Which Celtics players have made the most progress during the team’s 7-7 start? As Boston heads to Brooklyn on Tuesday for the first game of a home-and-home with the Nets, here’s a look at four who are on the upswing — and two others moving in the wrong direction:
TRENDING UP
Derrick White and Payton Pritchard
The Celtics have gotten consistent scoring this season from new leading man Jaylen Brown, who ranks 12th in the NBA in points per game (27.4) and is on pace for the best field-goal percentage of his career (50.5%). It took Boston’s other two headliners a bit longer to catch up.
As recently as last week, White and Pritchard ranked near the bottom of the league in 3-point shooting percentage despite seeing a steady diet of open looks. Both were playing well in other areas — White is the only player with 20-plus steals and 15-plus blocks this season, and Pritchard has been highly effective inside the arc — but their lack of perimeter production was dragging down the Celtics’ offense.
That finally changed last week, when White and Pritchard combined to shoot 54.0% from three (20-for-37) in wins over the Grizzlies and Clippers. Their improvements helped Boston post season-best 3-point shooting marks of 41.2% and 41.0% in the two victories, both of which featured more than 120 Celtics points.
“I feel like me and him have both been back and forth, like, who’s struggling more?” White said after the Memphis game. “So it’s good to see them knock down shots when you get the looks that we’ve been getting.”
The C’s are 5-0 when they shoot better than 36% from deep and 2-7 when they don’t.
Neemias Queta
Can Queta be a viable starting center? That was one of the biggest questions facing the Celtics after the departures of Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet this offseason.
The 7-footer hasn’t been flawless in his new role, and he can’t replicate Porzingis’ and Horford’s floor-stretching ability. But so far, he’s been a positive addition to Boston’s starting five.
Queta is averaging 9.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He boasts the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating, has been highly effective as a screener, and the Celtics have been a much, much better team with him on the floor than off it.
Boston’s net rating in Queta’s minutes is an eye-popping 32.4 points better than when he sits, per Cleaning the Glass. That’s the best mark of any NBA big — and nearly 10 full points higher than second-place Nikola Jokic. Queta also entered Monday with the league’s 10th-best overall plus/minus (plus-126) despite playing on a .500 team; all nine players ahead of him were members of the Thunder, Nuggets, Rockets or Knicks.
The Celtics have been outscored with Queta on the court in just three of their 14 games, and never by more than seven points.
“He has a lot of potential to be great,” Pritchard said. “So we need him. We need his presence down low, his rebounding, his shot-blocking, and obviously, he shows flashes of doing things offensively that could be really great for us. He’s a young player still, and he’s still growing, so we’re going to hold him to a high standard.”
Jordan Walsh
The hierarchy within the Celtics’ stable of young, energetic, defensive-minded wings already has shuffled several times this season. Rookie Hugo Gonzalez was on top for a spell. Then Josh Minott started nine consecutive games.
Recently, Walsh has been the go-to guy from that group, and he’s given Boston some of the most impressive minutes of his three-year career.
After sitting as a DNP-CD in four of the Celtics’ first eight games, Walsh has logged at least 18 minutes in each of the last six contests, starting the last two. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has tasked the 21-year-old with guarding the opponent’s top scoring threat, and Walsh has held up well against a diverse list of assignments ranging from point guards (Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey) to big men (Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr.).
Walsh spent most of Sunday’s game matched up against James Harden, whose elite shot-making and foul-drawing presented a unique challenge. The 2018 NBA MVP dropped 37 points, baited Walsh into five shooting fouls and nearly willed the Clippers to a come-from-behind victory with nine points in the final 22 seconds, but the Celtics still came away impressed by Walsh’s defensive performance.
“I thought he was very good,” Mazzulla said. “I thought he made some winning plays throughout the entire game, and that’s the role.”
In his six games since breaking into the rotation, Walsh is a plus-74 with 40 rebounds, 10 steals and six blocks.
TRENDING DOWN
Sam Hauser
Seven games in, Hauser was shooting a crisp 45.1% from 3-point range on 7.3 attempts per game. Mazzulla moved him out of the starting lineup after two games, but he was helping to spread out the Celtics’ scoring, giving their bench a much-needed knockdown shooter.
Since then, Hauser’s efficiency has cratered.
He’s made just five of his last 34 3-point attempts (14.7%) and is 1-for-6 on twos during that span (16.7%). He’s totaled 18 points over his last seven appearances and hasn’t scored in double figures since Oct. 29. The seven minutes Hauser logged in Sunday’s win over the Clippers were his fewest in a regular-season game since April 2023.
Hauser briefly appeared on Boston’s injury report last week with a right wrist sprain, so there could be some health-related reasons for his sudden decline.
Chris Boucher
After Boucher started all four preseason games, it looked like the 32-year-old would be at least a rotation staple in his first season with Boston, if not a consistent starter. Instead, he’s hardly left the bench over the last two weeks, seeing just 13 mostly garbage-time minutes in the last six games.
Boucher has recorded nearly as many fouls this season (15) as rebounds (17, six of which came in the fourth quarter of a blowout win over the Grizzlies), and he’s 1-for-12 from 3-point range.
Fellow big man Xavier Tillman also has fallen to the bottom of the depth chart following a promising preseason. Tillman hasn’t seen game action since Nov. 3.