{"id":255783,"date":"2025-11-01T16:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/255783\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T16:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:21:07","slug":"boston-celtics-rookie-savoring-trial-by-fire-start-to-nba-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/255783\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics rookie savoring trial-by-fire start to NBA career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hugo Gonzalez\u2019s defensive assignments<\/a> to start his Celtics career have featured a who\u2019s who of the East\u2019s All-Star guards. Last week, it was the Knicks\u2019 Jalen Brunson, followed by the Pistons\u2019 Cade Cunningham. Then, for his latest test, Gonzalez matched up against the 76ers\u2019 Tyrese Maxey, who had 40 against the Celtics on Oct. 22, for Friday\u2019s game in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unusual to see a 19-year-old rookie getting a trial-by-fire experience to start his NBA career like Gonzalez has gotten. But that\u2019s no surprise since that was the expectation put on him in Real Madrid\u2019s developmental system. Once again, Gonzalez had his fingerprints on the 109-108 Celtics win Friday<\/a>, savoring these consistent challenges thrown his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying my role,\u201d Gonzalez told reporters, via CLNS Media<\/a>. \u201cType of things that this coaching staff is asking me to do. I\u2019m pretty happy with anything they\u2019ve got for me because they\u2019re looking for team success and looking for my own development. So anything they got me, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez finished with five points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 15 minutes Friday. His energy was infectious<\/a>, whether it was jamming a fast-break dunk or diving all-out for a loose ball. His contest on a Quentin Grimes dunk, leading to a hard fall, also turned heads since he popped right back up.<\/p>\n

While the energy was great, he wasn\u2019t perfect as he also picked up five personal fouls. He\u2019ll have to clean that part of his game to play extended minutes in future games. Fortunately, Gonzalez also hit a 3-pointer Friday, and his jump shot is a skill he\u2019ll have to add to his game consistently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a young player, a basic thing they\u2019re going to ask you 99% of the time is you have to be able to defend,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cAnd whenever you\u2019re open, can you shoot with confidence or whatever. So if I want to get minutes on this team, I have to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez has held up when tasked with tough defensive assignments. His feel has been on display, including when he jumps a passing lane or grabs a steal. That energy, too, fits this current version of the Celtics perfectly. When it comes to generating chaos defensively, Gonzalez has been more than willing to step up.<\/p>\n

C\u2019s coach Joe Mazzulla has tinkered with his wing rotations to start the season, but Gonzalez has mostly made the most of his minutes. Part of it is that Gonzalez is still just six games into his NBA career. He\u2019s already proven he can contribute in a few areas at an NBA level, and he still has time to round out his game overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be selfish if you think that you\u2019re going to play, especially in my case, that I\u2019m going to play 35 minutes every single night,\u201c Gonzalez said. \u201dThat wouldn\u2019t be the case right now. But you can be able to do whatever they ask you. If they ask you to guard the best player, you gotta do it for the team. Basically it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hugo Gonzalez\u2019s defensive assignments to start his Celtics career have featured a who\u2019s who of the East\u2019s All-Star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-255783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}