Jordan Walsh’s place in the Celtics’ starting five comes with a built-in contradiction: Boston has more polished options, but no one on the roster does what he does defensively quite the same way.
That’s why the move caught people off guard. Walsh looked useful enough last season to matter when the Celtics were surviving without Jayson Tatum, and he played well enough to earn an extension.
Still, seeing his name in the starting lineup was a surprise. The explanation, though, is pretty simple.
Boston wanted his individual defense, and more specifically, they wanted him on the opponent’s best scorer.
That job has put Walsh on Cade Cunningham in Detroit and Jalen Brunson in New York, and he handled both assignments extremely well. Against Cunningham, Walsh held him to one-for-four shooting, including one made three, while also forcing a turnover, according to NBA.com.
Boston lost that game, but there was no real reason to pin it on Walsh. The Celtics were daring the rest of Detroit to beat them, and that plan depended on Walsh being able to take away Cunningham.
The same idea showed up against the Knicks. Walsh drew Brunson, and while the full matchup data hasn’t been released yet, Brunson still finished seven-for-17 from the field.
A lot of that had to do with Walsh crowding him and making life difficult every step of the way. Stop Brunson, and you make things much harder on New York, which is exactly what happened Friday night.
The issue is what happens on the other end. Walsh’s offense is extremely limited. He’s not much of a shot creator, he doesn’t control his drives especially well, and while he isn’t a liability from deep, he’s not someone defenses are losing sleep over from three-point range.
That matters because opponents are going to keep the same trade-off in mind: let Jayson Tatum cook, and see whether Walsh can punish them for loading up. For now, that remains the part of the experiment Walsh still has to answer.
It’s only been two games, but the early returns have been strong enough to justify Joe Mazzulla’s decision. The starting group with Walsh has posted a plus-42.1 net rating in 17 minutes together, per NBA.com. When Mazzulla swaps Sam Hauser in for Walsh and Neemias Queta in for Mitchell Robinson, that number rises to plus-52.6, so there’s at least an argument that a different version of the lineup may be even better.
Still, Walsh has given Boston reason to believe in the setup. In the NBA, the real question usually isn’t who starts.
It’s who closes. Walsh probably won’t be in that group very often, but in the role he has right now, he’s delivering.
And if this doesn’t end up working with the starters, it’s hard to see where else the Celtics would slot him.
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