SOUND OFF: Explaining the Boston Celtics 2025 NBA Draft Picks and Trades

SOUND OFF: Explaining the Boston Celtics 2025 NBA Draft Picks and Trades

[Music] sound off with me folks on the Boston Celtics making one pick trading one pick making another couple picks and acquiring another couple picks folks there was a lot that went on with the Boston Celtics during the 2025 NBA draft and we are going to dive into all of it right now and explain all of it right now as you all know the Celtics entered the draft with the number 28 and the number 32 pick the 28 pick in the first round the 32 pick wound up being the second pick of the second round now what did the Celtics do with those let’s dive into night one that happened on Wednesday when we found out that the Boston Celtics got their guy and that is Hugo Gonzalez out of Real Madrid he is a native of Spain he’s played for the national team basically his entire life he signed with Real Madrid when he was 9 years old and he has come up in that system to become the player that the Boston Celtics really wanted to get in this draft and listen when the Celtics talk about drafting someone late in the second round or late in the first round they’re not looking for an all-star they’re not looking for a star they’re looking for someone who may become that who knows but they’re looking for someone that’s going to come in and be able to impact the team they believe they got that in Hugo Gonzalez and we’re going to find out more about him soon when he comes to Boston hopefully plays for the summer league team and then we’ll see him in camp next season with the Boston Celtics now fast forwarding to Thursday night when the Boston Celtics again they own the second pick in the second round that was number 32 overall they wound up trading that pick what did they get in return two picks that were later in the second round of Thursday night those were the number 46 and 57 picks and then they also acquired two future second round picks that are assets they’re going to be able to have in their stockpile and be able to use them as necessary maybe they wind up drafting players maybe they wind up using those uh those picks to be able to facilitate other moves listen I sat down with Brad Stevens a couple summers ago and we had a nice long one-on-one that you can find right here on the Celtics YouTube channel and we talked about the second rounders being very important now as we move our way into the real doldrums of the second apron okay this is when this year is when teams are starting to feel the second apron they knew it was coming everyone was preparing but now teams are starting to really feel it and we know that second rounders as he told me during that interview are incredibly valuable they are more valuable now than they ever have been before so not only did the Celtics get to add a couple players in the second round via that trade of the number 32 pick but they also added two future assets that they can now possibly utilize to facilitate other moves mike Xarn uh vice president of basketball operations just got off the call talking with the media about what the Celtics did tonight this is Thursday the second round of the NBA draft uh and he said that what he and the and the group decided is that they could still get players later in the second round that were of the same quality or very close to what they would have chosen at number 32 so they got players that were of similar quality later in the round all while adding a couple extra picks for the future so we’ll we’ll get into this more a little deeper later in the episode but first off let’s dive in to our guy Hugo Gonzalez who is coming to the Celtics again out of Real Madrid everyone who I have talked to everyone who I have heard talk about Hugo Gonzalez has raved about this guy and again this isn’t saying that he’s going to become a superstar or even a star they’re talking about the type of player that he is and how he would fit in on this Boston Celtics team right after the draft happened last night this was Wednesday the first round Brad Stevens came out he addressed the media and he said “We believe that Hugo Gonzalez is a player that fits our brand of basketball we believe that he’s going to fit in around the players and the core that we have and the he used the term foundation in describing Jason Tatum Jaylen Brown Derek White Pton Pritchard these types of players he believes Hugo Gonzalez is going to fit in around these guys he is confident in that um he used the term competitive character when he talked about Hugo Gonzalez and again I I’ve talked to some people around the Celtics organization who were involved in this election i’ve talked to people outside the Celtics organization about Hugo Gonzalez everyone talks about how hard this guy plays constantly this is not a guy who’s going to walk on the court and give you out of 10 minutes maybe five minutes of hard play of high motor basketball he’s going to give you 10 he never stops he is like when you think about Marcus Smart and how hard Marcus Smart played and that heart and soul that you remember about what you fell in love with with him that is the effort and the level of uh of effort that Hugo Gonzalez gives every second he’s