It doesn’t seem like Hugo Gonzalez will be making any trips to Maine anytime soon.
Gonzalez, the lone Celtics first-rounder selected in this past summer’s 2025 NBA Draft, debuted against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, and didn’t disappoint. The 19-year-old logged 23 minutes and quickly proved that the preseason flashes which left fans Googling his name weren’t a fluke. Gonzalez brought that same intensity and fiery competitiveness to the very floor where Boston’s championship
bid ended just over five months ago.
Coming off the bench, Gonzalez scored six points, grabbed four rebounds, and also tallied an assist and a pair of steals as Boston’s leader in the plus-minus category (+7). He embodied everything the Celtics could ask of a rookie trying to find his footing within a storied organization. Gonzalez disrupted New York’s offense, stayed active in every sequence, and constantly put himself in position to make momentum-shifting plays for Boston to keep the team competitive throughout despite its ultimate 105-95 defeat.
To many, the early signs of Gonzalez’s first-year rise might come as a shock. But not to the Celtics.
“He’s been well-coached before he’s gotten here,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So obviously, being a part of a great organization, having great coaches — he understands what it takes. I think he has a clear understanding of what his role is, and it’s to defend at the highest of levels and play with a level of effort on the offensive end, and he’s able to do that. So there’s things he needs to clear up obviously, but I thought he did a great job of helping set that third-quarter tone with his effort and his toughness.”
Gonzalez spent three seasons with Real Madrid in Spain’s Liga ACB, first suiting up at just 16 years old as the fourth-youngest player in team history. He shared the floor with several former NBA veterans — including Serge Ibaka, Facundo Campazzo, and Dennis Smith Jr. — which limited his playing time to 10.2 minutes per game across 69 appearances last season. But that didn’t faze the scrappy, high-motor forward, nor did it discourage the Celtics from pursuing their long-term vision of what Gonzalez could someday become in a Boston uniform.
So far, all signs point toward Gonzalez emerging as the go-to option on Boston’s bench, and that trend has been building up since the preseason when his 3-point shooting stood as his lone concern. On Friday, Mazzulla needed a spark to revive a lifeless Celtics effort — one that surrendered 42 points to the Knicks in the second quarter — and Gonzalez delivered at every opportunity, without hesitation.
Jalen Brunson, a two-time All-Star who finished tied for 10th in last season’s MVP voting, became Gonzalez’s first defensive assignment off the bench. It wasn’t just a test — it was an immediate baptism by fire, going head-to-head with one of the NBA’s most elite scorers.
“Against a player like that, you can do many things. You can just try to make him feel uncomfortable,” Gonzalez explained. “He still had a really good game, so we still gotta focus on our defensive end and how we’re able to run it.”
Brunson scored 31 points on 10-of-20 shooting to lead all scorers, but that wasn’t indicative of what Gonzalez’s teammates felt about his debut performance.
“Hugo’s looking great, man,” Jaylen Brown said. “Hugo’s playing with energy, he’s playing with fight. That’s the type of mentality that we need. He’s picking up guys. I like what I’ve seen. He was guarding some of the other team’s best players, and we need more of that. We need more of what Hugo’s got. It can’t be just from the rook.”
None of Boston’s starters, nor any bench player who saw meaningful minutes, finished with a positive plus-minus. The overall tempo, mood, and energy were as refreshing as flat soda. Even with New York holding a manageable 10-point lead, a comeback never felt imminent. Surrendering 21 offensive rebounds, 15 fast-break points, and 23 points off turnovers became too much for the Celtics to overcome.
Yet if everyone in the locker room — starters included — takes anything from the team’s 0-2 start, it’s that adopting a Hugo-like approach could go a long way toward bridging the talent and depth gaps that are likely to challenge the Celtics all season.
For Gonzalez, the debut was anything but glamorous and amounted to a game the rookie intends to move on from sooner rather than later.
“It felt good, and stepping on the floor was good,” Gonzalez said. “But still, I’m not having a great memory of this day because we lost a game that we could have won.”
