The question was straightforward:
When you look back at the year you spent coaching Chris Cenac Jr., what stands out to you?
The answer Kelvin Sampson gave, in a phone interview with the Herald this week ahead of Cenac’s NBA Summer League debut, lasted six full, uninterrupted minutes.
Houston’s head coach remembered seeing potential in the tall, lanky big man when Cenac was a high schooler at Isidore Newman in New Orleans — alma mater of the Manning family — before he transferred to hoops-focused Link Academy and became a McDonald’s All-American.
He recalled how Cenac, upon arriving at Houston as the nation’s sixth-ranked recruit, accepted a position change and a role as a supporting character on a team with national championship aspirations.
How he committed himself to the dirty work of rebounding and turned that facet of his game into one of his greatest strengths.
How he would have “easily” averaged 15 or 16 points per game, rather than the 9.5 he did, had he been his team’s top option.
How Cenac, as an 18-year-old playing for one of the most demanding programs in college basketball, earned his coach’s respect through his effort and buy-in.
Yes, he is a project, as most of his pre-draft scouting reports suggested. No, he won’t be an immediate NBA starter like some of the other big names in his draft class.
But he left a lasting impression on Sampson, who believes his beloved freshman now is stepping into an ideal professional landing spot. The Celtics selected Cenac with the 27th overall pick in last month’s 2026 NBA Draft, welcoming him into a player development program that Sampson has long admired from afar.
“When I had conversations with Brad (Stevens), I was very honest with him,” Sampson said. “Hey, Chris is not a finished product. His best basketball is ahead of him. But he was my favorite player to coach on this team, because he came in every day with the right attitude. He never, ever didn’t give great effort. When we got on him or would use motivation to get him going in a certain area, his body language was elite.
“Just a wonderful young man who comes from a great family, and I think those things are important.”
Cenac, who stands 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, started all but one of the 37 games he played in his lone college season. A center throughout high school, he played power forward for the Cougars and was the team’s fourth offensive option, trailing teammates Kingston Flemings, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan in shot attempts and points per game. (Uzan, a 6-foot-3 point guard, also is playing for Boston this summer on an Exhibit-10 contract.)
Sampson said he and his staff “knew that Chris was going to be in a transition year for him” as he adjusted to the responsibilities of his new role and his lower profile as an offensive player.
“When he got here, we had to get him something — one thing — that he could hang his hat on, that would get him on the court every day,” Sampson said. “What’s the one thing? It can’t be shooting, can’t be playmaking; those aren’t your strengths right now. And to Chris’ credit — and he deserves all the credit for this — he became a really, really good rebounder, and that wasn’t necessarily his strength before he got here.”
Houston head coach Kelvin Sampon, right, talks with center Chris Cenac Jr. (5) at the bench during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Arizona State Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Cenac averaged 7.9 rebounds per game at Houston, with some of his best performances coming late in the season. He grabbed 13 boards in a February loss to Arizona and 14 in a Big 12 Tournament win over Kansas, then pulled down 30 over three NCAA tournament games. That ability to clean the glass, along with his raw athletic traits and movement ability for his size, headlined his pre-draft scouting reports.
Those write-ups also invariably called him a longer-term project who will need more seasoning before he’s ready to be an impact player in the pros. Sampson agreed with that. He knows the rangy teenager needs to add “grown-man strength” to his 240-pound frame and work to become a more consistent shooter. Cenac made 33.3% of his 3-pointers last season (2.4 attempts per game), but his former coach sees Al Horford-esque floor-stretching potential in his game.
“I think Chris is going to evolve into a really good shooter,” Sampson said. “He has the mechanics. He just hasn’t done it long enough. I think about Al Horford. When he was with Atlanta, he didn’t shoot a lot of threes. All of a sudden, he gets to Boston, and you can tell the work that he put in to become an effective 3-point shooter. I think Chris can be like that, too.”
In his first meeting with the Boston media, Cenac said he modeled his game after Anthony Davis, with shades of Jaren Jackson Jr. Sampson had a more humble player comp for him: Channing Frye. The 7-foot Frye was never an All-Star, but he appeared in nearly 900 games over 13 NBA seasons and was part of a championship-winning team with Cleveland in 2016.
“No matter who drafted Chris, he’s going to be a role player,” Sampson said. “He’s not going to start his first year. But every minute he gets is an investment in his future.”
Most NBA teams weren’t willing to make that investment, at least in the first round.
The five players above Cenac in last year’s consensus ranking of high school seniors all became lottery picks last month. Four of them — the much-hyped quartet of A.J. Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson — were taken with the first four selections. Seventh-ranked Mikel Brown went sixth overall. Brayden Burries (No. 9 recruit) and Darius Acuff Jr. (No. 10) also heard their names called in the top 10.
Cenac’s wait was much longer. He tumbled into the late 20s before Boston grabbed him with the fourth-to-last pick of Round 1.
No premier prospect wants to watch 26 players come off the board before him. But Sampson stressed to Cenac that, despite the draft-night discomfort, this was the best possible outcome for his future.
“I was in the green room area (at the draft),” Sampson said. “When it gets to 18, 19, 20, you know, we had great conversations with the teams that chose from 22 to 26. Chris could have went to any of those places, but I’m so thankful that he didn’t. You remind him that it’s not when you’re picked, it’s where you’re picked. I’d rather Chris go 27 to Boston than 17 or 18 to a place that doesn’t have a background in player development and have a plan, and have a clear understanding of who he is and the plan they have for him going forward.
“Of all the 30 teams, Chris was fortunate that he got chosen by the right organization. Joe Mazzulla is going to love working with Chris. The veterans will help him. He’s a very humble kid, and one day, as he grows in the NBA, Chris is going to develop into a guy who can start, can rebound, can make open shots and be a winning player.”
Drafting Cenac was part of the Celtics’ offseason plan to add more dynamism to their frontcourt, which also included the signing of offensive rebounding maestro Mitchell Robinson. Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, said on draft night that Cenac “fits a position of need” and adds “some things that we were a little short on this year from an athletic perspective with his size and his length.”
The rookie faces an uphill battle for playing time — Stevens said his focus for now should be on his “personal development and growth” — but he made an encouraging first impression Friday night.
In Boston’s Summer League opener, Cenac played 29 minutes off the bench and registered 14 points, 10 rebounds (five offensive), four blocks and one steal in an 83-80 overtime win over the Toronto Raptors.
Summer League head coach Amile Jefferson deployed Cenac both as a center and at the four alongside Amari Williams in double-big lineups. He blocked more shots than he did in any of his games for Houston — he only had 18 of those all last season — and though he shot an unremarkable 5-for-13 from the field, he hit two fourth-quarter 3-pointers, including one from the corner with 0.8 seconds remaining to force OT.
“Chris is going to be a really, really good, contributing NBA player,” Sampson said.