on the floor and on top of that what Brad Stevens outlined about Hugo Gonzalez is that he’s willing to sacrifice for the team and that is kind of what he has learned by being on a team where he is not one of the top players in terms of scoring the basketball taking the amount of shots he’s already learned at a young age playing with such great players over there for Real Madrid that he’s he’s learned how to play around greatness and that’s what he’s going to have to do here in Boston because the Celtics do have greatness on this roster they’ve got two players one of them obviously is injured and is going to miss at least a large chunk of next season in Jason Tatum but they’ve got two players who are all NBA players that’s some of the best players in the world are on this team alongside fringe a fringe all-star in Derek White alongside an elite shooter in six man of the year in Pton Pritchard like these are great players and the Celtics have to find guys who are going to fit in around them brad Stevens believes that they found one Wednesday night in Hugo Gonzalez he’s willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the team as Brad said there aren’t a lot of guys who come in at 19 years old who have learned that trade already usually they have to learn that when they get to the NBA because they’ve been the lead dog their whole life coming out of college coming out of high school they were always the number one option but because of the career path that Hugo Gonzalez has taken he’s already learned how to be that guy who can be who can sacrifice for the betterment of the team who doesn’t demand shots who doesn’t demand the basketball who can play off others he already is that so the Celtics feel that they got a guy who can come here to Boston and help the team win again it’s not it’s not about trying to find the next Hall of Famer or or even all-star at number 28 it’s about finding someone who will help this organization and they firmly believe that they found a guy who will do that um talking about um one way that he’s going to help this team as Brad Stevens talked about he immediately last night he was asked what is a skill that pops out about Hugo Gonzalez immediately he said cutting cutting this guy knows how to how to move off the ball and that is very important when you’re talking about playing with those other guys that I just mentioned he has to know how to play off the ball he’s got to know how to find those open spaces on the floor either for baskets or to draw defenders away to put pressure on the other team maybe it leads to offensive rebounds there’s all sorts of positives that can come out of a player knowing when to cut where to cut how hard to cut it’s incredibly important to the game of basketball brad Stevens also talked about the lack of body and ball movement we we call it pace in basketball that he saw during the playoffs when the Celtics got knocked out by the New York Knicks this is the type of player who can cut cutting off the ball helps to increase that pace for a team on offense so it really does sound like this guy is going to fit in well for the Boston Celtics and they are excited about what they got at number 28 and by the way I’m just going to throw this in here at the end of of the commentary about Hugo Gonzalez when you’re picking at number 28 if you’re not go especially considering where the Celtics are slotted when they’re when we’re talking about what their salary is facing up against aprons uh when you’re picking at number 28 just like they did last year with Baylor Shyman who was a couple picks higher than that but you’re not going to use the pick unless you’re going to get someone that you really want they could have just traded the picks saved some money and helped against the cap and all that stuff no just like last year with Baylor Shyman they decided this year with Yugo Gonzalez that they they they had someone they wanted they had someone who would help this team move forward and the team and the organization would benefit from having them on board for at the very least the next four years of that guaranteed first year first round contract so they made a conscious decision to not trade that pick and maybe save some dollars they made the decision to keep the pick and and use it on Hugo Gonzalez so I’m excited about this guy i can’t wait to see him get out on the court sounds like he’s going to be here in Boston as early as next week we don’t know if that means he’s going to be partaking in in summer league practice and possibly playing for the summer league team we’ll find out about that down the road but he will be here in Boston as early as next week so excited to sit down and meet him as well now let’s get in the second round because that’s when things got a little bit crazy okay we’re sitting around we’re thinking the Boston Celtics are going to be done with their second round very early in the night mike Aaron was originally scheduled to talk to the media at 8:45 wound up happening at about 11 PM okay and why because the Celtics wound up making some moves all right what they did is they decided to trade out of that number 32 pick and acquire two picks later in the second round again I repeat I’ll repeat that they