LAS VEGAS \u2014 By any metric, this past Celtics season was the best of Jordan Walsh\u2019s three-year NBA career. Now, he\u2019s eyeing another leap forward in Year 4.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Walsh wants to become a more consistent and trusted offensive player \u2014 one head coach Joe Mazzulla can feel comfortable playing when his team needs a basket, not only when it\u2019s trying to prevent one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing (is) I\u2019m trying to change my identity offensively,\u201d Walsh said at halftime of Boston\u2019s Summer League victory over Charlotte<\/a> on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019m trying to become a way better offensive player. I\u2019m trying to fit in situations that I didn\u2019t fit in last year. I\u2019m trying to be the answer to the situations that they took me out of. That\u2019s kind of my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Walsh did show meaningful offensive improvement in 2025-26.<\/p>\n Though he averaged just 5.4 points per game, his 3-point shooting percentage jumped from 26.6% over his first two seasons to 38.4% in Year 3. That, coupled with his defense against stars like Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham, Donovan Mitchell and Jaren Jackson Jr., helped him escape from the end of Mazzulla\u2019s bench; he played in a career-high 68 games, starting 25 and averaging 17.4 minutes per appearance.<\/p>\n But after showing signs of a bona fide breakout during one early-season stretch \u2014 he averaged 15.0 points over a six-game span in November and December while shooting 77.3% from the field \u2014 Walsh regressed, lost his starting spot and wasn\u2019t much of a factor offensively over the final four months and into the postseason.<\/p>\n Walsh scored just 12 points on 19 shots in Boston\u2019s first-round playoff series against Philadelphia. He logged a mere five minutes in Game 7, a non-factor even with Jayson Tatum sidelined by a knee injury.<\/p>\n On the Celtics\u2019 list of go-to scorers, the 22-year-old was near the bottom. He wants to change that this season.<\/p>\n \u201c(I want to be) a threat at all points in the game,\u201d said Walsh, who\u2019s attending Summer League as a fan<\/a> for the first time after playing in the previous three editions. \u201cI feel like there was a lot of times in the season last year where it would become clutch moments where we needed a bucket, and I would have to get subbed out. I talked to my (player development) coach and said when those moments come, I want to always be the best option. I want to be the best choice.<\/p>\n \u201cSo for me, it\u2019s working on my shot, working on my handle, working on creating my own shot when I have those pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lofty goal for a player who hasn\u2019t averaged more than eight points per game since his senior season at Link Academy in 2021-22. But the Celtics\u2019 depth wings should have more opportunities to prove themselves this season with Jaylen Brown now in Philly<\/a> and the player acquired in the Brown trade<\/a>, 36-year-old Paul George, a major injury risk. And that\u2019s on top of any caution the team might take with Tatum in his first full season post-Achilles surgery.<\/p>\n The players with whom Walsh will be competing for playing time include Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Ron Harper Jr. and, potentially, second-round draft pick Dillon Mitchell, who showed his potential Sunday with 24 points, seven offensive rebounds, six steals and two blocks against the Hornets.<\/p>\n Walsh, who was close with Brown, said he was sad to see the decade-long Celtic go.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s tough. It\u2019s really tough, especially when it\u2019s a guy like that,\u201d he said. \u201cEspecially when it\u2019s a guy you\u2019re really close to, it\u2019s always hard to have him go. But there\u2019s a side of basketball where it\u2019s always something that\u2019s bigger than basketball, and it\u2019s the business of it. The business sometimes dictates how things move, how people move, more than the basketball does.<\/p>\n \u201cThat may be the case. It may not be the case. We don\u2019t know. But I know that I\u2019m missing a guy who I\u2019m really close with, who\u2019s a mentor for me. He\u2019s done a lot for me, and obviously, we wish him the best. But if we\u2019ve got to see him on the court, then he\u2019s got to get the same treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 By any metric, this past Celtics season was the best of Jordan Walsh\u2019s three-year NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[1222,49,48,5939,281492,5941,21091,1225,281490,281491,459,82],"class_list":["post-798913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-roster","tag-celtics-summer-league","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jordan-walsh","tag-jordan-walsh-celtics","tag-jordan-walsh-stats","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798913","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=798913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}