While many speculated whether the Celtics would make a deal on draft day, Boston president Brad Stevens and the front office elected to make their first-round selection at their disposal. With the No. 30 overall pick, the C’s landed Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman to conclude the first round of the draft.
It’s the first time ever in the Stevens era that the front office has made a first-round pick. Instead, they elected to ship that draft capital elsewhere for the sake of making some win-now moves. After winning their record 18th championship last week, the Celtics are officially onto the 2024-25 season as they eye a shot at back-to-back titles.
After picking Scheierman, the Celtics still have the 54th overall pick in the second round, which starts at 4 p.m. Thursday. It’s the first time the league has split up the first and second round over multiple days. So, barring any trades moving up, it should be another relatively quiet night for the C’s going forward.
Here are four things to know about the newest Celtic in Scheierman as he embarks on his NBA career:
1. Bringing a shooting stroke
Scheierman should slide right into this Celtics roster that’s as 3-point friendly as it can get in the league. Scheierman shot a career 39.0% on 3-pointers throughout his lengthy college career, so that’s certainly a positive. He hit a blistering 46.9% on 3s during his junior season, when he was named Summit League Player of the Year at South Dakota State. In his final season at Creighton in 2023-24, Scheierman made 38.1% of his 8.3 3-point attempts per game. More than half his shot attempts came from behind the arc, which should fit in nicely immediately on this Celtics roster.
2. Not just a shooter
While the shooting numbers pop out, Scheierman’s overall game should also help him throughout what the C’s will hope is a lengthy pro career. He has good size at 6-foot-7. It’ll be difficult to crack the Celtics rotation, which Stevens also pointed out in his pre-draft news conference Tuesday. But the C’s are also looking beyond Scheierman’s rookie season as they hope he can develop into a rotation player down the line.
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