The Celtics have found a HIDDEN GEM…
The Boston Celtics have found a hidden gem once again. Today we talk about a player who is lighting up the G-League and as a two-way player has come up a couple times and recently made a significant impact in the likes of Joe Mazula and he’s talking very positive about him and so is the NBA and Celtics media. Welcome here to Celtics Digest everybody. I’m JC Andrews. I appreciate you hanging out with me and tuning in to this late night version of Celtics Digest. Hope you have had a wonderful Saturday or if you’re watching this on Sunday, hopefully you are going to have an amazing day. But let’s get into today’s video and talk about the Boston Celtics and kind of the uh I’m not going to say predicament, but the situation they are in right now with a record of six and seven just outside the playin. There is kind of two sides of Celtics fans I like to say. There’s the one side that says this team has shown sparks and can have legitimate aspirations to get to a playoff seat. And if you get that, you can bring Jason Tatum back and immediately think this team has contending aspirations. There’s another side of Celtics media and Celtics fans that believe this team is good. They could be that, but in some aspects, I don’t know if I want them to, and I don’t think they’ve shown enough that I can believe that. We’re right now six and seven, you’re in the bottom tier of the league. I’d rather just keep losing. I’d rather get a lottery pick, be something where we can get people for next year and have this team be more more better or even better next season with the players at hand. I think there is a split of this and um it’s an intriguing conversation to have especially with the upcoming games being the Clippers and Brooklyn when which in the next literally week you have three games against teams that are way below you in my opinion. So that kind of puts us to a tipping point. If they win these three games, do the Celtics try and go and see what they can do in this year, they lose one or two of these games or look horrible. I think it’s an interesting spot. I mean, I say even past this, if you lose even one of these games, you then have to go on a fivegame stretch facing Orlando, a playoff aspiration team in the East. Detroit, the number one team in the East, Minnesota, a very good team in the West, Cleveland, one of the better teams in the East, and New York, championship aspirations in the East. That is going to be a tough schedule. Not to mention right after that, I mean, yes, you get Washington, but then you have the Lakers, the Raptors. There’s a lot of tough schedules coming up. There is one thing though that is a positive and maybe could tip that scale to where the Celtics have maybe some more aspirations of playing better. The main Celtics talking about their prospect in Ron Harper Jr. Now, when he signed, we made a video about how he could be a sneaky, sneaky signing, and he’s kind of paying dividends to that in a lot of different aspects, but most recently, he did come up and play with the Boston Celtics, obviously, being on that two-way contract. Now, I know it was a little bit more of garbage time. They Celtics were demolishing the Memphis Grizzlies, but he hit backto-back threes, got six points in four minutes, and immediately Joe Mazoula and a lot of people started saying, “We like this guy. We do like this guy. His stats in the G- League are actually really damn impressive. 24 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, and three assists per game. He’s playing like 40 minutes. And as an undrafted guy out of Ruggers, we obviously know his uh generational past. So, he could really make a name for himself. And um kind of interesting in all this is that being a two-way player does not come easy. That’s where we go to the article from Noah Dazelle or Dalzel of Celtics blog talking about saying, quote, “Ron Harper Jr. didn’t know he’d be spending the week with the Boston Celtics, but the 25-year-old two-way Celtics player hopped on a commercial flight on Sunday to meet the Celtics in Orlando amid their three-game road trip.” End quote. Obviously, we know he ended up not playing in that, but he has appeared in two games uh both back on November 1st against the Rockets in which he had 10 minutes, had two points, was over four from three, um one for five from the field, not great in that aspect, but then came back here, played again Memphis, and again, garbage time or not, you still got to make the shots. four minutes two for two from the field with six points also had a block as well and people are kind of starting to say like this could be somebody who could be a success story and that’s where we go to the main Celtics head coach Phil Presley who talks about saying quote Ron Harper goes from playing in the G-League one night getting 28 to 30 minutes or excuse me 30 points