Wing Stop: Celtics showcase impressive depth amid defensive surge originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
One of the biggest questions surrounding an overhauled Boston Celtics roster entering the 2025-26 season was how much coach Joe Mazzulla could lean on a fleet of inexperienced wings.
Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez — the three most prominent picks in Brad Stevens’ tenure as president of basketball operations — were all in line for increased opportunity with Jayson Tatum rehabbing from Achilles surgery. But all of them needed to earn Mazzulla’s trust with a mere 870 total minutes of NBA experience between them.
Maybe the biggest surprise as Boston has outkicked outsider expectations this season has been that all three of have emerged as reliable rotation presences. Meanwhile, fellow wing Ron Harper Jr. is working his way toward a roster spot with the parent club given his strong play on both ends as a two-way player.
The team’s four-game road trip out West might have produced one of our favorite moments of the season, and it was a perfect encapsulation of the defensive production the team has received from its fleet of young wings.
A rare Payton Pritchard turnover allowed Jamaree Bouyea to break out in transition late in the third quarter of Boston’s dominant win in Phoenix on Tuesday night. Scheierman sprinted back to prevent an easy layup and, showing incredible discipline, he timed his leap to go straight up with a foul-free contest near the basket. Scheierman’s outstretched arms forced Bouyea to hold the ball just long enough for a sprinting Harper Jr. to come from behind and volleyball spike the ball off the backboard.
Gonzalez, who also hustled back, was in position to clean up the rebound on the baseline and then made another full-court trek — aided by a midcourt screen from newcomer Nikola Vucevic — before Eurostepping his way to a layup that put Boston out front by 23.
One game earlier, the Celtics dispatched the trio of Scheierman, Gonzalez, and Walsh to hound Luka Doncic in a win over the Lakers. Boston’s young guards so thoroughly attached themselves to Doncic that he looked exhausted by the second quarter.
About the only downside of Tatum’s eventual return would be that some of the minutes available to Boston’s young wings will diminish. That was inevitable as the playoffs neared given how role players’ minutes tend to evaporate as rotations tighten.
But the glimpses showcased by Boston’s four-headed monster of young wings is a super encouraging sign, particularly as the Celtics try to build an economical roster around a core headlined by Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Just how good have the young wings been? Let’s crunch some numbers:
What’s more, the four players with the best defensive rebound percentage on the Celtics’ roster this season are all wings. That list is topped by Brown, who has kicked his defensive rebounding into overdrive lately as the Celtics have shored up their biggest weakness at the start of the 2025-26 season.
And this is all before they add Tatum, who has long been an elite rebounder at his position.
The Celtics have only scratched the surface with how good each of these wings can be. Walsh had stretches this season where the league was raving about his defensive potential, while Gonzalez has been a plus/minus monster in his rookie campaign.
Scheierman has clearly earned Mazzulla’s trust, elevating to a starting role recently. We’d expect Harper Jr. to be with the parent club when the Celtics finish their roster tinkering before the end of the regular season.
In a league where the wing position tends to be an area where teams are desperate for depth, the Celtics have found a quartet they can trust, even in the infancy of their development journey.
