Jrue Holiday Offered Effective Advice To Second-Year Celtics Wing For Preseason
Jordan Walsh didn’t get many chances to contribute to Boston’s title run last season, and when the 22-year-old returned for a second year at Summer League action in Las Vegas, the results were both dissapointing and unimpressive.
Walsh owned up to that. He missed 22 consecutive 3-pointers amid an ice-cold slump and averaged 9.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists through five appearances. He wrapped up the festivities shooting an abysmal 13.3% from three. Nonetheless, Walsh, while critical of himself, leaned on some nifty advice from teammate and 16-year NBA veteran Jrue Holiday before Boston began its preseason.
“(Jrue’s) told me that whenever you’re going 100 mph, you’re gonna make a mistake. But if you’re going 80-85, you can make the right read, make that right decision 99% of the time,” Walsh told reporters at Friday’s practice, per CLNS Media. “That’s kind of how I took it like, let me slow down a little bit. I can still get my first step off of a triple threat and get by somebody. Let me just slow down a little bit so I’ll be a little more under control, I can see the floor, I can make the right reads and stuff like that.”
Walsh jokingly added: “(Last season) I was 110 (mph), for sure.”
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Evidently, all it took was a few words of wisdom from Holiday for Walsh to turn it around. The Arkansas product, best known for his defensive intensity, kept the Summer League slump in the rearview mirror and knocked down a much-improved 36.8% of threes while also shooting 45.5% from the field in the preseason.
Walsh was noticeably more polished in making the right reads, applying that “100 mph” motor only when necessary and exuberating a greater deal of confidence on both ends of the floor. It was only the preseason, but it still gave the Celtics a sample size to consider whenever the team feels the time is right to call upon him to contribute to Boston’s upcoming title defense run.
“I feel like I did make a good showing,” Walsh said. “And I feel like that’s what I needed to get over the hump that’s in front of me but I feel like there’s still a lot of work to be done, for sure.”
Most of Walsh’s rookie year work got done in the G League, where he strived to improve with the Maine Celtics as a primary contributor. He averaged 14.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.9 steals, shooting 42.6% from the floor and 36.1% from three in 27 games. Walsh rode with Maine to the G League Finals, falling in three games to the Oklahoma City Blue.
But the strides and improvements, so far, have been noted in Boston.
“Just really proud of his growth,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said after Boston’s second-to-final preseason game, per CLNS Media. “Him, his player-development team for the work they’ve put it in — he works hard at it. Starting to carve out a role and just showing a really good attitude toward it. So it’s been fun to watch him grow.”
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