Welcome to Boston, Jordan Walsh!

[Kalela]

Is it just me or did Walsh always play better in the Summer League games when the team was down and needed him the most? I can't help but think he is the type who raise their game during the playoffs.

[Curmudgeon]

He's a high energy player and fun to watch. His shot is fine when he gets his feet set. His problem is going to be staying out of foul trouble.

Even if he doesn't play rotation minutes, he's going to give Tatum and Brown fits in practice, which is a good thing.

[bucknersrevenge]

I'm still a little reticent on him getting minutes in the rotation to start out. And I still think he will have an upward climb in proving to Joe that he will take the open shot when it's there let alone make it. They are guys in front of him that are less reluctant shooters.

I mean, granted it's just summer league but Walsh attempted 5.4 threes a game. That's pretty high volume. For a somewhat apples to apples comparison, Sam Hauser during his first summer league with the C's attempted 5.2 threes per game.

And it's obviously a small sample size of games, but Walsh shot 41% from 3 in summer league - 44% if you remove the 2 desperation heaves he took at the end of the shot clock with a defender right in his face (normally he would never attempt those 2 shots, they were just desperation heaves).

Also, there's more to basketball than just shooting. Let's look at the guys Walsh would be competing with for mins:

Hauser - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.)
Pritchard - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.). Walsh is also MUCH bigger. And Pritchard was a streaky shooter last season, shot 36% from 3 which is good but not great. It was only about 33% till late in the season when he got hot in some meaningless games where we rested our starters..
Brissett - not a great shooter. Brissett with more NBA experience, but Walsh is potentially comparable in all areas of the game

Does Walsh probably start out camp behind all 3 of these guys on the depth chart? Yes.

Is it possible that he ends up getting minutes over some of these guys? Absolutely, imo.

Pritchard, Hauser and Brissett are all pretty good players. BUT Pritchard and Hauser barely got any playoff minutes for us last season, and Brissett was behind Nesmith in the Pacers rotation. It should not shock anybody if Walsh leap frogs some of these guys on the depth chart.

We have a tendency to see what we want to see to support our own narratives. And Summer League overreactions are always a thing and we KNOW that going in that we're going to overreact and we still do. I'd be super careful about placing a ton of stock in 5 games against a lot of dudes that will not be playing in real games this year. Walsh has a ton of raw talent but it's inexperienced. He's still on the slight side. I wouldn't assume that Walsh has earned Joe's trust after 5 games. There are a lot of guys ahead of him that are willing experienced shooters who Joe knows WILL take the shot when it comes and are known to hit them. That said we don't know enough either way as far as how Joe treats rookies but generally speaking you don't toss 19 year old rookies out there just to see if they can hack it on teams with championship aspirations. That's just not a smart move.

[Hal14]

I'm still a little reticent on him getting minutes in the rotation to start out. And I still think he will have an upward climb in proving to Joe that he will take the open shot when it's there let alone make it. They are guys in front of him that are less reluctant shooters.

I mean, granted it's just summer league but Walsh attempted 5.4 threes a game. That's pretty high volume. For a somewhat apples to apples comparison, Sam Hauser during his first summer league with the C's attempted 5.2 threes per game.

And it's obviously a small sample size of games, but Walsh shot 41% from 3 in summer league - 44% if you remove the 2 desperation heaves he took at the end of the shot clock with a defender right in his face (normally he would never attempt those 2 shots, they were just desperation heaves).

Also, there's more to basketball than just shooting. Let's look at the guys Walsh would be competing with for mins:

Hauser - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.)
Pritchard - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.). Walsh is also MUCH bigger. And Pritchard was a streaky shooter last season, shot 36% from 3 which is good but not great. It was only about 33% till late in the season when he got hot in some meaningless games where we rested our starters..
Brissett - not a great shooter. Brissett with more NBA experience, but Walsh is potentially comparable in all areas of the game

Does Walsh probably start out camp behind all 3 of these guys on the depth chart? Yes.

Is it possible that he ends up getting minutes over some of these guys? Absolutely, imo.

Pritchard, Hauser and Brissett are all pretty good players. BUT Pritchard and Hauser barely got any playoff minutes for us last season, and Brissett was behind Nesmith in the Pacers rotation. It should not shock anybody if Walsh leap frogs some of these guys on the depth chart.

