LAWRENCE, Mass. — Jordan Walsh knew that his Celtics team was going to be just fine.
In the offseason, when many in the media and the public predicted the Celtics would end up a lottery team, Walsh could only laugh.
“As soon as I started hearing people talking about losing and tanking and all that stuff, I immediately knew that that was never gonna be us,” Walsh told CelticsBlog at a PIMCO-sponsored dinner at the Lawrence Boys and Girls Club.
The discourse around the Celtics tanking was particuarly wild for the 22-year-old to digest.
“What is that? What does that mean purposely lose? Like, try not to win? Walsh said. ”There’s never going to be a situation where I feel like the Boston Celtics are not going to try to win — especially with Joe as the head coach.”
“Nobody in our organization wants to lose. I don’t care what it’s for – from Brad [Stevens] all the way down to me, nobody ever wants to lose.”
But, what kind of season was he, individually, destined for?
That, he wasn’t sure.
In total, Walsh has appeared in a 58 games this season, averaging 17.2 minutes a night. He’s tallied 5.3 points per game on 52.5% shooting, including 40.8% from three. All of those numbers are career-bests.
Walsh wasn’t in the rotation to start the year, but quickly emerged as a key part of the Celtics’ early success. He began starting games in November, and in December, he became one of the Celtics’ most crucial two-way players. That month, he shot 54.2% from three-point range, and was regularly tasked with guarding opposing teams’ best players.
After one December match-up, Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves praised Walsh’s defense, per CLNS Media’s Bobby Manning.
“I can see him being one of the best defenders in the league for many years to come,” Reaves said,
But, the Celtics’ rotation continued to change, largely dependent on needs and recent play. Sam Hauser replaced Walsh in the starting lineup in January, and around that time, Baylor Scheierman also emerged as a key contributor and a secondary playmaker for the Celtics who demonstrated a proclivity for crashing the glass.
How Jordan Walsh has dealt with fluctuating minutes
Walsh’s minutes have steadily declined throughout the season; he averaged 24.1 minutes per game in November, 20.6 minutes in December, 15.8 minutes in January, 14 minutes in February, and 11.8 minutes in March.
Since Tatum’s return, he has mostly racked up DNPs as the odd man out from the Celtics’ pack of wing defenders. But, when he reflects on the year, he feels good about what he accomplished, even if it wasn’t always perfect.
“I’m still okay with where I’m at because Year 1, I had no chance of playing,” Walsh said. “This year, I started 20 games, and we went 15 and 5 — and I proved that I can play at a high level.”
It also helps that there are many other players on the Celtics roster who have also dealt with fluctuating minutes and benchings throughout their career.
“I’ve gotten a piece of everybody’s story — Payton [Pritchard], JB [Jaylen Brown], Xavier [Tillman], all these people kind of went through similar things,” Walsh said. “I’ve gotten their story, and they gave me their knowledge on it.”
Tillman, however, has been a notable absence in the locker room. Walsh said last month that Tillman was his closest friend on the roster, and someone he often turned to for motivation and support. But, Tillman was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in the hours ahead of the trade deadline, and Walsh said soon after that he’d have to find another teammate to lean on.
For now, that teammate is Jaylen Brown, who he sits next to on the team plane. But, Tillman is irreplaceable.
“I still talk to Xavier all the time — that’s my guy,” Walsh said. “He’s got a special place in my heart because of how he helped me get through certain things, and even just stuff that has nothing to do with basketball. But, JB is a good second, though.”
Walsh and his teammates are a few weeks away from postseason action, and he’s excited to kick off his third playoff run as a Celtic.
“As a competitor, as somebody who wants to be the best and wants to bring the best at other people around him, like there’s no better place to be, for sure,” he told the students at the Lawrence Boys and Girls Club.
The season has been made extra sweet because of the fact the team has defied expetations. Walsh didn’t take offense to the misconceptions on the outside, but he understood from the jump that outside discourse has severe limitations.
“The media, they report what they can,” he said. “They do it the best they can. And most of the time, or some of the time, it’s not like they’re wrong. They just — they’re not in the inside, so they don’t know the inside scoop. But I think that with that going around, and people saying it, podcast, TV and stuff saying it – completely wrong.”
“I never had a doubt that we were going to be a good team.”
As far as his own individual season?
He’s embracing a changing role and ensuring his mindset doesn’t change, even when opportunities do.
“It’s kind of just doing my best in the role that I am in now, and that’s just supporting the guys, showing up to practice, being the last one to leave,” Walsh said. “Like, all that stuff is so cool to me.”
