**BOSTON — Jordan Walsh** sat back in his locker with headphones in knowing that he moved into the starting lineup after a compelling defensive performance against **Tyrese Maxey**. On Wednesday, he prepared to take on **Jaren Jackson Jr**., and didn’t seem stressed or excited outside of a few misses in warm-ups.
“He’s athletic, but he works at it. He’s smart,” **Joe Mazzulla** said, who explained he started Walsh because it gave Boston the best chance to win. “Part of guarding people at different positions is knowing tendencies, knowing personnel. Him and his player development coach **Tyler** (**Lashbrook**), they work on that a lot … it’s a difficult job, but he’s embracing it.”
Walsh drew **Paolo Banchero** and **Franz Wagner** in Orlando, and his other most common assignments included center **Wendell Carter Jr.** and garbage time minutes against **Clint Capela** in the blowout loss to Houston. Those marked his first extended appearance to begin the year after three straight DNP-CDs and three other games where he logged fewer than three minutes. Nobody appeared more buried on the bench than Walsh.
As sometimes happens, Walsh showed well in the 19 minutes he received late against the Rockets, hitting a pair of shots inside and finishing 2-for-5 from three. He fared better in the Summer League, and expressed a new mindset, less focused on showing what he’s capable of and more fixated on fitting in. And this new system fit him, the chance to float around, cause chaos and defend the biggest matchups on the ball. He didn’t play in the loss to Utah, then entered the following game against the Wizards that the team’s lethargic effort carried into.
Walsh posted a +27, grabbed seven rebounds and two steals, and hasn’t left the rotation since.
The old Walsh, who dreamt of what he’d look like next to **Jaylen Brown** and **Jayson Tatum**, and vowed to show what he’s made of in his second Summer League, might’ve entered the opportunity with wider eyes. Now, he’s focusing on two things: energy and the tendencies of offensive players he’s guarding.
“Go in there and try to be the best version of myself,” Walsh told _CLNS Media_ in June before taking part in a third straight Summer League. “I’ve tried to stay away from thinking too much about Summer League or trying to overanalyze situations of what I could be, what I could do, how I want to play, how I want to be looked at. I feel like last year, I made that mistake and overthought everything and put so much emphasis on trying to be the best version of myself, or trying to do this, trying to do that and it turned out to be I wasn’t any of those things. I wasn’t even myself, so now I’ve stayed away from (that).”
Walsh scored seven points with six rebounds and two blocks while navigating foul trouble Jackson Jr. inflicted on him. He shot 3-for-7 from the field and 1-for-3 from deep, now shooting 7-for-16 (43.7% 3PT) over a small sample that likely played some part in his ascension. **Josh Minott’s** diminished play this week played some part too, seeing his night end in Philadelphia after eight minutes and three first half fouls after he scored 0 points in 16 minutes at Orlando. But Minott stabilized the team’s rebounding, helped win five of Boston’s last nine games and provided a needed rim protection layer next to **Neemias Queta**. His impact wouldn’t prove easy to replicate.
Yet that’s what Walsh projected to become out of Arkansas at 19. He played frantic defense there and fouled often while flashing the potential to guard all five positions. If his 27.8% three-point efficiency from that year didn’t translate, he at least showed enough burst in transition and activity around the rim with his long frame to fill some complementary role for a good team. He wouldn’t assume a straightforward path to doing so in Boston either until this offseason’s departures and some of the stylistic changes taking place with Tatum out.
“It’s a different brand of basketball than what I’m used to,” Walsh said in Vegas. “I feel like usually with the Celtics, whenever we’re in a pinch, it’s like give J.T. the ball, let him cook. Give him a ball screen, let him cook. Here (at Summer League), we’re running ball screens, we’re getting everybody activated. We’re trying to even emphasize more getting the corners activated, because I feel like once you’re in the corner on our team, you’re stuck there.”
Needing a year in Maine didn’t raise concerns with Boston’s roster loaded for a championship run. That he didn’t build on a preseason that kept him on the NBA side more than the G-League one in 2025 also didn’t sound any alarms. Was it disappointing? Sure. He asked to play a game for Maine that year with no playing time available. No ascending player wants to return to Vegas for a third Summer League. He didn’t have much of a choice. Walsh didn’t need to show himself as anything special this fall either, simply that could get on the floor.
A Summer League ejection didn’t help that. It occurred right in front of **Brad Stevens** and Boston’s brass in July. It showed the emotional highs-and-lows Walsh wore on his expression sometimes, and Mazzulla loved it. He and others around the team have noted Walsh’s professionalism and work ethic improving after he turned 21. Still, Walsh couldn’t help but joke after holding Maxey to 1-for-9 shooting on Tuesday.
“Stop him from scoring for sure,” he said, asked what he wanted to do against him.
Walsh gravitated toward the stoppers, **Jrue Holiday**, **Al Horford** and even his one-on-one battles with Brown and **Payton Pritchard** at shootarounds and practices that honed his ability to get stops. He didn’t receive many opportunities to show that ability off in games. When he did, opponents left him open on offense, and his one or two attempts from the corner mostly decided whether he played well or not. Walsh emerged as an asset while almost simultaneously making the case that he could simply play. His interchangeability in Minott’s role might’ve made more sense if he had a longer track record.
Already, Walsh and Queta’s minutes stand among the NBA’s best defensively. Off the bench, he and **Hugo González** keyed a hustle lineup that sparked the win over the Magic. This past week presented a different reality than he’s used to, greater ownership over the results of games. Walsh didn’t leave the first heartbreaking, crunch time loss he played a significant role in at Philadelphia sounding shattered. He did his job, but the result left him wondering what more he could’ve done. It’s an experience becoming emblematic of this team, where four players had their career nights over the last month.
“It still hurts equally as much, whether you’re playing or not, you definitely don’t want to see your guys lose, so there’s definitely an added sense of ‘dang, what could I have done better to get over that hump?'” Walsh said. “These close games, how can affect it, those extra two points? Do I get another stop another stop one possession and hopefully that changes? But I definitely start thinking about it that way rather than just feeling for the guys.”
Walsh is one of _the guys_ now, and while that’s true up and down the roster, this year presented greater urgency that he show something to signal that he could contribute to Celtics teams down the line. Others in his position, **Aaron Nesmith** and **Romeo Langford**, left in trades aimed at improving the veteran reliability around Brown and Tatum. They similarly struggled through uneven opportunity to begin their careers in Boston.
A basketball trajectory could lie ahead for Walsh, 21. His contract structure and the fact that some NBA players develop somewhere to later play elsewhere worked against him doing so here. Langford and Nesmith at least showed flashes now appearing in Walsh’s game for the first time. The cutting, rebounding, the shot-making, defensive disruptiveness and an ability to get under an opponent’s skin all made him a compelling alternative to Minott — even after becoming an afterthought on the team two weeks ago.
**Andre Drummond** received a technical for tossing the ball at Walsh after they fought for possession. For Walsh, he saw potential in this year’s system to allow him to become more than an annoyance. He’s keyed in on that as a way to focus on something small, and not get lost in the bigger picture.
“I’m trying to get under people’s skin,” Walsh said in July. “I’m trying to get them confused, throw them off their rhythm. It ended up happening to me (with the ejection), but I want to disrupt everybody. I want to take you out your rhythm, I want to take you out of your plays, your sets, I want to speed you up. That was the original goal.”