We have a tendency to see what we want to see to support our own narratives. And Summer League overreactions are always a thing and we KNOW that going in that we're going to overreact and we still do. I'd be super careful about placing a ton of stock in 5 games against a lot of dudes that will not be playing in real games this year. Walsh has a ton of raw talent but it's inexperienced. He's still on the slight side. I wouldn't assume that Walsh has earned Joe's trust after 5 games. There are a lot of guys ahead of him that are willing experienced shooters who Joe knows WILL take the shot when it comes and are known to hit them. That said we don't know enough either way as far as how Joe treats rookies but generally speaking you don't toss 19 year old rookies out there just to see if they can hack it on teams with championship aspirations. That's just not a smart move.

Nobody said that these 5 SL games are enough for Walsh to earn Joe's trust.

But keep in mind, Joe doesn't seem to trust Pritchard or Hauser very much, since they were getting mostly DNP's during our last playoff run. And Brissett has played 0 games in a Celtic uniform (5 less games than Walsh).

Again, I've already said that Walsh will likely head into training camp behind all 3 of them on the depth chart. But we'll need depth to survive a long, grueling 82 game season. Pritchard and Hauser have at times been a defensive liability, so depending on matchups, Joe may elect to put Walsh in over them at times.

Nobody is saying to "toss Walsh out there just to see if he can hack it". Obviously, any playing time he gets, he will have to earn it. He'll have to earn it in practice, he'll have to earn in in preseason - performing well enough there will get him a chance at some regular season minutes and from there we'll see what happens.

But summer league was a step in the right direction - a step towards earning those minutes.

And if you read/listen to the way Brad has spoken of Walsh, Brad seems very high on him - he's spoken a few times now about Walsh and he has really gone into specific detail about what exactly Walsh brings to this team, how exactly he thinks Walsh can help the team, etc.

And as I mentioned the other day, if Brad's plan for Walsh was to just spend this season in Maine - or to just ride the bench anytime he suited up for the big club, he would have given him a 2-way contract. But the fact that he signed him to a standard contract, for 4 years (essentially the same contract Hauser got last summer, right before Hauser emerged as a key contributor for us, getting 15 MPG this past season).

Lastly, the reason why you generally don't see rookies contributing on teams with championship aspirations is because generally, title contenders pick later in the draft. Players picked that late usually don't turn out so great (at least not in year 1). But there are exceptions. Look at Christian Braun, who emerged as the 8th man last season for the Nuggets and key contributor to help them win the championship. To be fair, Braun was the 21st pick, which is obviously higher than Walsh who was the 38th pick. But this site had him ranked 27th - they ranked Walsh quite a bit higher than Jaquez, who went 18th pick to Miami:
https://theswishtheory.com/nba-draft-guide/

If Braun could do it, I see no reason why Walsh can't. Yes, Braun was a 21 yr old rookie - not 19, like Walsh is. But Walsh could end up being just as good as a rookie. I'm not saying he will be - but there's a chance..

Plus, there was an article posted earlier today where Walsh was ranked as the #5 rookie at Summer League.

[bucknersrevenge]

I mean, granted it's just summer league but Walsh attempted 5.4 threes a game. That's pretty high volume. For a somewhat apples to apples comparison, Sam Hauser during his first summer league with the C's attempted 5.2 threes per game.

And it's obviously a small sample size of games, but Walsh shot 41% from 3 in summer league - 44% if you remove the 2 desperation heaves he took at the end of the shot clock with a defender right in his face (normally he would never attempt those 2 shots, they were just desperation heaves).

Also, there's more to basketball than just shooting. Let's look at the guys Walsh would be competing with for mins:

Hauser - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.)
Pritchard - good shooter but Walsh potentially does everything else better (defense, rebounding, passing, ball handling, athleticism, etc.). Walsh is also MUCH bigger. And Pritchard was a streaky shooter last season, shot 36% from 3 which is good but not great. It was only about 33% till late in the season when he got hot in some meaningless games where we rested our starters..
Brissett - not a great shooter. Brissett with more NBA experience, but Walsh is potentially comparable in all areas of the game

Does Walsh probably start out camp behind all 3 of these guys on the depth chart? Yes.

Is it possible that he ends up getting minutes over some of these guys? Absolutely, imo.

