On the second day of free company, the Celtics agreed to a two-year, $5 million cope with former Timberwolves ahead Josh Minott. The younger participant who was drafted with the forty fifth choose in 2022 after one 12 months of faculty at Memphis, solely performed 46 video games for Minnesota final season, averaging 2.6 factors and one rebound. And but, there are good causes to be enthusiastic about him.
Essentially the most spectacular upside of his profile is his defensive talents. Again at Memphis within the NCAA, he posted a 3.1 STL% and a 5.4 BLK% — numbers which can be clear indicators of elite defensive potential. His measurements had been spectacular for a wing. On the Draft Mix, he was measured standing 6-foot-8.75 in footwear with a 6-foot-11.75 wingspan, which explains why he seemed so imposing on protection in his faculty days. However what about his affect within the NBA?
Per CleaningTheGlass.com, he has performed fewer than 250 minutes of non-garbage time to date in his three-year profession. The younger Jamaican wasn’t capable of break into the rotation, caught behind Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Julius Randle, and Donte DiVincenzo. Due to this fact, we can not use his NBA stats to investigate him and discover insightful info… however we are able to watch the tape!
He didn’t play quite a lot of significant minutes, however a few of them got here in January in opposition to the Boston Celtics. We’ll look again at his efficiency in opposition to the staff we all know essentially the most to know what Josh Minott can carry to the desk.
When he entered the sport within the first quarter, he was guarding Jayson Tatum. Tatum was the inbounder on the baseline motion and received the ball once more after a again display. Minott was capable of navigate the display and block Tatum’s lay-up try along with his lengthy arms. Spectacular.
On the subsequent play, in transition, Minott received the ball past the road, faked the move, drove, and euro-stepped round Luke Kornet. However he couldn’t create sufficient house to attain, so he tried to move the ball to Julius Randle with one hand. The thought was good, however Tatum was there to steal the ball. But, the faux and the drive earlier than the turnover look encouraging to me.
As a result of he isn’t thought of a taking pictures menace, the Celtics put Luke Kornet on him so the massive man may keep within the paint to guard the rim. But, Minott confirmed some good basketball IQ with a sensible backdoor minimize on the protection when Kornet was serving to, providing an answer to the ball-handler and forcing two free throws.
After Tatum, he additionally defended Derrick White, as he’s fairly fast for his dimension. The Celtics ran their basic empty-side pick-and-roll with a move on the prime after which a second move to the roll man. Minott received caught behind Al Horford after the swap and tried to intercept the ball when Jrue Vacation handed it, however that’s what the Celtics wished, and so they now had an open shot on the rim.
He was subbed out a couple of moments later and solely got here again late within the third quarter. After punishing Kornet for ignoring him with a minimize, he then punished him with a nook three as the massive man was serving to on the drive. He’s not a shooter, however he made greater than 75% of his free throws within the NCAA, main me to assume there’s some taking pictures contact.
Offensively, he has some burst to take off, too. On this transition, he will get the ball with slightly little bit of house as a result of Vacation is a bit late in his rotation. He goes left and pushes the ball far to make use of the empty paint and achieve momentum for a ravishing dunk in opposition to White.
Then, a couple of minutes later, he received one more duel in opposition to D-White. He defended him on the pick-and-roll and, at first, struggled to go across the display. He went below to compensate for the delay in his protection, however White initiated a drive. Minott was capable of keep linked along with his hips, and when White took off for the lay-up, Josh blocked him in opposition to the glass with out fouling, because of his positioning and attain.
On his final defensive play, he stayed linked on each swap and ended up on Vacation, who wasn’t capable of cope with Minott’s stage of aggression and size. The younger participant was capable of strip the ball from the fingers of the champion and confirmed why wingspan and hand-eye coordination matter within the NBA.
In opposition to the Celtics, we didn’t see a lot off-ball protection, however he could possibly be attention-grabbing as a low man or on the weak facet to generate turnovers from skip passes — like right here in opposition to the Houston Rockets.
If the Celtics’ teaching workers is ready to optimize his passing, slicing, and basketball IQ on offense—regardless of the non-shooting menace—then his defensive upside may unfold, and this might flip into a really attention-grabbing contract for the Celtics. He’s younger and can make errors, however the {hardware} and the software program are apparent on the defensive finish.
