The Boston Celtics sport the league’s best record at 13-3 and are currently in the midst of a stellar nine-game winning streak.
With their early season successes, while centerpieces Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been the ones receiving the large bulk of the credit, in truth, these triumphs have been the result of a full team effort.
Each member of the team’s regular 12-man rotation has found themselves playing a specific role within head coach Joe Mazzulla’s scheme and, just recently, the folks at Bleacher Report heaped praise upon one of their lesser buzzed about commodities.
In a November 20 piece, writer Mo Dakhil discussed 11 sharpshooters in the league that he believes are not receiving enough attention for their excellent shooting skills this season and among those mentioned was second-year Celtics forward Sam Hauser.
“Sam Hauser might be the best pure shooter on the Boston Celtics,” Dakhil wrote. “He never shot lower than 40 percent for a season in college and was a career 43.9 percent three-point shooter. In the 10 games he spent in the G League last season, he shot 43.3 percent from three on nine attempts per contest.
“In limited time in the NBA last season, the 24-year-old shot 43.2 percent from deep. This season he’s connecting on 47.9 percent of his threes. He is doing that on 4.6 attempts per night while getting 16.7 minutes. If Hauser is in the game, he is going to get shots up—and they are probably going in.”
Trailing just behind Grant Williams in the 3-point percentage column, Sam Hauser has managed to become one of the most trusty shooters on this Celtics offense that ranks first in the association this season and has proven that, when out on the floor, they produce far more effectively on the more glamorous side of the ball.
Celtics’ Offense Better With Hauser
Through 16 games played with the Celtics this season, Hauser has chiseled out a sound and consistent role within the team’s offensive system.
Logging 16.7 minutes per night, the 24-year-old finds himself posting solid averages of 7.8 points per game (22.5 per 100 possessions) while converting on 51.2% of his attempts from the field as a whole.
As things currently stand, Boston ranks as the third-best 3-point shooting team and the second-best scoring team in the league, and, based on advanced metrics, they have been much better with Hauser in the lineup as the team boasts an offensive rating of 125.1 when he’s on the floor (best mark on the team) while they plummet to 114.3 when he’s on the sidelines.
On top of this, when it comes to his Celtics teammates he ranks behind only superstar Jayson Tatum in offensive box plus-minus and ranks fourth on the team in overall box plus-minus.
Celtics a Possible Destination for All-Star
During a recent sit-down with Heavy Sports’ NBA Insider Sean Deveney, an anonymous NBA executive discussed the concept of All-Star power forward Draymond Green being shopped by the Golden State Warriors at some point this season and, though they admitted it’s a bit unlikely, should this happen the Boston Celtics could prove to be a realistic landing spot.
“I would not say they’re planning on trading Draymond or shopping him but I think they have prepared for it. If they feel that is what they need to do, if they need to do something like that to make a bigger deal happen, or if they don’t get things turned around completely” the executive told Deveney.
“But there are only a handful of teams that could really absorb Draymond that would bring him into their culture and not be afraid of it. Boston would be one…”
The Celtics are currently in full-out title contention mode and are also rumored to be interested in bolstering their frontcourt depth via trade.
Should this be true, perhaps the multi-faceted, four-time NBA Finals winner Draymond Green could be a player who could give them that much-needed championship experience while also providing them more help in the big man department.
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Unsung Celtics Sharpshooter Gets Put on Notice