**NEW YORK — Baylor Scheierman** rarely played as the Celtics began their surprise season filled with growth and unexpected contributors. Boston saw **Jordan Walsh**, **Josh Minott** and **Luka Garza** emerge as rotation constants while **Neemias Queta** became an every night starter. Yet Scheierman, who finished his rookie season strong through appearances late in the regular season, could not consistently build on that due to the success of others in front of him.
**Joe Mazzulla** didn’t bury Scheierman, however, and instead found pockets of playing time, 11.6 minutes per game, where he often contributed a stop, shot or solid pass to make the most of that opportunity. He shot 51.5% from the field on 66 shots and made 43.4% of his open threes to begin the year and only sat out of five of the Celtics’ first 38 games as a coach’s decision. So Mazzulla affirmed those efforts with three spot starts over the last two weeks.
“His growth is more about his defensive versatility,” Mazzulla said in Detroit following Scheierman’s first start that week at Indiana. “He has the confidence to play on the offensive end, and he’s there. But there were a couple positions where he’s on Stewart, a couple of possessions where he’s on Cunningham. Sometimes he’ll guard the best player, sometimes he’ll guard the big. So just his continued growth and defensive physicality in the system is where he’s built a level of trust. He can go out there and play cross-matched and make plays and does a good job of rebounding as well.”
Scheierman struggled in the loss to the Pacers, where he logged 20 minutes and scored two points in his third career start, but received another look in Atlanta with **Payton Pritchard** resting. He scored nine points with seven rebounds and four assists, piling up three steals while receiving 32 minutes in a game where the Celtics led by as many as 43 points. Scheierman scored in the following four games, including in Brooklyn where he started in place of **Derrick White**, who rested.
**Sam Hauser**, who’s emerged as the starting four this month, and Scheierman set the tone offensively in the game. Scheierman played some center in the fourth quarter as Queta hit foul trouble, and then appeared alongside **Hugo González** in the front court after Queta and Garza both followed out through the first overtime period. After, Scheierman didn’t receive a group media request, but appeared as satisfied with his performance as he looked all season before chatting for several minutes with _CLNS Media_ about the win and his season. He scored six points with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in the win.
“I’ve just tried to take advantage of every opportunity that’s been given to me,” Scheierman said. “I feel like I’ve done that and that’s what I’m gonna do regardless of if it changes for me. I feel like I’m impacting the game at a high level on various points in the game, and different categories. That’s what I pride myself on … one, just the attention to detail to my body, and trying to get stronger and faster in the offseason, and then continuing to just be super on point with personnel and tendencies of teams we’re playing against and the people I’m guarding. Just trying to give myself any advantage I can to make it as tough as possible on them, and honestly I feel like my instincts defensively of getting steals and stuff like that have always been there.”
The Celtics drafted Scheierman with the No. 30 overall pick in 2024 as **Brad Stevens’** first selection ever in the first round since becoming Boston’s president of basketball operations. He sat for most of his rookie season on a team running back most of its championship core and attempting to repeat, and spent most of the first half of the schedule with the team’s G-League affiliate in Maine. Rest allowed him to play later in the season, averaging 6.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game on 40% shooting (37.3% 3PT) while appearing in 14 of the Celtics’ final 15 regular season games.
That stretch outlined a vision for Scheierman’s impact that more closely resembled the role he played in between South Dakota State and Creighton through a five-year college career. Scheierman flashed passing prowess, the ability to get his shot off from any range and strong rebounding numbers. Boston knew it would need to work on his athleticism for him to translate to the NBA, and with his defense and physicality now earning him minutes, rather than his offense, that effort paid off — even if he hasn’t become the offense force that made some fans wonder whether he could replace Hauser prior to the latter’s long-term extension.
“The coaches do a good job of watching a lot of film. They have the scouting report that they send to us, so really out job is just to watch it and study it, tendencies of a what a player likes to do in certain situations,” Scheierman said. “It gives you that ability to be on the court and know where you’re at and know what that player tends to want to do and I think that just gives you a little bit of an advantage.”
Scheierman, like Walsh before him, didn’t find out until shortly before the game at Indiana that he would start and didn’t react. He saw some teammates start games, receive quick pulls or not appear after halftime, so his hold on such a role already felt tenuous. His approach, instead, became focusing on his 4-5 minute stint to begin the night and succeeding in it enough to earn another rotation. Despite his limited scoring impact in the game, he started again after halftime for one more rotation, then sat for the rest of the night.
He fared better in Atlanta, shooting 2-for-3 from deep with six points, three rebounds and two assists before halftime as the Celtics built a 31-point halftime advantage. In Brooklyn, he helped the Celtics navigate the **Michael Porter Jr.** assignment, hit his lone second half shot attempt and played the entire second overtime period after his in-bounds pass set up González for his game-tying shot seconds after Mazzulla subbed González in at the end of overtime.
“I feel very well about where I’m at personally,” Scheierman said. “Obviously, as a team, we’re doing really well and me personally, I think I’ve accomplished a lot of what I wanted to prove coming into the year, and I’m just focused on continuing to improve, because I know there’s a lot I can get better at, but I feel like I’ve impacted the game in a lot of ways and just made a lot of winning plays and am just continuing to try to do that.”