The Celtics reportedly entered Round 2 of the 2025 NBA Draft with a specific target in mind. After failing to land him, they pivoted.

Boston planned to take St. Joseph’s forward Rasheer Fleming with the 32nd overall pick Thursday night, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania, but Phoenix beat Brad Stevens to the punch. The Suns traded two future second-round picks to Minnesota to vault from No. 36 to No. 31 and grab Fleming.

With Fleming off the board, the Celtics opted to trade the next selection — and received a hefty return for it. The Orlando Magic gave up the 46th and 57th picks in this draft, plus second-rounders in 2026 and 2027 to move up to No. 32 and take French wing Noah Penda.

At No. 46, the Celtics selected Kentucky’s Amari Williams, a British big man who will compete for minutes in their new-look center rotation. At No. 57, they nabbed VCU’s Max Shulga, a smooth-shooting guard from Ukraine who made 40.2% of his 3-pointers over the last two seasons.

“All the time, we’re looking for the ability to get more assets in the future and still get a bunch of good players, and we felt pretty confident that there’d be guys we liked lower in the draft,” Celtics vice president of basketball operations Mike Zarren said in a post-draft video conference. “And we had the ability to add a couple of really good future draft picks in addition to getting those guys. So that’s what we did.”

Zarren called Williams and Shulga — 23-year-olds who both played five collegiate seasons — “really, really successful, winning college players.” Both are expected to sign two-way contracts with Boston.

The draft-night swap added to the Celtics’ growing stockpile of second-round picks. They also acquired two future seconds from Portland earlier in the week as part of the trade package for Jrue Holiday, which was headlined by guard Anfernee Simons. The Kristaps Porzingis trade one day later featured an exchange of second-rounders, with Boston also getting forward Georges Niang from Atlanta.

“As I think you’ve seen with our moves in the past, you need those assets in order to be able to swing trades for great players later, or to move around either in the draft or with guys you’ve got,” Zarren said. “So, yeah, that adds additional flexibility. We got two picks tonight, both of which should be good future picks; they’re the best of three and two teams in some upcoming years. But that’s a key part of our strategy. We’ve used picks to go acquire a lot of good players over the years, and hopefully we’ll be able to do that with these if we’re not also drafting them.”

The Celtics later announced the full terms of the trade. They’ll receive the most favorable of Orlando’s, Milwaukee’s or Detroit’s second-round pick in 2026 and the most favorable of Orlando’s and their own second-rounder in ’27.

On Wednesday, the Celtics used the 28th overall pick to select wing Hugo Gonzalez. A high-motor 19-year-old from Spain, Gonzalez just finished a season with European club Real Madrid, where he was a seldom-used bench player on a team loaded with NBA alums.

“(We’re) just a big fan of how he plays,” Stevens said after Round 1. “He’s tough, he’s hard-playing, he cuts, he goes after the ball, he competes. He’s got all the intangibles of a winning basketball player. There’s things he can get better at just like everybody else at that age, but competitiveness is at a high level.”

Originally Published: June 26, 2025 at 8:39 PM EDT