Jordan Walsh’s career-best 2025-26 season earned him a long-term contract extension.
Walsh and the Celtics agreed to terms Thursday on a three-year, $15 million deal that runs through 2029-30, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania. The agreement came three weeks after Boston picked up Walsh’s $2.4 million team option for the upcoming season.
Still one of the Celtics’ youngest players at 22, Walsh appeared in 68 games with 25 starts last season, averaging 17.8 minutes, 5.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while serving as one of the team’s top defenders.
The 2023 second-round draft pick earned a spot in head coach Joe Mazzulla’s rotation for the first time, thanks in part to his significant improvement as a 3-point shooter. Walsh made 38.4% of his threes last season, way up from the 26.6% mark he posted over his first two NBA campaigns.
Walsh has higher offensive aspirations for the upcoming season, however. Earlier this month, he said he’s “trying to become a way better offensive player” and “trying to fit in situations that I didn’t fit in last year.”
“(I want to be) a threat at all points in the game,” Walsh said. “I feel like there was a lot of times in the season last year where it would become clutch moments where we needed a bucket, and I would have to get subbed out. I talked to my (player development) coach and said when those moments come, I want to always be the best option. I want to be the best choice.”
Walsh is part of a crowded group of Celtics wings that also features Jayson Tatum, Paul George, Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Ron Harper Jr. and second-round rookie Dillon Mitchell.
George, acquired in the Jaylen Brown trade earlier this month, has a long history of injuries, and Tatum is entering his first full season post-Achilles surgery, so there should be plenty of minutes available for Boston’s depth options. How Mazzulla will distribute those minutes between Walsh and the rest of his reserves remains to be seen.
Hauser and Scheierman also made 20-plus starts last season, and Gonzalez appeared in 74 games as a 19-year-old rookie before falling out of the rotation in April.
Walsh is the third Celtics player to agree to a contract extension this offseason, joining Harper — a former training camp tryout player whose playing time spiked in the back half of the season — and center Neemias Queta. As of Thursday, Boston had one open spot on its 15-man roster and two open two-way contract slots.