Pritchard, Hauser and Brissett are all pretty good players. BUT Pritchard and Hauser barely got any playoff minutes for us last season, and Brissett was behind Nesmith in the Pacers rotation. It should not shock anybody if Walsh leap frogs some of these guys on the depth chart.

We have a tendency to see what we want to see to support our own narratives. And Summer League overreactions are always a thing and we KNOW that going in that we're going to overreact and we still do. I'd be super careful about placing a ton of stock in 5 games against a lot of dudes that will not be playing in real games this year. Walsh has a ton of raw talent but it's inexperienced. He's still on the slight side. I wouldn't assume that Walsh has earned Joe's trust after 5 games. There are a lot of guys ahead of him that are willing experienced shooters who Joe knows WILL take the shot when it comes and are known to hit them. That said we don't know enough either way as far as how Joe treats rookies but generally speaking you don't toss 19 year old rookies out there just to see if they can hack it on teams with championship aspirations. That's just not a smart move.

Nobody said that these 5 SL games are enough for Walsh to earn Joe's trust.

But keep in mind, Joe doesn't seem to trust Pritchard or Hauser very much, since they were getting mostly DNP's during our last playoff run. And Brissett has played 0 games in a Celtic uniform (5 less games than Walsh).

Again, I've already said that Walsh will likely head into training camp behind all 3 of them on the depth chart. But we'll need depth to survive a long, grueling 82 game season. Pritchard and Hauser have at times been a defensive liability, so depending on matchups, Joe may elect to put Walsh in over them at times.

Nobody is saying to "toss Walsh out there just to see if he can hack it". Obviously, any playing time he gets, he will have to earn it. He'll have to earn it in practice, he'll have to earn in in preseason - performing well enough there will get him a chance at some regular season minutes and from there we'll see what happens.

But summer league was a step in the right direction - a step towards earning those minutes.

And if you read/listen to the way Brad has spoken of Walsh, Brad seems very high on him - he's spoken a few times now about Walsh and he has really gone into specific detail about what exactly Walsh brings to this team, how exactly he thinks Walsh can help the team, etc.

And as I mentioned the other day, if Brad's plan for Walsh was to just spend this season in Maine - or to just ride the bench anytime he suited up for the big club, he would have given him a 2-way contract. But the fact that he signed him to a standard contract, for 4 years (essentially the same contract Hauser got last summer, right before Hauser emerged as a key contributor for us, getting 15 MPG this past season).

Lastly, the reason why you generally don't see rookies contributing on teams with championship aspirations is because generally, title contenders pick later in the draft. Players picked that late usually don't turn out so great (at least not in year 1). But there are exceptions. Look at Christian Braun, who emerged as the 8th man last season for the Nuggets and key contributor to help them win the championship. To be fair, Braun was the 21st pick, which is obviously higher than Walsh who was the 38th pick. But this site had him ranked 27th - they ranked Walsh quite a bit higher than Jaquez, who went 18th pick to Miami:
https://theswishtheory.com/nba-draft-guide/

If Braun could do it, I see no reason why Walsh can't. Yes, Braun was a 21 yr old rookie - not 19, like Walsh is. But Walsh could end up being just as good as a rookie. I'm not saying he will be - but there's a chance..

Plus, there was an article posted earlier today where Walsh was ranked as the #5 rookie at Summer League.

Summer League was definitely a step in the right direction. I'll be pleasantly surprised if Walsh earns any minutes beyond spot minutes in garbage time or at the end of a half just to get his feet wet up through the All-Star break. And there's still value in those minutes if that's all he gets. I'm setting my expectations low for this kid to start and if he does well, great. I am rooting for him.

[djFan71]

I just realized Walsh should not have chosen 27 as his number. He's already a bit foul-prone and having Theis' old number is not gonna help one bit. It's like a reflex for refs to blow the whistle and yell 27.

[31to6]

Is it just me or did Walsh always play better in the Summer League games when the team was down and needed him the most? I can't help but think he is the type who raise their game during the playoffs.

He turned it up and made defensive plays (or committed good hard fouls) when something didn’t go well on the offensive end for him. I like that — do it all the time!

[Hal14]

We've got 3 months till the next Celtics game. We've got time to kill.

As we all know, the spacing was really bad for Walsh at Arkansas and they didn't let him do anything on offense.

