouts, we put him in closeout drills. These types of things are helpful to get a little more info and we weren’t able to do that this year.”

As a result, the basketball operations team has resorted to watching hours upon hours of film. In some ways, this has been a positive from a scouting standpoint, because the long lay-off actually allowed scouts to dive far deeper into film reels than ever before.

What that film does not include, however, is the prospects’ off-court personality traits and ethics.

In-person meetings hold great value to the Celtics, as it allows the basketball operations staff to take players out to lunch or dinner and get to know them more on a personal level. Austin’s father and boss, Danny Ainge, has said that he never would have acquired Rajon Rondo during the 2006 Draft had he not met face-to-face with the Kentucky product. Their in-person meeting allowed Ainge to dissect Rondo’s character, of which Ainge obviously approved to the point where he felt that the point guard was a must-have in that year’s Draft.

Since each team was only allowed to physically meet with 10 prospects leading into this year’s Draft, the basketball ops staff had to be extra strategic in the selection process. The rest of the meetings were done over Zoom.

“It was hard to be honest,” the younger Ainge said of that process. “Everyone on my staff saw some guys more than others. Due to the limits of personal time and travel, there’s one guy I saw only twice and wanted to see again, and others Mike Zarren saw five times and didn’t get to see another guy. It was hard to balance all those things. We did the best we could and picked some guys we didn’t see as much as a staff, or we thought might have had more potential to improve over an eight-month layoff in some cases.”

Despite all of the obstacles they faced this year throughout the pre-Draft process, the Celtics feel confident heading into Wednesday night knowing that they did everything in their power to learn as much about this year’s draft class as possible.

“We'll do the best we can,” Danny Ainge said last Wednesday afternoon. “That's why we scout all year, and watch players throughout the course of the season, and try to prepare for this moment.”

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Austin Ainge Details Uniqueness of This Year's Pre-Draft Process

BOSTON – Now that the Boston Celtics know that they own the Nos. 14, 26, 30 and 47 picks in the 2020 NBA Draft, you might be wondering who they might wind up with should they go on to use those picks. We’re glass-half-full people here at Celtics.com, so we’re going to give you the best-case scenarios.

Below is a breakdown of the top five players in NBA history who have been chosen at each of Boston’s slots, the top selections the Celtics have made at those accompanying slots, as well as the last five players who were drafted at those slots.

It’s time to dream big! That’s what the Draft is all about, isn’t it?

Boston acquired this pick during a Jan. 12, 2015 three-team trade with Memphis and New Orleans. This was the trade that sent forward Jeff Green from the C’s to the Grizzlies, and now five years late, we know that it netted Boston a lottery pick.

This selection is Boston’s own pick after logging the fifth-best win percentage in the NBA this season.

Pick No. 30 – via Milwaukee (acquired from Phoenix)

Boston acquired this pick during a July 6, 2019 trade with the Phoenix Suns. This trade sent center Aron Baynes and the draft rights to guard Ty Jerome to Phoenix in exchange for this conditional pick and a traded player exception.

Pick No. 47 – via Brooklyn (acquired from Charlotte)

Boston acquired this pick during a July 6, 2019 trade with the Charlotte Hornets, during which the team acquired Kemba Walker and sent out Terry Rozier. Charlotte sent the least favorable of its owned 2020 second-rounders to Boston in the trade.

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Previewing What the Celtics Could Find in the 2020 Draft

ROXBURY, Massachusetts – The scent of freshly-cut wood emanated from a glossy floor, and the sound of high-pitched cheers bounced off of sun-soaked walls.

This was the setting for a day that four young men and 80 children will never forget.

Four days after the Celtics selected Romeo Langford, Grant Williams, Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters in the 2019 NBA Draft, the four draftees were already in Boston to carry on a nearly decade-long tradition that has garnered admiration from around the league.

Since 2011, the Players’ Choice Grant has stood as one of the marquee programs within the Boston Celtics’ community engagement department. Each season, members of the team vote on a location to receive a $50,000 professional-grade renovation, courtesy of the Shamrock Foundation. Months later, it is the newest members of the team – the draftees – who immerse themselves into the Boston community by unveiling the completed project during their first day as Celtics.

This year’s draftees completed their introductory press conferences and immediately made their way over to the Tobin Community Center in Roxbury to celebrate the renovation of the gymnasium with 80 Boston Celtics Youth Foundation members. To the youth members, this was an opportunity to closely interact with and listen to NBA players. For the athletes, it was an opportunity to be introduced to their new city while making an impact on young lives.

“It’s amazing, just being able to see I have this type of impact with just the slightest thing of having my own time and just being here,” said Edwards, the No. 33 overall pick out of Purdue. “Because I can remember times where I was in situations at basketball camps and saw guys that I looked up to and wanted to be one day. So to see that I’m near that, where people can look up to me and see that I have an impact, is amazing.”

Williams, too, basked in the opportunity to put smiles on so many faces in his new city.

“These kids, you never know what they’re going through,” he told Celtics.com. “If you can improve one kid’s day even for just an hour, that can change their emotion, their feeling for the entire week, or even how they treat people in life.”

Doing so was a motivating factor behind the creation of the Players’ Choice Grant program. It allows one season’s players to select the renovation site where so many smiles will be generated, and the incoming draft class gets to carry the program on and deliver those smiles. At its core, the program serves as a passing of the proverbial baton from one roster to the next class of Celtics when it comes to involvement in the community.

