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BOSTON — Jordan Walsh got annoyed last season when the Celtics introduced him as Josh Minott before his first start at TD Garden. He used the snub as fuel and leaned into his defensive abilities to help the Celtics win 15-of-20. Ascending to the role shocked him, and as he later recounted, Joe Mazzulla quipped that Walsh’s career was dead not long before that.
Walsh had one thought after that wore off. How do I maintain it for as long as possible? What did I do to get here? How do I keep it?
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While he maintained a role for the rest of last season, and earned a three-year, $15 million extension over the summer, Walsh didn’t stay in the starting lineup. Baylor Scheierman received an opportunity ahead of Jayson Tatum’s return, then Sam Hauser joined Tatum and Jaylen Brown into the playoffs. But Mazzulla didn’t forget the defensive impact Walsh produced for that quarter of the season, and tried to recreate it in the preseason by starting him again. Since then, Walsh and offseason addition Mitchell Robinson have started all four regular season games.
Walsh assumed the role with a different perspective this time, despite finding out the same way. Arriving in the locker room in Detroit and seeing his name in the pre-game notes.
“I think we have a lot of really good guys,” Walsh told CLNS Media/CelticsBlog on Monday. “A lot of guys who can step in and play that starter role, so it’s more about having the the next guy ready and supporting him through that and passing on whatever knowledge you can in the moment, because we’re all trying to get to one goal which is to win a championship. So whether I’m playing or Hugo (Gonzalez)’s playing, Baylor, Ron (Harper Jr.), whoever’s playing in that position in those minutes, we want the best for him and so everybody has a group like that, who can step in and handle those minutes. Luka (Garza), Neemy (Queta) and Mitch are all interchangeable, so I think we’re just full of a lot of talented guys who want to play as hard as possible and try to win and so plugging in different pieces, it’s just gonna help us.”
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Publish date : 2026-10-30 10:00:00
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