Last month, CelticsBlog’s Nate Moskowitz said that the team had become a Derrick White cloning factory
:Boston’s newest wave of role players — Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Ron Harper Jr. — aren’t being asked to manufacture offense on their own. That responsibility already belongs to Boston’s stars.
Instead, they’re asking them to do something far more specific: attack advantages and keep the ball moving. The guiding principle is simple. When the ball finds you, decide immediately.
Shoot. Drive. Pass. Just don’t let it stick.
And while they share success this season as a similarity, the Celtics set of wings are all a little different. For Sam Hauser, he can do many things, but his calling card is his three-point shooting. Conversely, Jordan Walsh is known for his pesky individual defense. Hugo Gonzalez is still raw. However, he’s undeniably a momentum-shifter, what Joe Mazzulla affectionately describes as “giving the game what it needs.”
But if there’s a Celtic that encompasses all three of those skills, it’s Baylor Scheierman and according to our readers, he’s been the most pleasant surprise this season.
Scheierman is your classic “not great at anything, but good at everything” player. In other words, Derrick White in a former Nebraska high school quarterback’s body. The final first round pick of the 2024 NBA Draft has not just turned his sophomore year into a breakout season, but he’s become such an integral part of the Celtics rotation.
With a week left in the NBA’s regular season, you can still bet on Baylor with FanDuel’s player props or Boston as a +550 to raise the Larry O’Brien at https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nba.
