{"id":348049,"date":"2026-06-24T04:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/348049\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T04:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:37:13","slug":"celtics-take-houston-forward-chris-cenac-jr-at-no-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/348049\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics take Houston forward Chris Cenac Jr. at No. 27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"a-term a-term--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/tag\/boston-celtics\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Celtics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t&#8220;He&#8217;s just a good young player. Energetic, plays hard, athletic, long. Fits a position of need, some things we were a little short on,&#8221; Brad Stevens said.<\/p>\n<p><img width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IM7JGRBPGNELRKLGOPK2Y5FXFU-6a3b4f74b6a53-768x432.jpg\" class=\"attachment-16:9 size-16:9 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><br \/>\n\tChris Cenac Jr. Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"m-article-list__link-wrapper\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/sports\/nba\/2026\/06\/23\/nba-draft-aj-dybantsa-washington-wizards-no-1-overall-comments\/?p1=article_recirc_inline_feature\" data-p1=\"article_recirc_inline_feature\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/YUZY4YB4TFHDVHSDLUYOMRALL4-6a3b23b163a8b-768x432.jpg\" class=\"t-amp__list-image m-article-list__image m-article-list__image--full\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrockton\u2019s A.J. Dybantsa becomes first Mass. player since Patrick Ewing to go No. 1 in NBA Draft\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"m-article-list__link-wrapper\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/sports\/boston-celtics\/2026\/06\/23\/bill-simmons-boston-celtics-nba-basketball-jaylen-brown-giannis-antetokounmpo\/?p1=article_recirc_inline_feed\" data-p1=\"article_recirc_inline_feed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBill Simmons \u2018not convinced\u2019 Jaylen Brown stays with Celtics after Giannis trade drama\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Celtics picked Houston forward Chris Cenac Jr. with the No. 27 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 6-foot-11, 240-pound forward spent just one season with the Cougars, declaring for the draft after his freshman season. He averaged 9.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game for Houston. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cenac has the size to play center, but has also been used at times as a power forward.  He was a top-ten prospect in the 2025 class as a high school senior. He played in both the McDonald\u2019s All-American Game and the Jordan brand classic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The young big man will likely be a developmental player for the Celtics. Boston could use front-court help in the near future, but Cenac is just 19-years-old and won\u2019t turn 20 until February. He still has room to grow after just one year in college. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s just a good young player. Energetic, plays hard, athletic, long. Fits a position of need, some things we were a little short on,\u201d Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He shot 33 percent from 3-point range on 2.4 attempts per game, but the bulk of his points come around the rim. His potential as a lengthy, mobile, rim protector is one of the things that made him a coveted high school prospect. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, there is work to do in terms of turning that potential into production at the pro level. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cropped-Screen-Shot-2024-01-26-at-4.59.30-PM-6706db53ae1d7-6706dcbabfba0-242x242.png\" alt=\"Profile image for Khari A. Thompson\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/author\/kharia-thompson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Khari A. Thompson<\/a>Sports Reporter\t<\/p>\n<p>Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n<p class=\"m-generic-cta__subtitle\">Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics &#8220;He&#8217;s just a good young player. Energetic, plays hard, athletic, long. Fits a position of need,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-348049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}