This year’s renovation at the Tobin Community Center incorporated the following upgrades: a refurbished court with new designs and an NBA 3-point line, a wireless shot clock system, six new backboards and rims, and new wall graphics. The facility had a new-gym smell and a brand-new look for all of the youth to soak in during the event.

After the players were introduced to the BCYF members, the entire group got to know each other by playing a large rock-paper-scissors tournament and exchanging handshakes that included a few hand slaps and a finishing hip-bump. Williams, who stands in at 6-foot-7 and nearly 240 pounds, joked about the exchange with kids who were less than half his size.

“I was trying to hold back,” he said with a laugh of the hip-bumps, “but then there were a couple of kids who were going pretty hard, so I made sure to give a little pressure, but not too much where I knocked them over so they felt it.”

The youth were then put through a series of basketball drills to promote their growth on the court. The players served as coaches who were doing everything from instructing, to passing, to setting screens for the youngsters.

Lastly, the event concluded with a question-and-answer session, during which the four newly-minted NBA players were able to relay their advice on basketball and life in general. Waters, in particular, felt compelled to take advantage of that session.

“My parents and the older adults in my life always told me that when you grow up you view the world differently,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily understand what they were saying while I was a youngin’, but now I look at [the kids] and I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve been through a lot that I can actually tell them about.’

He continued, “You’ve got to be able to appreciate your parents and just know that every day is a day for you to get better at something. It doesn’t have to be basketball every day. On that day, it could be cleaning the house. Always have the mindset of getting better and you’ll never go down the wrong path.”

The youth members of the Tobin Community Center are in a far better environment to get better on a daily basis now that the 2019 Players’ Choice Grant renovation has been completed. As it does every year, this event served as a loud-and-clear statement to the newest Celtics that this franchise is here to make a difference in the community.

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Day 1 with the Celtics Means Day 1 in the Community

BOSTON – It was, truly, the perfect press conference.

Smiles. Jokes. Laughter. Camaraderie. Public Relations 101, pretty much.

Romeo Langford, Grant Williams, Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters hit it out of the proverbial park during their debut performance in front of the Boston media.

The quartet, settled in Monday morning behind a lengthy podium table inside the Auerbach Center at New Balance World Headquarters, met a brigade of Boston media for the very first time at their introductory press conference. If the event had been a test, they all aced it with flying colors.

All four players lived up to the hype surrounding their supreme character. They flashed broad smiles, they cracked witty jokes, and they said all of the right things. They showcased everything an organization would want out of its savvy veterans, let alone out of its rookies.

It’s no surprise, then, that Celtics basketball operations czar Danny Ainge fell in love with their combination of high character and pure basketball abilities on Draft night.

“Every one of these guys had great, successful college careers, and they’re great people,” said Ainge, who was flanked to the left of the players at Monday’s podium. “I believe that with talking with them and background checks that we do and talking to high school coaches and graduate assistants and trainers and so-forth, these guys have the desire to become great, and they’ll put in the work, and have the focus to do what it takes to live up to the potential that they have.”

They’ve already put in the work to develop into great human beings. That much is clearly evident.

The leader of the pack in that regard is Williams, who arrived to Boston after playing three seasons at the University of Tennessee. Williams, a 6-foot-7 forward, served as the de facto leader of the group Monday morning and made the statement of the event while answering a question about what he can add to Boston’s frontcourt.

“Well, for myself,” he said, “it’s really just going to be whatever it takes for us to hang the next banner here.”

That’s a professional answer, and Later in the day, he reiterated to Celtics.com that his only statistical worry is the win category.

“Honestly, for myself, it’s always just been about winning,” he said. “I’ve never really cared about how many points I scored or how many rebounds and statistics I get that night. It’s always been about if we won or not.”

The rest of the crew made similar comments throughout the day. Langford, known for his offensive prowess, instead talked more about his defense than his scoring. He said that his length will translate to him being able to guard multiple positions.

Edwards, who became a household name while torching opponents with his scoring during the NCAA tournament, brushed aside a question about his personal tournament run and instead commented about his team as a whole.

“It was cool,” he said of his dominant tournament scoring, “but I was really just trying to enjoy it all with my teammates.”

Lastly, Waters, the 51st pick, spoke with confidence, consistently complimented his teammates, told a couple of jokes, and later told Celtics.com that he is fulfilled by playing for his teammates.

“You receive an abundance in life, and you’ll have the best life, when you live through others - when you want to live for other people” Waters said, repeating a message from his collegiate coach at LSU. “I feel like that’s how I play basketball.”

Truthfully, all four of these prospects play that way, and that should make the upcoming rendition of the Summer Celtics quite entertaining to watch in Las Vegas.

Langford, Williams, Edwards and Waters will combine with Celtics returnee Robert Williams to create the core of this year’s Summer League team. All of those players are unselfish, and many of them have relationships that date back to playing on travel teams or within the USA Basketball circuit.

“Everybody knows each other coming in, usually at least by reputation,” said Ainge, “but these guys seem to have a pretty good bond.”

Maybe that’s because all four players have a similar make-up. They’re all high-character players with a true will to win.

Those traits were on full display Monday morning as the newest members of the Boston Celtics basked in the positive vibes of their introductory – and perfect – press conference.