"A confession: I did not know that Jordan Walsh, the Boston Celtics' young forward, was the second coming of Moses Malone. I did not realize that he could ably step into the shoes of Jayson Tatum, the Celtics' superstar forward, who went down with a ruptured Achilles tendon during the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks last May. Salvation, it turns out, was already sitting at the end of the bench, averaging three minutes a game."
"He spent the first month of this season at the back end of the team's rotation. But then Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics' intensely idiosyncratic coach, inserted Walsh into the starting lineup, and Walsh was suddenly a terror to opposing scorers everywhere-and a scoring threat himself, cutting and screening and shooting, plus crashing the glass for offensive rebounds when his or his teammates' shots didn't fall."
The Boston Celtics shifted from a controlled style to a scrappy, slightly unpredictable team after Jayson Tatum suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon. Jordan Walsh, a former 38th pick who averaged three minutes and spent time in the G League, moved into the starting lineup and provided relentless defense, cutting, screening, shooting, and offensive rebounding. The team posted a 10-3 record after Walsh became a starter. Neemias Queta, a seven-footer from Portugal, significantly improved the Celtics' defense when on the court. Coach Joe Mazzulla made lineup changes that catalyzed these developments.
Read at The New Yorker
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