For the first time in his NBA career, Jordan Walsh walked into the Cox Pavilion at UNLV nearly two weeks ago and got to watch a game as a fan. But just because he wasn’t participating in summer league, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something to prove.
Walsh is one of three Celtics wings who could swing this upcoming Boston Celtics season. The Jaylen Brown trade has created a big opportunity, both with his departure and the fact that Paul George very likely won’t play enough to make up for the lost production. Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez will all be vying for those minutes, and Walsh knows his path to earning them.
“I'm trying to change my identity offensively,” he said in Las Vegas. “I'm trying to become a better, way better offensive player. I'm trying to fit in situations that I didn't fit in last year. I'm trying to be the answer to the situations that they took me out of. That's kind of my goal.”
Walsh showed serious flashes of high-level production last season, which is why the Celtics rewarded him with a three-year, $16 million extension on Thursday. He has earned the peace of mind to pursue these improvements without worrying about his contract.
At the same time, a deal presumably starting somewhere below $5 million in its first season is very easy to move should things not pan out. So the pressure isn’t completely off Walsh, either.
That means he has to find some consistency with whatever his newly developed offensive game ends up being. Last season, he started 19 of 24 games in October and November before watching his minutes drop significantly in January and February. His minutes increased again in March and April as the Celtics went away from rookie Hugo Gonzalez.
And that was the issue. None of Walsh, Gonzalez, nor Scheierman made Joe Mazzulla’s decision easy.
“As a front office person, I can't sit here and say that one person should have been playing over another, should have been playing over another,” Brad Stevens said back in May. “There wasn't enough separation … At the end of the day, that’s part of a team, but I'm encouraged by all of them, but there wasn't a lot of separation.”
Walsh understands that, and understands what it will take to be the one who separates himself.
“It means being being a threat at all points in the game,” he said. “I felt like there's a lot of times in the season last year where it became clutch moments where we needed a bucket and I'd have to get subbed out. I talked to my [player development] coach and I said when those moments come, I want to always be the best option. I want to be the best choice. So for me, it's working on my shot, working on my handle, working on creating my own shot when I have those pockets.”
Someone is going to have to make up that kind of production for the Celtics. Walsh’s new contract will make one of two things true: Stevens will use it for salary matching in his next big move, or Stevens will be celebrated for locking up a key piece on a cheap deal until 2030.
It’s up to Walsh to determine which path the Celtics take.
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