**BOSTON — Josh Minott** couldn’t stop smiling while talking about his first career start in New Orleans. His first TD Garden start two nights later left him at a loss for words.
“It was an exciting moment,” Minott said. “Every kid dreams of it. I’ve still been dreaming up to this day for it. To hear my name called, it was blessing. I hate to sound repetitive, but it’s been exciting. I don’t really know how to put it into words. I’m still high on life from the game. The opportunity to be out there and contribute to winning, contribute to team success, I can’t take that for granted. Joe’s given me that opportunity and I don’t want to allow that to go in vain.”
Minott entered the Celtics’ starting lineup one day after they hit rock bottom on the boards in Detroit. The Pistons hauled in five offensive rebounds over the final three minutes over the smaller Celtics starting unit with **Luka Garza** in for **Neemias Queta**. To that point in the season, Boston ranked last in defensive rebounding percentage by nearly four percentage points below the 29th-placed Pelicans. Since, they’ve risen to a more respectable 18th, and won the following three games following an 0-3 start — along with securing five of the next six offensive rebounding battles.
It’s hard to imagine life without Minott now. An unexpected starting lineup staple for a team that **Joe Mazzulla** teased may not have a set rotation all year.
Minott, a 22-year-old former second round pick who played sparingly to begin his NBA career, saved this Celtics season before it went off the rails, and could become part of the next contending Boston team after signing a two-year minimum contract over the summer. Wednesday’s win over the Wizards marked his career performance by far: 21 points, five rebounds and three steals on 8-for-12 shooting (3-6 3PT).
“Josh has been great,” **Jaylen Brown** said in training camp. “We’re gonna need him to be great all season long. He’s a long, athletic wing, something that we could’ve used over the past years or so, like somebody super high energy, super athletic, so we need that defensive pressure and intensity. Then, he’s been showing he can knock down a shot and he can take a guy off the bounce as well. So he’s displayed some great talent. We’re looking forward to finding him in transition, finding him in close-out situations, because he’s a piece that can help us out.”
That understated the impact Minott brought to the starting lineup, a group now posting a +23.5 net rating through six games with a 123.5 offensive rating, 100.0 defensive rating and 72.4 defensive rebounding percentage. All of those would rank first by a team in the NBA.
Minott, at his best, provided everything the Celtics’ roster lacked to begin this season: rebounding, a rim protection layer, pace and enough shooting to get by. He shook off a 4-for-21 slump from the previous three games on Wednesday and reached 32.1% 3PT for the season. And for our purposes: he’s a perfect quote.
_Did he tinker with his shot in the offseason? “I’m just trying to hit an above the break three one time, bro.”_
_What goes through your mind when you see a rebound opportunity? “Just praying to God it’ll come my way.”_
_How’re you learning about what the team wants from you? “They’re not really asking for much … defend the other team’s best player, rebound, defend, and space the floor on offense. Truthfully, after that, they see everything as a plus.”_
_Were you always an above the rim finisher? “Imma let you Google it and get back to me on the answer for that … I’m just trying to get those people up there some free Dunkin'”_
Shooting could determine how sustainable Minott’s impact proves. He shot 20-for-59 (33.9%) on threes to begin his career with Minnesota, and finished 32.4% across two G-League seasons. In college, he tried only 14 attempts in 33 games, making his perimeter progress a new development in his career. An 87% career free throw percentage to this point bodes well for future progress.
For now, his defense could keep him on the floor, a surprise to those who watched him in Minnesota. He admitted that some critics viewed it as his weakness. _But then again, they’re fans. What’d they know?_
“I want to start with defending,” Minott said. “Not looking crazy on defense. I know in the past it’s been seen as my Achilles heel, even though I’ve never really seen it as that, but I’d say I feel like that’s the best way to help the team out is defending to the highest level and spacing the floor and allowing my teammates the opportunity to create for themselves and others.”
Only Queta boasts a better defensive rebounding percentage (20.2%) among Celtics regulars than Minott this year. He’s one of three players on the team, alongside Brown and Queta, averaging more than 1.0 field goal make inside five feet, where Boston rarely shoots. He’s dunked nine times in nine games. In turn, Minott attempted the fifth-most free throws on the team. In transition, he ranks in the 67th percentile while Boston as a team lags in the 17th percentile, per Synergy.
He gives them a dynamic they don’t have elsewhere, a crashing, cutting and running wing who the Celtics experimented with sliding over to center for the first time on Wednesday. Catching a pick-and-roll feed on the first possession, he almost rose up for an and-one finish before beating himself up over missing. He similarly yelled at himself as he walked off the floor in Philadelphia last week having missed three late shot attempts and a pair of free throws that gave the Sixers a shot at the win. **Hugo González** and others greeted and uplifted him as he exited the floor, because González believed Minott played with superior effort and wanted to cheer him up.
Minott caught a different kind of earful from Mazzulla on Wednesday after a late small ball stretch went poorly leading by 27 points before allowing a 10-3 run. Mazzulla won’t fully embrace him, aside from appreciating that he got up from a scary fall in New Orleans.
If he didn’t, Mazzulla quipped, his career was over. For a team in search of cost-controlled, young talent beyond this season, when they can return to contention with **Jayson Tatum** fully recovered, Minott’s far from finished.
“I think he’s played with a level of effort,” Mazzulla said. “Now, with starting, just being able to apply that effort with the execution of the game plan, situational awareness, the recognition of being able to take on different matchups and then make plays when he’s off the ball … effort, then understanding the details of the game plan, tendencies of the guy he’s guarding and tendencies of the situation that’s going on … understand the details of the game plan … personnel … what he needs to take away, and develop that in real time … he’s getting better at that.”
Minott, maybe more than any Celtic, loves that Mazzulla experience, claiming he’d run through a wall for him during training camp. They jabbed at each other as Minott prepared to talk after one practice, and when Mazzulla yells onto the floor during games, Minott often turns and absorbs the blow, nodding his head and moving forward.
**Luka Garza**, who arrived from Minnesota and followed the same developmental track, said little surprised him from what Minott made of more opportunity in Boston, something they both anxiously awaited as Timberwolves. The defensive improvements wowed him, however.
“We’ve played a lot of basketball together,” Garza said. “Whether it’s pick-up games that no one’s seen and different things like that, but I’ve definitely seen him unlock a level on the defensive end that I hadn’t seen before, being extremely aggressive on the ball, getting steals everywhere. This defensive concept has really unlocked that for him, and it’s been really fun to watch him go out there and guard the best player on the other team and disrupt that guy.”
Guarding pick-and-rolls, opposing guards have managed only 6-for-21 shooting against Minott, rollers shot 6-for-11 and spot up shooters went 4-for-11. Mazzulla also utilized him for full court pressure, helping hold **Tyrese Maxey** scoreless for seven minutes to begin last week’s win at Philadelphia following his 40-point explosion in the opener. The Celtics want Minott, González and others to take the pressure off Brown, **Payton Pritchard** and **Derrick White** as press defenders, where they’ve allowed a very good 0.83 points per possession. The Celtics rank in the 90th percentile of NBA defenses on a per possession basis.
Two weeks ago, it felt like the Celtics would have a revolving door for their fifth starting spot in search of that as **Sam Hauser**, González and Minott cycled through three straight games. Now, it’s hard to imagine anyone supplanting Minott. That’s not how he feels.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Minott said after his sixth straight start. “I don’t consider if I have any staying power. I’m trying to go out there like this s\*\*\* can end tomorrow, because it can. It very much can. So I’m appreciative that they’ve entrusted me with that. At the end of the day, every time I go out, I just assume that it can always be taken from me.”