Boston Celtics: 3 players not likely to return in ’20-21 Season

3. Carsen Edwards

The Celtics just couldn’t shake loose all of their draft picks last summer, forcing them to cash in most of their coins on young, untested role players. One of those picks being sharpshooting guard Carsen Edwards.

Edwards was deemed a low risk-high reward pick, as he was selected 33rd in the second round of the 2019 draft. He was coming off a successful college career with Purdue University as well, having averaged 34.8 points per game in tournament history. His 3-point shooting was a boastful stat as well, hitting 38 3-pointers in 10 tournament games.

Surely the plan for head coach Brad Stevens and Co. was to slide Edwards into a reserve unit, possibly seeing playing time alongside Marcus Smart as a 3-point spark off the bench. That plan hasn’t worked to date.

Early on in the preseason, Edwards showed fans that may have not seen his raw talent in college glimpses of his scoring prowess, as he scored 30 points against that Cleveland Cavaliers while knocking down eight threes in five minutes.

As the season continued, however, he found himself in the rookie nightmare of being moved between the G-League and the end of Boston’s bench whenever injuries became an issue.  He hasn’t been able to find that consistent shooting stroke that left many viewers in awe in his final year at Purdue.

Danny Ainge will be on the lookout for ways to upgrade the bench production for the upcoming season without disrupting the chemistry. Finding a score-first veteran that can slide into Edwards minutes may not be far-fetched.