{"id":819431,"date":"2026-07-23T20:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819431\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:56:12","slug":"the-celtics-just-signed-a-key-player-to-a-great-long-term-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819431\/","title":{"rendered":"The Celtics just signed a key player to a great long-term deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Walsh is coming off a career season in which he averaged 5.4 points and 4 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.9% from the field and 38.4% from three. He averaged 17.8 minutes per game and started 25 games, all career-highs. The Celtics went 15-5 in a 20-game stretch in which he started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Most importantly, Walsh established himself as an elite defender capable of slowing down opposing teams\u2019 top players, tasked with guarding Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Walsh, who was selected 38th overall in 2023, was entering the last year of his contract and was due $2.4 million next season. While Walsh has played three years in the NBA, he\u2019s just 22 years old and is still the third-youngest player on the roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Walsh will be making $2.4 million next season, $5 million in the 2027-2028 season, and $5.25 million in the 2028-2029 season. The Celtics have a $5.5 million team option for the 2029-20230 season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.celticsblog.com\/post\/rOA0X8vf-gV5\" class=\"kbjb0s3\" aria-label=\"View full post: Who is going to take a leap?\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"_1mg4q2a1 _1mg4q2a0\">Who is going to take a leap?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Which Celtics player do you expect to take\u00a0the\u00a0biggest leap next season?<\/p>\n<p>Closes in 1 day \u2022 136 total votesView results<\/p>\n<p>Baylor ScheiermanHugo GonzalezJordan WalshRon Harper Jr.Rec 0CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReplyRead 33 replies<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics now have a litany of wings under contract for the next few years<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ron Harper Jr. (age 26) has four more years under contract, with team options in the final two years. Sam Hauser (age 29) and Hugo Gonzalez (age 20) both have three more years under contract (Hauser\u2019s contract is fully guaranteed, while Gonzalez\u2019s last two years are team options). And Baylor Scheierman (age 26) has two more seasons under contract, with the 2027-2028 season being a team option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Whether or not Boston decides to keep all of these wings long-term remains to be seen; if nothing else, they\u2019re valuable trade assets that could be used to bolster other parts of the roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In addition \u2014 and most importantly \u2014 Jayson Tatum (age 28) is under contract for the next four seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Walsh\u2019s extension comes on the heels of another big-time extension; the Celtics agreed to a 4-year, $56 million extension with Neemias Queta earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">And one more could be in the works: Payton Pritchard is eligible for an extension beginning October 1st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walsh is coming off a career season in which he averaged 5.4 points and 4 rebounds per game,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,305375,590,85],"class_list":["post-819431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celtics-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819431","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=819431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}