It hasn’t taken Hugo González a long time to establish himself as a more impactful bench player for the Boston Celtics than Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh.
The 19-year-old Spaniard has displayed a higher motor than both Scheierman and Walsh, and he’s a superior defender.
What Joe Mazzulla has been waiting for Walsh to provide for a year or two now, González has come in and provided from the get-go: relentless energy and youthful athleticism on defense, hunger on the glass, shot disruption around the rim, sheer hustle, and off-ball savvy on offense.
Hugo Gonzalez is obviously a work-in-progress, but you can see here why the Celtics are pretty high on the rookie entering the season: pic.twitter.com/zQUXbXnZUW— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) October 16, 2025
Hugo’s two threes on Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors are just icing on the cake. He shouldn’t be relied upon to be an efficient three-point shooter during his rookie season (that will come), but he might already be a more reliable shooter than Walsh has ever been, for what it’s worth.
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Scheierman, of course, is by far the best shooter of the three wings, but he’s somewhat of a cone defensively. Still, Scheierman’s one elite skill — long-distance marksmanship — means that he’s above Walsh in the pecking order in Boston’s rotation, as Walsh still hasn’t established one defining trait, nor is he an all-around impact player in the mold of González.
González won’t look great on every night. His rookie season will feature plenty of ups and downs, as is normal for any player, and he might even lose his spot in the rotation to Scheierman during a bad stretch.
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What’s obvious, though, is that Hugo has by far the brightest future of these three young wings on Boston’s roster.
It also makes sense for Mazzulla to enter the regular season with González receiving more minutes than Scheierman, and go from there.
Celtics point guard Derrick White certainly likes what he sees from González so far.
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“He plays so hard, so that’s always like a good first start,” White said recently about Hugo, per CLNS Media. “He just knows how to play, knows how to be in the right position, and competes at a high level. I’ve seen him just constantly working hard, constantly asking questions, constantly learning and you could tell that he’s been a pro for a while and he’s played basketball at a at a high level for for some time now and I think he’s he’s done a lot of good things for us this preseason.”