Boston Celtics: Recent first round picks at NBA Summer League
By Kane Pitman
Bright future on full display as young stars show out
To watch Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown tear apart actual NBA playoff games this past season, and then think back to the fact they played Summer League just months earlier is downright hilarious.
Boston’s two young studs joined forces for the first time and gave Celtics’ fans a glimpse into the future. Tatum led Boston in scoring, racking up 17.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, while Brown again eclipsed double digit scoring by pitching in 10.3 points per game.
Right across the board, the Celtics were flaunting their ridiculous accumulation of young talent, and as it turns out, they were fielding what would become a legitimate lineup up just months later.
The chemistry between the future franchise stars was already building, as Brown was able to take on somewhat of a mentor role over his new running mate on the wing. Via NBA.com, Brown spoke about Tatum’s early Summer League play.
"“The sky’s the limit for him. He’s going to be a key part of our team,” Brown said. “His story is going to write itself. He’s going to be all right. But I told him about the difference between summer league and the season and it’s drastic. There’s not going to be a lot of chances to make mistakes when the season starts.”"
As we all now know, Tatum picked up the whole NBA thing pretty well.
Yabusele missed the tournament with a broken foot, while the other first-rounder on the 2017 Summer League roster, Ante Zizic, performed strongly to average over nine points and eight rebounds per game. But as we all know, he was later traded to Cleveland in the deal that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston.