Boston Celtics: Evaluating their young players at the mid-way point

Over the last few years, the Boston Celtics have built a roster full of young and impressive talent that they have yet to fully unleash so far in their young careers. Partly because of injuries, but mostly due to wanting to develop their players and seeing what they have in their own homegrown talent.

Some of the young guys on the team were ready to play and make an impact from the moment they were drafted. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are now franchise pillars for the Celtics and were both selected third overall in back-to-back years in the 2016 and 2017 NBA Draft. Together, Brown and Tatum have become the core players that Boston is trying to build a championship team around for years to come.

Evaluating the Boston Celtics young core at the mid-way point

The Celtics also drafted for need the following year in 2018 by using their only draft pick that year to select Robert Williams 27th overall. Despite being hit with injuries during his first two seasons as a pro, Williams has shown great progressions in his game while the Celtics are devoted to allowing him to succeed at his own rate. In doing so, Williams has spent some time playing with the Maine Red Claws in the G-League and has shown a great amount of growth during his two years with Boston.

The following year, the Celtics elected to draft four rookies in 2019 in hopes of filling some holes on the roster. All of which had great college careers in Romeo Langford, Grant Williams, Carsen Edwards, and Tremont Waters. The Celtics also signed an undrafted rookie in Tacko Fall who is the tallest player in the NBA.

And finally during this most recent draft in 2020, the Celtics drafted two players in the first round who have a lot of upside in Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard. Both Nesmith and Pritchard will have an opportunity to play early on during their rookie seasons.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the third year or less players on the Boston Celtics.