On this version of the Boston Celtics, only two players are scoring 20 points or more with any sort of regularity – Jayson Tatum and Paul George. But the Celtics have a productive bench mob who are growing into bigger versions of their own games with Boston so far this season, and vet forward Sam Hauser has taken note. "Scoring 20 points (a night), there's a rare group of guys that score 20 points every night."
"So everybody else has to find their role in different ways," said Hauser viaCLNS Media. "And for them, lately it's been defense, rebounding, hustle plays, steals, blocks, whatever it might be, and knocking out open shots when they're there. And that's all part of trying to find your role in getting on the court in the NBA."
"How do I first
get on the court, and then how do I stay? And then from there, how do I get better at my game?" reflected the Virginia alum. "So you can see it from all of them. They've all gotten better (playing with the Maine Celtics for) two, three years now, four years for Jordan (Walsh), so it's fun to watch."
Hauser himself carved a similar path to being a stable part of Boston's rotation, using that playing time in Maine to sharpen his game for when he saw the floor with the Celtics. "I think for anybody that's a little different because basically, all of us coming up through (Maine), we were either the best player or one of the best players (at lower levels), got to play a lot of minutes, shoot a lot."
"So, then you get here, and you quickly realize,, that's not the case. And then you slowly figure out what else am I good at? How can I get on the floor? And for those guys, Baylor (Scheierman)'s got a really good feel for the game. Jordan's an elite defender. Hugo (González) crashes the glass really well. So little things like that can impact winning and get you on the floor."
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: From Maine to Boston, Sam Hauser blazed path for young Celtics teammates to follow
