latest \u201cCeltics Talk\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cYou can feel it, everybody is just trying to find their footing\u201d.<\/p>\nWalsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Boston\u2019s four rookies; Hugo Gonzalez, Amari Williams, Max Shulga, and RJ Luis Jr. have a chance to find a role for themselves this year, and it sounds like they\u2019re all up for the challenge.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Celtics forward likened summer workouts at the Auerbach Center to a \u201cdog fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bunch of young guys who aren\u2019t necessarily proven. There\u2019s a lot of potential and unproven talent on the team. You can feel it in every workout. Everybody is going at each other\u2019s necks. Everybody\u2019s trying to earn that spot, earn that play time, earn that position. It\u2019s like a dog fight right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Walsh has put in the work to ensure he’s ready when the Celtics call his number<\/p>\n
Walsh is the most senior of the bunch and should see some opportunity, especially after an impressive showing at July\u2019s NBA Summer League. He averaged 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 46.3% from the field and 38.9% from beyond the arc across four appearances in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Those stats don\u2019t necessarily translate to guaranteed leap, but they\u2019re certainly a step in the right direction. If nothing else, they\u2019re a reflection of Walsh\u2019s commitment to improving his game, something he put his focus on last season, despite the lack of a consistent role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that for me personally, I feel like I\u2019ve been doing a lot of sitting. Last year I earned a little bit of playing time at the beginning of the year. As guys came back it went to the wayside so I tried to focus back on getting better and looking forward to that next opportunity and next chance. I think this year is going to be that chance and I\u2019m looking to maximize every opportunity that I get on the floor. Every workout I do, every shot I take, everything I do is always think about what I\u2019ll do in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moment may not be far away. There\u2019s plenty of uncertainty surrounding Boston\u2019s upcoming season as Jayson Tatum recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon, which also opens the door for Walsh or another one of the team\u2019s youngsters to show that they\u2019re able to contribute to winning in the present and down the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with JT out, it\u2019ll create a big space for people to come in and fill those minutes. Obviously, I\u2019m going to do my best to fill those minutes until he comes back. The focus is still if I get those minutes, how am I going to produce in those minutes and not hurt the team, but push them in a positive way so I earn more and more even when he does come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh has played an average of eight minutes across 61 NBA appearances in his pair of seasons with the Cs. It\u2019s tough to make an impression in such short time, and even harder to find a rhythm.<\/p>\n
If extended minutes truly are in store for Walsh, then they should tell the team, and the fanbase exactly what he\u2019s made of — and he knows that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do I take advantage of my situation and start to build my legacy from here?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics forward Jordan Walsh will enter his third season as a pro later this month when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-122229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}