For the Celtics, this offseason wasn’t about touchdown an enormous free agent or swinging for the fences on a commerce. The champs are, for essentially the most half, working it again. The identical squad that hoisted the Larry O’Brien three weeks in the past and can elevate Banner 18 on Opening Evening.
Nonetheless, for second spherical decide and newcomer Anton Watson, getting drafted and coming to the Celtics means becoming a member of that storied tradition.
“Winners. The legacy. Simply the mentality in direction of all the things,” Watson stated at his first media availability on Monday. “First time we met in [The Auerbach Center], they stated it’s completely different right here. That’s type of the vibe you get right here. I feel they acquired the fitting strategy on issues.”
He continued, “Once you stroll round, you see all of the trophies. The trophy was on middle courtroom. It simply exhibits what it takes to be right here.”
Watson was chosen at #54 out of Gonzaga College after spending 5 seasons in Spokane. He was voted All-Convention First Staff final yr, averaging 14.5 factors on 57.8% capturing and seven.1 rebounds.
It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not Watson will be a part of the staff on a two-way contract or simply spend the yr in Maine with the G-League affiliate, however his presence in Boston nearly appears fated regardless of the lengthy street to get right here.
“The Celtics have been truly my first exercise out of the sixteen I did. It was rather a lot. Coming right here, you don’t know what to anticipate [with] the primary exercise. I believed I did a superb job. I shot it nicely, performed nicely, however acquired injured on the G League mix,” Watson stated. “I needed to come again and do much more exercises. These exercises began to select up in direction of the top. I didn’t actually know what was going to occur on Draft Evening. I knew the Celtics favored me. Brad Stevens gave me the decision and it was one of the best day of my life.”
Watson is considerably undersized as an enormous man at 6’7, 241 kilos, however in school, he proved to be a stable defender, rebounder, and possibly most significantly, a ground spacer. Sound acquainted?
“Taking pictures is clearly an enormous piece. Sort of like that Al Horford function. He’s an awesome shooter. I feel studying from him goes to be big for me and really all of the veterans on this staff,” Watson stated of his sport and the way it may translate to the NBA. “Taking pictures goes to be big and simply my protection, utilizing that to my strengths and popping out and guarding each single sport. That’s going to be large for me. Yeah, capturing goes to open up my offensive capacity, however protection is the place I’m sturdy at.”
Celtics rookies Anton Watson and Baylor Scheierman, together with Leon Powe, are right here at The Shamrock Basis’s basketball clinic in Roxbury. pic.twitter.com/rLlKi04Kcf
— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) July 8, 2024
After the draft, Horford, together with Derrick White and Jayson Tatum, despatched him a textual content welcoming him to the staff, however he’s been on the entrance workplace’s radar for awhile. Stevens stated that he envisions Watson as a “hybrid ahead that may swap and guard lots of people…with a mindset that he’s going to let it fly like he’s by no means let it fly earlier than as a result of I feel he’s a greater shooter than he generally thinks he’s.”
Watson hit 22 of his 55 photographs from behind the arc final season and has been engaged on his shot because the finish of the season. “I really feel like I acquired a superb shot. I simply gotta be extra assured with it. Let it fly in observe and shoot it as a lot as I can.”