acquired the number 46 pick and the number 57 pick and they also acquired two future second round picks so those are the assets that we’ve talked about here at the start that Mike Zarren Brad Stevens and that whole basketball operations team is going to be able to utilize in the future either to add talent to the Boston Celtics roster or to be able to use those picks to facilitate other moves and that can be in a variety of ways we’re going to have to wait and see how that possibly unfolds over the course of the next couple of years these picks I believe are coming uh in 2026 and 2027 so we’ve got a couple years to see how the Boston Celtics will wind up using those picks but they added assets to the future and as Brad Stevens said to me in that interview second round picks are incredibly important right now in the NBA they can move the needle when you’re trying to get a deal done we saw it with other players we’ve seen it with players like Kevin Durant five second rounders were involved in that trade listen second rounders are important and other teams value them uh so not only did they get those futures but they also got to pick at number 46 and number 57 at number 46 the Celtics wound up getting Amari Williams he’s a fifth year center uh that comes out of excuse me a four-year center that comes out of Kentucky he spent his No it was five years i apologize five years first four years were at Drexel his final year at Kentucky and what Mike Zarren said on that call just a few moments ago about Amari Williams is that he’s been by the way this guy’s 7 foot tall with a 7 foot6 wingspan he is a huge person he’s a huge human being 262 stepping on the scale a huge human being but what Mike Zarn said is that he’s been one of the best passers in college basketball for a long time interesting to hear that about a guy who’s 7 feet tall with a 7 foot6 wingspan you don’t hear that very often about centers who are one of the best passers at the level that they were playing at very interesting to hear and you dive into the numbers amari Williams tied for the team high in assists last season at Kentucky their starting center tied for the team high in total assists last season at Kentucky at Kentucky this wasn’t like a a second fiddle like small conference team this was at Kentucky okay and he tied for the team lead in assists as a center at 7 feet tall so clearly this kid has got vision um he’s been said to be a shot blocker um he’s a big who can pass who can rebound jay Bis said right on the broadcast on ESPN um and he knows his stuff about college basketball he said that Amari Williams can really pass it and he can really rebound the basketball can finish around the rim uh so sounds like a player that the Celtics could be uh very fortunate to have found at number 46 and by the way uh a couple of comps that we’ve got NBA.com their comp was Yakob Purle potentially down the road uh and Kevin O’Connor our guy from Yahoo Sports uh his comp was actually Namas Kada who actually already plays for the Boston Celtics again Brad Stevens loves bigs who can pass the ball we’ve seen it with Al Horford Kada Christos Porzingis could really pass the ball brad Stevens emphasizes and puts a a heavy emphasis on getting players big men who can pass the basketball this guy certainly can do it he can rebound score score around the basket as well and he can block some shots too at 7 feet tall so let’s see what he winds up turning into later in the second round the Boston Celtics wind up getting Max Schulga out of VCU at pick number 57 he was the Atlantic 10 player of the year this past season shot 39% from three-point range over his five college seasons so that’s not just one season okay that’s over all five of his college seasons shot 39% from three so the kid can shoot and as uh as uh Mike Xarin said uh after the pick and and when he came on with us a little while ago like this kid’s a really good player he’s tough he can shoot he can dribble and handle the basketball now we got to find out if he can defend at the NBA level xarin didn’t say that i’m saying that based upon what I’ve seen and what I’ve read about him he’s got to prove that he can defend at the NBA level and if he does he’s going to be a player he’s going to be around for a while so again the Celtics feel good about what they got at 46 and 57 all while adding a couple of future assets they also drafted Hugo Gonzalez during the first round who they believe is going to be a contributor and someone who can really fit in well with what the Boston Celtics are trying to accomplish on the court with the core that they have in place so seems to me like a great couple of draft nights for the Boston Celtics uh by the way let let’s let’s dive into a little bit more about the offseason and it does have to do with those assets i do want to touch on this brad Stevens when he spoke to the media on Wednesday he used the word flexibility seven times he used the word assets three times so that’s 10 instances where he talked about flexibility and assets the Celtics gained a little bit of that with what they did in the second round on Thursday they gained some flexibility by having those picks and those new assets over the next couple years in the second round