BOSTON — This could be Jordan Walsh’s moment, the moment that Brad Stevens envisioned when he drafted a 19-year-old propspet out of Arkansas in 2023. Back then, Walsh was long, athletic defender that the Celtics hoped could eventually mold into someone who could lock down some of the NBA’s best offensive talents.
Walsh never really had a chance to crack the rotation in his the first two years as a Celtic. But, when the Celtics face the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday,
he very well could be a critical part of the defensive gameplan, and be given the chance to guard star Tyrese Maxey, one of the league’s most unstoppable scorers.
For the Celtics, the first round of the playoffs marks the beginning of a postseason run they hope will result in a title.
For Walsh, it’s also the first time ever that he’ll be presented with the opportunit to play real postseason minutes, on the heels of the best season of his career.
“I knew he had no prayer on the first team,” Stevens said in Deecember, reflecting on the overflow of talent that the 2023-2024 Celtics title team had. “The team was really good, and last year’s team was basically the first team. And so it was going to be hard to crack that one, too.”
But, the 2025-2026 team was different: Jayson Tatum was sidelined to begin the year, and veteran players like Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis were no longer ont he roster.
What that created was an opportunity — one that all of the younger guys on the roster would go after.
This could be a chance for Jordan Walsh to show what he was capable of, for the very first time.
But, from the jump, it appeared that his season was headed in the wrong direction. Walsh was out of the rotation entirely to begin the year, already behind 19-year-old rookie Hugo Gonzalez and other young wings on the roster.
Still, he continued to work behind the scenes, and broke through in November, ultimately starting 20 straight games for the Celtics.
In that span, Walsh not only showcased that he was an elite defender — earning high praise from opposing team’s stars like Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves — but he also broke through offensively, averaged a career-best 9.5 points on 69.6% shooting in December.
And, that stretch very well may have revived his career. That’s what Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told him, at least.
“I got a comment from Joe one time: ‘Your career, you were dead in the water. And now you’re back alive.’”
At the time, Walsh didn’t know what to make of that: “I just went and asked a bunch of people – what does he mean by this? You don’t know how to take this, but it was kind of funny.”
What he did know, is that he was alive. The team went 15-5 with Walsh as a starter, and he earned national acclaim for his defense. The very same player that seemed to be at the bottom of the pecking order was now impacting winning on a nightly basis.
“I proved that I can play at a high level,” Walsh told me months later, reflecting on that November through December run.
But, the on-court success didn’t last forever. In January, Walsh moved back to the bench and began to fall out of the rotation. Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman both earned more minutes at the wing position.
By March, with Jayson Tatum back in the lineup, Walsh began racking up DNPs.
“It’s kind of tough. The thing a lot of people don’t really know about the NBA, or don’t really pay attention to, is navigating those highs and lows,” he said Saturday. “It’s so hard; one day, you have your name going crazy and everywhere, everybody’s talking about it and how good you’re doing, and the next day, it’d be silent and [you] have nothing, and you’re just kind of on the bench.”
But, Jordan Walsh pushed through inconsistent minutes
During his stretch of DNPs, Walsh kept his head up, though he didn’t know if he’d ever re-enter the mix this season. He sought out advice from Jaylen Brown, one of his biggest mentors and closest friends on the team. And, he made sure not to change his work behind the scenes — ensuring he was the last to leave practice, and someone who worked tirelessly to improve his game.
I caught up with Walsh on March 24th, and he emphasized that his approach hadn’t changed despite his on-court opportunities wavering.
“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.”
A week later, Walsh re-entered the rotation. Over his last 10 games, he has averaged 21.4 minutes per night.
And, Walsh very well could play a pivotal role in the Celtics series against the 76ers, because he, more than any of the Celtics’ slew of defensive specialists, had success guarding Maxey this season. Walsh managed to effectively guard Maxey — who averaged 28.3 points and 6.6 assists — in Boston’s regular-season match-ups against Philadelphia.
Across two contests, Walsh held Maxey to 1 of 10 shooting in 7 minutes, according to NBA tracking data.
“Just taking away tendencies and then knowing the small things that get under his skin,” Walsh said of his defensive approach. “But I think the biggest thing is, like I’ve been saying all year, not letting the guy do what they want to do. Make them go to their second option, their third option, their second move, stuff like that. Like, if he wants to go right and do a step-back, just don’t let him do that — make him do something else. And then usually we’ll live with the end result.”
Walsh will continue to do everything he can to make Maxey uncomfortable in the match-up; he said he’s been discussing with Jaylen Brown ways to get under Maxey’s skin.
“There’s a couple things that I learned with talking to [Brown],” Walsh said. “He’s kind of taken point in that and showing me the film behind the film that we don’t see.”
It’ll technically be Walsh’s third playoff run, but it’s the first one in which he has a legitimate chance to impact the rotation. It hit him on Friday, when some of the younger players on the roster began discussing their plans for offseason workouts.
“We were just working out , nd we were talking about people going to summer lifts and doing scrimmages before games and practices and stuff like that,” Walsh said. “[And it was like] ‘Jordan, that’s not you. You’re not doing that this year.’ I was like, ‘Dang, time’s flying. But it’s cool to see because now, Hugo [Gonzalez] and John [Tonje] and Max [Shulga] are all doing the things that we were doing my rookie year.”
On Sunday afternoon, when the Celtics host the 76ers for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs, Jordan Walsh will get his much-awaited chance.
“It’s cool to see time fly, and see me kind of progress to where it is now,” Walsh said, “to where it’s, like, I got to be prepared to play.”
