Celtics Rookies Could Play MORE Than Expected | Garden Report w/ Bobby & Noa

Celtics Rookies Could Play MORE Than Expected | Garden Report w/ Bobby & Noa

Hey, Bobby Manning here. Noah Delazelle alongside and we’re back in the field talking to Celtics players again. It’s been like a month and a half and we just got to meet the Celtics rookies Gonzalez, Amari Williams, and Max Shoga who all spoke just a few minutes ago, interacted with some campers here at the YMCA in Boston. And seems like a light-hearted group of guys. They’re going to fit in personalitywise with this team. Certainly there was no one here like Dano Ban who was above doing all the stuff with the kids.
Was that how he was?
Yeah. He wasn’t trying to You weren’t at the thing the Halloween thing when they were dancing. Well, Mar Stevens was all for it, but forget that. What do you think of these rookies?
I mean, they seem really nice. The one thing that stood out that I maybe I didn’t like notice on paper is they’re all international. Mari Williams grew up in the UK and Ugo grew up in Spain and then uh
Shog is from Ukraine.
Shog is from Ukraine. Yeah. So it’s an interesting it’s an interesting mix like you’re getting a lot of international perspectives and I just think about you know there’s Kada from Portugal we’ve had a lot of international players over the years. So it kind of just as an aside note but I think the thing that stuck out to me most is that this has obviously been a very depressing week for Celtics fans between the Drew Holiday and Christoff Porzingis trades losing Luke to free agency maybe losing out to free agency. We’ll see what happens here. Um, and these these events when you’re in the community with these young young guys that are like their their lifelong dream was just made, you know, made true, they’re really uplifting. So, I think, you know, this was really needed, especially today to just see like there’s a future for this team. There’s a lot of young talent. I don’t know, you know, how many of these guys are going to really impact us moving forward. Obviously, Ugo is at the top of the list as far as who who could become a rotation player in the short term. Um, but it’s just it’s fun to have the rookies introduced, especially when you’re saying goodbye to so many players that the franchise loves. It’s a difficult week. Cornet departed yesterday, especially for me. The Alford,
I didn’t know if you were gonna make it here this morning. I thought you might take a little bit of time.
We We talked it out last night, so I felt much better, but still down. Horford, that decision seems imminent. Still strongly connected to the Warriors at this point among other teams. We’ll see what ends up happening there. But it feels like the Celtics are heading for a reset. And that’s one of the things Amari Williams got asked here today is you might have to play next year. Ugo Gonzalez might play more than we imagined on draft night and Shogo, we’ll see with some of the wing guys there. But this is a group that looked like they were in for the long term with this team and now that Celtics are departing and that the team looks a little thinner, there’s going to be a lot of minutes open for not only these guys obviously, but Shyman, Jordan Walsh, guys we’re going to see in the summer league in just a week or so. Yeah, I mean the last few years you got drafted here. we were walking into a championship organization that was going to contend and if you wanted onc court reps it was probably going to be in Maine and most likely like Max Schelgo who was drafted 56 and Mari Williams 46 they’re still going to probably spend most of their time in Maine. Um, but there’s an opportunity here, right? Like they’re they’re they’re looking for guys to step up in the absences of so many key proven all-star level players. And so for a rookie, like yes, the franchise is in a little bit more disarray than previous offseasons, but it’s also a little bit of a better opportunity. Like I still think it’s going to be an uphill climb, but there is a pathway forward towards a rotation role the way that there really hasn’t been the last couple seasons.
And Gonzalez, I just said it to you before we started recording here, he needs to play one or two summer league games at least just to get people excited. I mean, it’s such a down week in Celtics land. To see that guy play some and show a flash or two, I think would at least get people excited. And that is the fun part about this year coming up is there’s low expectations. You figure out who can play, who can’t among the younger players. They get the chance to actually step out on the court and play some significant minutes to make some mistakes, show some signs of NBA competitiveness. And it all starts at summer league next week. And I asked Gonzalez, he said he’s hoping to play at summer league a little bit. The, you know, one of the people with him here said it’s going to be up to the team. And I know Brad had concerns about his season going long, but he didn’t really play a lot for Real Madrid. So, I have a sense that he’s since he’s here, since he’s around the team now and going to take part in these practices, he’ll play at least one game out in Vegas. And I think that’s who everybody’s excited to see because you just didn’t see much of him in Europe last year.
And he’s a fun guy. I mean, we didn’t know I didn’t know much of his personality coming into this, but super comfortable. He seemed like kind of the veteran. I think that his time being on a pro basketball team with Real Madrid
and his English was excellent.