uh and they also are doing their best to gain some flexibility uh by trying to make some moves that are going to make sense with what they’re doing financially here at the Boston Celtics moving forward so we’ll have to wait and see uh when any of that stuff comes through and and what this team is going to be looking like for next season but we should understand that Brad Stevens is putting an emphasis on flexibility and assets those are two very important things and words that he used 10 separate times on Wednesday night that that tells you how important it is to him so it should be interesting uh to see what the Boston Celtics do on that front but all right let’s dive into a few comments here from the fans all right first comment of the night coming in from Digger Pike who says “I see why each was drafted amari has some Draymond skills shoga looks like Strus talking about Max Strus former Celtic hugo is very gifted 2027 can’t get here fast enough all right Digger i don’t like what you’re coming at me here with at the end here 2027 can’t get here fast enough let’s not fast forward we don’t know if these guys might be able to contribute before that okay let’s wait and see again I I talked about Hugo Gonzalez everyone I’ve spoken to everyone I’ve heard talk about him believes that he is a player who can come in and possibly make an impact now and that doesn’t mean by scoring the basketball shooting and being uh doing all the flashy stuff that people like to see it’s about doing the small stuff it’s about cutting off the ball it’s about defending scoring in transition playing with a high basketball IQ passing the basketball playing with pace as we talked about the Celtics want to do more of that next season he can do all of these things right now and he can do it around great talent on the Boston Celtics team so this it doesn’t mean that we have to wait until 2027 the Celtics have a great team when you look around the Eastern Conference listen I I understand Brad Stevens said it Wednesday night our best player who is a first team AllNNBA player is in a boot we understand that but look around the Eastern Conference it’s not like it’s stacked with teams that are just oh my god that is the by far a bonafide championship contender it it doesn’t exist in the East anymore okay the Celtics were that then some things happened it doesn’t exist in the East anymore celtics still have Jaylen Brown one of the top players in the Eastern Conference in in the NBA in general derek White one of the best players in the Eastern Conference pton Pritchard six man of the like they still have a ton of talent on this team i wouldn’t overlook them especially with the potential of adding a player who can really play around them and play off of them so again let’s not fast forward to 2027 we got a season next year to play and I think the Boston Celtics might wind up surprising some people with what they’re still going to have on the roster uh now talking about Amari uh Digger says that Amari has some Draymond skills he does he’s a great passer again tied for the lead in assists on the Kentucky roster this past season that’s a big deal and a surprising stat if you think about it averaged uh 3.2 2 assists per game this past season for the Kentucky Wildcats also averaged almost a double double 11 points per game almost nine rebounds per game this guy can rebound he’s got great size mike Xarren told us on the call after the draft tonight wait until you see this guy in person you will understand immediately his size because of the wingspan that stands out i I’m going to have an expectation that this guy’s fingertips are going to be touching way beneath his kneecaps when he steps in because the wingspan of 7 foot6 is truly incredible he’s going to be able to change games with that be it with the main Celtics or with the Boston Celtics so excited to see him play and by the way hopefully he’s playing for the summer Celtics here in the next couple weeks we’re all going to be able to tune in and watch him uh what was the comment here about Schulga again i got to pull that up sorry went to a different screen shoga looks like Stru uh this is a really good reminder max Stress he did begin his career with the Boston Celtics caught his rhythm here and then caught on in the rest of the NBA after uh he departed i can’t remember exactly what if he traded if he was traded i believe he was cut but then caught on with his next team and really started to take off but it’s a great reminder that the Boston Celtics have one of the best development programs in the NBA and Brad Stevens actually talked about this a little bit last night when he was talking about Hugo Gonzalez he can improve as a shooter he’s not a great shooter right now but Brad Stevens expects him to become a much better shooter simply because of his work ethic and by being in the Celtics development program this the same goes for Shoga it happened with Strus back in the day players get better when they are here in Boston that’s because they choose the right players who are committed to working their tails off number one and number two the Celtics have a great development program where they know how to help players improve on a yearly basis so I expect Amari