{"id":579490,"date":"2026-02-03T12:28:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579490\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:28:26","slug":"celtics-rookie-on-pace-for-jaw-dropping-nba-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579490\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Rookie On Pace For Jaw-Dropping NBA Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Celtics have received a lot of surprising contributions this season en route to their 31-18 record. Many of the team\u2019s bench and role players have been <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/celtics-joe-mazzulla-praises-neemias-queta-after-stellar-performance-vs-kings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">much better than expected<\/a>, from Jordan Walsh and Anfernee Simons to Neemias Queta and Luka Garza.<\/p>\n<p>Another player who\u2019s stepped up is 19-year-old rookie Hugo Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t clear what the Celtics would get from their first-round draft pick this season or how much he\u2019d play. It didn\u2019t take long for him to establish himself as a <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/celtics-new-look-bench-fueling-recent-hot-streak\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">key member of Boston\u2019s second unit<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/12\/celtics-rookie-makes-franchise-history-with-huge-game-vs-raptors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of the best rookies in the league<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While his stats don\u2019t jump off the page, Gonzalez does a little bit of everything and makes an impact on both ends of the floor. He\u2019s a great defender and rebounder who can also shoot, hitting 49 percent of his field goals and nearly 37 percent of his 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>One stat where Gonzalez does stand out is plus\/minus, which is typically tremendous for him. He always seems to give the Celtics a boost whenever he\u2019s on the floor and makes a positive impact for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Sure enough, he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/celtics\/status\/2018370203806019851\" rel=\"nofollow\">leads all NBA rookies in plus\/minus<\/a> by a wide margin. His plus-236 for the season is more than double the next closest rookie \u2014 Dylan Harper at plus-117.<\/p>\n<p>His average plus\/minus of plus-5.36 per game is also on pace to be the best mark by a rookie in NBA history since the league started tracking plus\/minus in 1996-97. It\u2019s better than Tim Duncan, Chet Holmgren and every other rookie from the last three decades, including Jayson Tatum, who ranks sixth at plus-4.30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s still a lot of basketball left to be played, but Gonzalez is on pace for a historic season and appears to be laying the groundwork for a <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/12\/nba-insider-dishes-heavy-praise-for-celtics-rookie-hugo-gonzalez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">promising NBA career<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Celtics have received a lot of surprising contributions this season en route to their 31-18 record.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,3528,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-579490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-hugo-gonzalez","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116006702606587861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}