Yeah, his English was excellent. And he was just he was great with the kids. He was great with the media. I think I he was actually probably the most extroverted of the three guys even though he’s the youngest. So, you do get a sense a little bit like you’re drafting somebody. He called it a pre- rookie season. I think you get the sense that you’re drafting somebody that has is is has been around professional basketball that’s used to media, used to kind of representing a a world class organization and he did not seem like a typical rookie just off of that. And I think that that’s going to translate on the floor as well that professionalism that Brad Stevens really touted very highly on draft nights.
And I will say he did say my Spanish was pretty good when I talked to him before we got
He was just being nice. He was just being nice.
He’s like
he doesn’t want to get negative report coverage. Well, I’m all in on Gonzalez as far as the team goes right now and some of the moves that are coming up. We talked a lot about it yesterday, but I don’t know where this team’s going to go from here, especially at center. We’ll see. I don’t have a strong sense that Horford’s going to remain at this point, but it feels like they still need to make another move or two to make this roster make some sense, at least positionally at this point. cuz I was thinking out of last year or last day or so here. Center is the position in a positionless game now where you actually need some stability and someone who can play on both ends of the floor and especially for this team fit into their system. And the only explanation I would have for them not filling that spot is John’s thing of they don’t care how they do this year.
Yeah, I think this you don’t care but you still want you still want to have a functional roster. I mean, even these teams that go into the season tanking try to put together a semblance of something and they obviously have very talented players at other positions. I do think this is a massive bet on Amish Kada and his development and his ability to kind of grow in that role which is probably going to come as a little bit of a surprise to Celtics fans because he hasn’t been a part of the rotation really.
Didn’t Amari say he’s going to try to learn from Kada? What a what a role Kada is in now. He’s the best. Yeah, I mean that’s the thing and that’s one of the things you lose with Al Horford, you know, if he does not resign with his team is not just the onc court stuff and the you know all the great things that we know he can do as a connector, as a space big, all that stuff. But like he he’s really the guy that takes these guys under their wing. Like we saw it with everybody over the last few years, not even just bigs. Like I’ve asked JD Davidson and Jordan Walsh like Al Horford’s reaching out to them, you know? So there is a little bit of a gap in leadership and I am curious to see who’s going to fill it um from a mentorship standpoint. Obviously, we know Jaylen Brown’s been really really around the Boston community. Yeah. But a coach is different still. I think that you want to have players on your roster uh that can mentor you. So, we’ll see how it all shakes up. Luca Gar is obviously one of the first moves they’ve made here to replenish some of what they’ve lost at this position. Um and I’m, you know, I’m not sure what kind of role he’s going to provide.
Tiny bandaid on.
Yeah. But they just need they need bodies right now, you know, and so Amari Williams has a a much better opportunity right now than like you go back to Anton Watson, their second round draft pick from last year. He didn’t really have much of a chance here. you know, this is a much better position to be in um as a late second rounder rookie big. So, uh we’ll see who capitalizes. Somebody will. I don’t know who it’s going to be yet, but somebody will take advantage of the fact that there’s a lot of kind of movement going on with this roster right now.
You know, is my favorite takeaway from today.
No,
Joe didn’t tell the rookies he doesn’t like rookies, thankfully. I don’t think he can do that this year.
I mean, I don’t know what he said. They did say that he was very honest and straightforward. Um, I know Baylor Shyman told us on the show a couple weeks ago that um that that that was Joe’s message to him that he dislikes rookies. We’ll see. You know, I think he’s going to have to soften a little bit that stance when you have younger guys on the roster. Um, but I would imagine that if we were in on that meeting this morning, Joe sounded like Joe. That was the impression that I got from those guys retelling their first interactions. Well, you can go listen to all those first interviews with Max Schulga, Amari Williams, and first round pick Ugo Gonzalez, who does seem like he’s going to play some amount of summer league here based on talking to him today. So, uh, you can go check those out on the CNUS Media YouTube channel. We had a ton of reaction to Luke Cornet departing last night live after free agency began. We will go live whenever Al Horford makes his decision, if he hasn’t at this point. Uh, and for Noah Delazelle, I’m Bobby Manning from the Huntington YMCA here in Boston. Uh, after meeting the Celtics rookies for the first time. Subscribe CNS Media Celtics all access.

BOSTON, MA — Boston Celtics draft picks Hugo González, Max Shulga, and Amari Williams were introduced to the media for the first time at an unveiling of a newly renovated court at the Huntington Avenue YMCA.

The Garden Report’s Bobby Manning and Noa Dalzell discuss how the Celtics’ rookies could be in line for bigger roles than expected — especially with Luke Kornet heading to San Antonio and the potential loss of veteran big man Al Horford.

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