Rookie Jordan Walsh has ‘pretty funny’ realization of 1st start
Jordan Walsh was somewhat confused. Before Sunday’s regular-season finale, the Celtics rookie was meeting with coaches to go over scouting reports. On one of the TVS, it showed the starting lineup and their matchups. And then a funny thing happened.
“My name was up there,” Walsh said. “So I wiped my eyes a little bit, I looked around like, ‘ Is there another Jordan in here?’ And then I was like OK, I’m in there.”
That’s how Walsh found out he was making his first career start.
“It was pretty funny,” Walsh said.
Walsh certainly was not expecting it. The Celtics’ second-round pick has spent the majority of his first professional season with G-league Maine, but the organization has liked what they’ve seen in his development. It’s earned him some cracks in the big leagues. With the Celtics’ top six players out for the final two games of the regular season because the games were meaningless for the standings, Walsh was among some of the G-league players literally in the middle of their championship series called up to get some extended run this weekend.
On Sunday — amidst a season of firsts and milestones — Walsh got his first start alongside Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Svi Mykhailiuk and Luke Kornet. He sincerely appreciated the nod.
“It means a lot, obviously,” Walsh said. “It shows that Boston has a certain level of belief in me and trust in me to put me in that position. Obviously there was a lot of guys sitting, but to still be able to do that, it’s huge for me in my career.”
Walsh played 17 minutes in Sunday’s win over the Wizards and his stat line won’t jump off the page. He scored just one point, took two shots and grabbed three rebounds. But Joe Mazzulla thought his performance was representative of where he’s seen the most growth from the 20-year- old: On defense. Walsh was drafted out of Arkansas with a strong defensive reputation, and it’s been stressed to him that it’s the most important thing if he wants to
earn more minutes.
“Understanding that defense is the most important thing, and it doesn’t matter what you do,” Mazzulla said. “He only took two shots tonight, but I thought he impacted the game defensively, and that’s what a role player has to be able to do. You never know if you’re going to start or come off the bench or if you’re going to even touch the ball. You may not touch the ball, but it’s your job to go find it. So I think just his understanding of what NBA defense is, I’ve seen huge growth in that, and I think that’s important.”
Walsh thinks so, too. He believes he’s made growth defensively. He referenced a play in Friday’s win over the Hornets, when he identified that they were
trying to run a play out of a timeout play to a go- to shooter.
“I feel like a big part of it is knowing who you’re guarding and knowing the different plays and sets that people will run and their different tendencies,” Walsh said. “So me being super alert in those moments to know that hey, it’s coming for him. Let me connect to his body, let me make sure he doesn’t get that shot off. Just small stuff like that makes a huge difference.”
Walsh also knocked down the first two 3-pointers of his career in Friday’s win, which he took pride in. The rookie has made shooting a big point of emphasis in his development, and he’s seeing that start to pay off.
“I feel like I’ve grown a lot,” Walsh said. “I feel like everybody around me has a certain level of belief that if I’m open and I catch the ball, then it should be a shot and it’s going in. And they believe it’s going in more times than it’s not, so to have that belief is amazing. It’s something you have to work for. I’ve put in a lot of work to be able to consistently make NBA threes, so to see that level of trust is amazing.”
Walsh’s first professional season, in some ways, has been better than what he could have expected. Since Day 1, he’s been embraced by his new fanbase. He’s heard the louder-than-usual cheers whenever he checks into a game. He’s soaked all of it in.
“It’s kind of like a dream come true,” Walsh said. “I’m doing basketball, I’m doing what I love, which is amazing but also at the end of the day it’s kind of like, I’ve worked so hard to get where we are, and to see the appreciation from not only the fans but the coaches and my teammates, it’s an amazing feeling and you know that something that you’ve been grinding for and striving for has paid off. It’s an amazing feeling.
“Shout- out to the fans, because they make every night that I get in feel like a championship game, so it’s an amazing feeling.”
Walsh has an actual championship game on Monday night, as he’ll drive up to Portland with his Maine Celtics teammates for the winner-takeall Game 3 of the G-league Finals against the Oklahoma City Blue. He said he expects a win.