Every Media Day gives a little insight of the season to come. This is Jayson Tatum’s team, despite his modest answer to the question. Paul George feels the healthiest he’s felt in years — fingers crossed. Head coach Joe Mazzulla is embracing the unknown because of course he’d say that.
Most of what’s said just before training camp is coachspeak/playerspeak/GMspeak fodder and wishful thinking. However, sometimes someone says something that cuts to the core and just makes sense.
When asked how he’d fit
in with the revamped roster, Baylor Scheierman said, “we’re just gonna hoop.”
After five months without Celtics basketball, no greater words have been spoken.
Scheierman elaborated on how he sees Boston this upcoming season. “We got a lot of guys that understand how to play and there’s gonna be a lot freedom of movement and I think that fits my game really well,” Scheierman said. “Just having a good IQ of what’s going on on the court, where I need to be, what I need to do, just having situational awareness. I think that’s a strength of mine and strength of a lot of guys on the team.”
Prognosticators have predicated Baylor anywhere between a possible starter to a playmaker with the second unit and there doesn’t seem to be a question that he’ll be a key cog in the rotation.
In addition to bulking up and getting quicker in the summer in order to make himself a more versatile defender, Scheierman is looking to lean into his quarterback skills and make more on-ball reads
“My playmaking and ability to see the floor is a strength of mine,” Scheierman said.
A few weeks ago, I contrasted Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez as two role player archetypes: the everyman and the gamechanger.
Before Jayson Tatum’s return last season, Scheierman got a chance to start a dozen games as sort of a Tatum proxy (with Payton Pritchard moving back to a familiar sixth man role after Anfernee Simons was traded for Nikola Vucevic). And in twenty total starts in 2025-2026, he was solid in a do-it-all function with the opening five, averaging just under 10 points, six rebounds, and three assists in 28 minutes per game. His sophomore season was inarguably a success, shooting 39.9% from behind the arc, limiting his turnovers, and defending up and down the lineup. The numbers don’t exactly jump off the page, but there’s something to be said being a net positive in 25+ minutes a night.
Year 2 was a solid start for Scheierman as the Celtics do-it-all jack-of-all-trades. Year 3 might just be a culmination of all his efforts and, well, he’s “just gonna hoop.”