playing 40 minutes to going to the NBA and not playing at all or playing very little in the G-League his usage rate is extremely high then he goes to the NBA and it drops dramatically you have to be adaptable So that’s something that we talk about on a daily basis. He’s been pretty adaptable if you ask me. Pretty adaptable getting up here and playing that way. And I’m sure you’re probably sitting here questioning saying, “Okay, Jayce. Yeah, great. A main Celtics player who came up here and hit a couple threes. What’s the big deal? Why is he what what’s so special about him?” Well, I think we have to go back and almost ask ourselves, well, what was so special about Jordan Walsh? I mean, he was lighting up the G-League and then now we see him as a very pivotal guy against that Magic game that Ron Harper got called up on. Walsh had a like career game. Oh, yeah. Well, that’s just one guy. What about Neimus Kada? Big success story from the main Celtic as well. The point I’m trying to make in all this is that Ron Harper Jr. with the way that he is playing down in the G- League, with the adaptability that he is getting from moving from Maine to Boston, and on top of it all, the I guess vote of confidence from both coaches. Phil Presley, the main M main Celtics head coach, has consistently and constantly been on Ron Harper Jr.’s side. I know that obviously he’s seen him a little bit given that the main Celtics have had Ron Harper Jr. before. and he sees the work ethic. He sees, you know, obviously Noah is his father and um being undrafted and being able to kind of work his way through here. It’s it’s something that he’s he’s had to work towards. And Joe Misoula says the same thing. He’s like, you know, I talked to Phil Presley a lot. We talk about lineups and who we’re going to play and how that all works. And guess what? Ron Harper Jr. is a big discussion in all this. And so with this all to be said, I think at the Celtics right now, as I said, with them being in a pivotal spot in a lot of their season, we talk about the sparks that some of these guys have had in the early parts of the season. Yugo Gonzalez has had a fantastic spark to some aspects. You talk about Luca Garza. And really this season has been the season of I’m not going to say random guys, but random guys who have come up here and I don’t know if we’ve expected that much from them, but they’ve performed and really kind of given a jolt to this team at times. And I think Ron Harper Jr. could do that. Now, am I am I going to sit here and say that Ron Harper’s going to come up and play 20 minutes per game like Ugo Gonzalez or um become a starter and and shoot like Luga Galler, play like U Garza? No. No. But coming up here performing in the way he could perform as we saw against the Grizzlies. Maybe getting some more minutes with just the reasoning that the Celtics are six and seven and they do want to try and build this team for the future, not just right now. And really truly seeing is Ron Harper Jr. a guy that is worth keeping down there in Maine because ultimately this guy is not a rookie. He’s not, you know, somebody keeping down there. We know the Celtics with JD Davidson like he was lighting up the G-League and ultimately they decided that he wasn’t worth the time. They let him go. I think in this part you had the chance to put Ron Harper Jr. in the NBA level and say, “Do we believe in him? Do we trust in him? Is this somebody we can actually pivot towards and look at?” And again, GLeague stats don’t mean too much. But for a guy who’s averaging 24 points per game, playing 40 minutes per game, and having 63 6.3 rebounds to come up in the NBA, fly commercial, like obviously that’s not something you do on the NBA side, and compete in the way that he’s competed. It’s a it’s a matter of respect thing. And the hope is that this can turn into something more. And hope is that this can really kind of grow to a point where we do see him as a succ could become a pivotal role for the Boston Celtics. He’s played fantastic. His defense is great. I I really would like to see what the Celtics have. That’s all we got for you here today on Celtics Digest. We appreciate you hanging out with us again, tuning in to this late night version. Um, make sure you hit that subscribe button if you’re still watching. Obviously, I want to keep you updated for all the Celtics do and information. For now, though, we appreciate you. We’ll see you next time here on Celtics Digest. Peace out, guys.
Boston Celtics news today talks about the play Ron Harper Jr and why he could be the next hidden gem for the Celtics. Jace Andrews talks about Harper and how he could jump start this Celtics team heading into a pivotal 3 game stretch vs the Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers. We have all the latest Celtics News and rumors.
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