Williams to improve i expect Shoga to improve hugo Gonzalez is going to improve don’t take it for who these players are right now we saw it last season from Baylor Shyman he came in and he struggled out of the out of the gates he did not look like an NBA player by the end of the season he had figured it out a little bit now the Celtics are very high on him moving forward uh and I think he impressed some of the fan base out there too so don’t think about who they are right now think about who they might become when they’re playing within this Celtic system and learning in this development program so Digger we appreciate the comment let’s dive into our next one all right next comment coming in from Hermin and this comment is a player from Spain another from England and another from Ukraine celtics are Celtics are in international FIA mode with a couple of threeleaf clovers there uh yeah I don’t know if this has ever happened before where the Celtics went only international in an NBA draft all of these guys and we can go down the list uh Gonzalez is from Spain he was born and raised there u Amari Williams is from England and then Shoga is from Ukraine and he did play in college basketball he was over here in the US as was Amari Williams so these guys have been in the United States for a long time at this point but they are from overseas they are originally from overseas so really cool to see the Celtics having an opportunity to sprinkle some international flavor some more international flavor into this locker room that they’re going to have next season and Demias Kada as we know he is an international player al Horford an international player hopefully he’s back with the Celtics it’s nice to sprinkle in some different cultures some different viewpoints that always helps a team to have a little bit better understanding of not only the world but the game of basketball as a whole so cool to see a little international flavor coming in here to the Boston Celtics with three players in three picks coming in from overseas all right folks last comment of the night this one’s coming in from Ne Arena and this comment says “I expect to hear Williams to Gonzalez a lot.” I think we might be hearing that i hope fingers are crossed i hope we are hearing that out in Las Vegas from July 10th to 20th that is when the NBA Summer League will be kicking off the Boston Celtics will be out there we still got to wait and see who’s going to be on that roster for the Boston Celtics will Hugo be on the roster will Amari Williams be on the roster if they are I think you are right on NE Arena i think we’re going to be hearing that a lot not only out there in Vegas but we might be hearing that up in Maine we might be hearing that with the Celtics in in due time uh Amari Williams is one of the most gifted passing big men that is available was available in this draft this season if not the most gifted passing big man and then Gonzalez with his cutting ability off the ball i I I do think that there’s going to be some magic there with those guys here out of the gate so I am looking forward to that folks summer League again coming up July 10th to 20th we’re going to have some coverage from the Celtics practices for summer league those are scheduled to happen sometime here after the July 4th holiday make sure you stay locked into the Celtics channels we’re going to have stuff on YouTube on the social channels uh we’re going to have stuff on Celtics.com with written content tune in check out all of our channels stay up todate with everything that is the Boston Celtics summer league we’re launching a brand new page called Summer League Central everything you’re going to want is going to be on that page roster stats information inside access everything you want it’s going to be there so make sure you come back to our channels when the summer league kicks off again practice happening shortly after the 4th and then we’ve got the game starting up between the 10th and the 20th we’re waiting to see the schedule to come out here in the coming days uh but it’s coming in hot it’s coming in hot just like July is the temperatures are rising and we can’t wait to see the summer Celtics out on the court appreciate you tuning in appreciate you taking part in the podcast tonight and we’ll see you next time with another episode of Sound Off when is it going to happen we don’t know i’m guessing sometime in July though keep it tuned in thanks folks [Music] heat up [Music]

#celtics #NBA #NBADraft

The Boston Celtics chose Hugo Gonzalez out of Real Madrid at No. 28, Amari Williams out of Kentucky at No. 46, and Max Shulga out of VCU at No. 57 during the 2025 NBA Draft. We dive into the background and skill sets of all three players, plus provide some context on why the Celtics chose them and why Boston traded the No. 32 pick of the second round in exchange for four second-round picks from the Orlando Magic. Fans also chime in on what they expect from the new players, and we preview the NBA Summer League which begins July 10.

_______

Subscribe Here ☘️ / celtics

_______

Keep up with the C’s
Twitter ☘️ / celtics
Instagram ☘️ / celtics
Facebook ☘️ / bostonceltics
TikTok ☘️ / celtics
Snapchat ☘️ / celtics
LinkedIn ☘️ / bostonceltics