Hugo Gonzalez is wasting no time making the Celtics feel better about keeping him around.
There’s already plenty of pressure attached to the 20-year-old Spanish native heading into his second season in Boston, and not just because of what he might become on the floor. Whether it’s fair or not, plenty of people are going to connect him to the Celtics’ decision not to include him in a trade package for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a move that reportedly ended with Antetokounmpo joining the Miami Heat.
The rumor is that Boston also declined to put Baylor Scheierman in that deal. And while there were likely other factors involved - Jaylen Brown maybe not wanting to go to the Milwaukee Bucks, disagreement over draft capital, and the possibility that Milwaukee simply preferred Miami’s return - Gonzalez is still going to carry that spotlight.
If the Celtics really did hold the line on him, it says plenty about how they view his future.
So far, Gonzalez is giving them reasons to feel good about that bet. In summer league, he’s been one of Boston’s most encouraging performers, and he’s doing it in a way that suggests a bigger role could be coming sooner rather than later. Through three summer league games, all Celtics wins, he averaged 13.4 points, 8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.7 steals while continuing to bring the defense that made him stand out last season.
The shooting numbers weren’t clean - 31.8/25.9% from the field and 3.7 turnovers per game - but the bigger takeaway is how much more comfortable he looks. Gonzalez is playing with more confidence, looking like a sharper version of the player Boston had last season, and showing the kind of all-around game that can eventually translate in multiple ways.
He’s not stepping in to replace Brown anytime soon. That’s not the point.
The point is that Gonzalez already looks like a player with real value on both ends, and the Celtics have every reason to believe there’s much more there. Time will tell whether passing on him in a possible Antetokounmpo deal was the right call, but right now, Boston has to like what it’s seeing.
In Other News...
Celtics Summer League Win Put One Roster Battle Under A Brighter Light
The Celtics fourth game in Las Vegas offered another useful snapshot of a summer roster that is still taking shape, and the win over Sacramento only sharpened the focus on a few players who keep showing up in the right moments. Hugo Gonzalez was again central to the action after a slow start, while John Tonje continued to make his case as a steady scoring presence, and Amari Williams and Chris Cenac Jr. each added more evidence that Boston has some real developmental pieces to monitor beyond the usual headline names.
Amari Williams, in particular, looked more comfortable after a rough Sunday outing, rebounding and pushing the ball with more confidence while also flashing the kind of passing touch that can make a big man stand out in this setting. Cenac Jr. kept building chemistry with him and gave Boston another look at size and rim protection, the sort of internal competition that can matter in July even if the final answers are still a little ways off. [Read more 🡒]
The Jaylen Brown Trade Could Have Left Boston Looking Very Different
When Boston explored moving Jaylen Brown, the conversation stretched beyond a simple star-for-star swap and into the kind of roster reshaping that can alter a franchise for years. Minnesota was part of that process, and the Celtics were weighing a path that would have changed the balance of the roster at a time when they were still sorting out how to build around their core and where the frontcourt fit would come from.
What makes the idea so interesting now is how different the Celtics could have looked if that route had gone through. The center rotation, the need for another big, and even the way the wings would have been deployed all would have shifted, while Minnesota eventually moved in another direction and Boston had to keep building along a different track. It is the kind of near miss that says as much about a teams long-term planning as any finished deal ever could. [Read more 🡒]