Boston Celtics
“He is relentless, so I like that about him.”
The Celtics are lower than per week away from kicking off their 2025-26 season. As coaching camp winds down, Payton Pritchard was very complimentary of rookie guard Hugo Gonzalez’s preseason efficiency.
The 19-year-old rookie from Spain caught out throughout Boston’s 4 exhibition video games, making spotlight reel performs as each a scorer and facilitator.
Pritchard, now coming into 12 months 6 within the NBA, is likely one of the longer tenured Celtics on the roster this yr. And like Gonzalez, Pritchard was poised for NBA minutes very early in his NBA profession.
“He’s relentless, so I like that about him,” Pritchard said of Gonzalez. “He is available in and he appears fearless, and he’s a extremely good athlete. He’s able to go in and decide up … he wants that confidence, that relentless, fearless kind of composure.”
Gonzalez will profit from the Celtics having much less depth this season than they’ve the previous few years. For the reason that Celtics partially dismantled their championship core this offseason, and given Jayson Tatum’s damage, there are extra alternatives for younger gamers and different Celtics caught in smaller roles.
Gonzalez’s expertise enjoying skilled basketball abroad as a youthful participant doesn’t damage both. Many previous gamers from Spain and elsewhere in Europe have rapidly acclimated to the NBA atmosphere.
Whereas Gonzalez will nonetheless want refining in lots of areas of his sport all through 2025, his size and defensive talents might change into an asset for Boston, which prides itself on intense protection throughout all 5 spots on the court docket. So even when Gonzalez’s capturing struggles restrict his scoring means early on, he might nonetheless carve out a job for himself in 2025-26.
As for Pritchard, he could possibly be in line for a beginning function this season. He, Derrick White, and Anfernee Simons will probably all obtain massive minutes because the consensus top-tier guards on Boston’s roster.
The Tatum-less Celtics will open the common season on Wednesday night time in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers.
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