But his last year of HS (the 21-22 season) he was the best player and go-to scorer on the team that made it to the national championship game.

Here's 2 games from that tournament in case anyone is bored haha.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[zoyathedestroya]

Apologies if posted already.

Read on Twitter

[GoGreen]

Is it just me or did Walsh always play better in the Summer League games when the team was down and needed him the most? I can't help but think he is the type who raise their game during the playoffs.

Yes, my thoughts exactly.

This kid has "it." You can't define "it", you can't explain "it", but he's got "IT!" I think he's going to surprise some fans and is really going to contribute some significant minutes this year.

[zoyathedestroya]

Good read.

Read on Twitter

[Hal14]

Good read.

Read on Twitter

Damn. That is a really good article. Props to Tom Westerholm.

Sounds like Walsh has a really good trainer, too. Really impressive the work he put into the shooting. Makes me think the 41% from 3 during summer league is no fluke. Even if he can just shoot like 36% from 3 this season, man - he'll definitely be getting some minutes.

[Larry_Russell]

Good read.

Read on Twitter

Damn. That is a really good article. Props to Tom Westerholm.

Sounds like Walsh has a really good trainer, too. Really impressive the work he put into the shooting. Makes me think the 41% from 3 during summer league is no fluke. Even if he can just shoot like 36% from 3 this season, man - he'll definitely be getting some minutes.

He keeps that up and he is without a doubt ahead of Hauser in the rotation.

His defense is far superior
Athleticism is far superior

if he can keep making jumpers then the sky is the limit for him.

[Hal14]

Good read.

Read on Twitter

Damn. That is a really good article. Props to Tom Westerholm.

Sounds like Walsh has a really good trainer, too. Really impressive the work he put into the shooting. Makes me think the 41% from 3 during summer league is no fluke. Even if he can just shoot like 36% from 3 this season, man - he'll definitely be getting some minutes.

He keeps that up and he is without a doubt ahead of Hauser in the rotation.

His defense is far superior
Athleticism is far superior

if he can keep making jumpers then the sky is the limit for him.

Walsh will still have a learning curve, adjusting to the NBA game, and adjusting to playing with his new teammates, adjusting to the systems we run, etc.

If he does overtake Hauser, I would think it wouldn't happen till the 2nd half of the season.

And if he does, then we have 2 good wings who are capable of being the 8th man - that's a good problem to have

[24istheLAW]

Is it just me or did Walsh always play better in the Summer League games when the team was down and needed him the most? I can't help but think he is the type who raise their game during the playoffs.

Yes, my thoughts exactly.

This kid has "it." You can't define "it", you can't explain "it", but he's got "IT!" I think he's going to surprise some fans and is really going to contribute some significant minutes this year.

I'm with you. Still not sure about his impact, as on top of the jumper being a question, a lot of his SL offense going towards the basket was blunt instrument-type drives that might evaporate against NBA length. But the way he plays is awesome. Aggressive and brash yet under control. Rare to see a rookie show that kind of demeanor at both ends in summer league.

[Curmudgeon]

Well, he's under control sometimes.

[meatball sub]

Let's not go overboard here, but I'm getting Kawhi Leonard vibes from Jordan Walsh. Both labeled as guys who could defend but couldn't shoot out of college, and Leonard was way better than advertised almost immediately.

[Parliament10]

#5 ranked rookie at summer league. Not bad for the 38th pick, imo.

Read on Twitter

Admittedly, I was a little surprised to see him ranked above the Thompson twins here.

It's just summer league, but C's fans have a lot to be excited about with Walsh.

Love the energy he brings too, the tenacity on the court, the hustle, he clearly has a passion for the game. I think he'll fit in great here.

Not bad. I didn’t expect him to shine at all in SL just given that he’s yes a good transition player, but the hard nose grind it out defensive guys usually aren’t the “stars” of SL.

He was fun to watch though. Like the energy.

Read on Twitter

From the #38 Pick. I'll take it.

[ryan in Maine]

Let's not go overboard here, but I'm getting Kawhi Leonard vibes from Jordan Walsh. Both labeled as guys who could defend but couldn't shoot out of college, and Leonard was way better than advertised almost immediately.

You can't say that and then say that lol

[ryan in Maine]

Well, he's under control sometimes.

Thought curmudgeons loved good deals.