In order to live in the NBA under the new collective bargaining agreement, the Boston Celtics will need to start hitting on second round draft picks along with being active in the undrafted free agent market as well.
It’s going to be essential for the Celtics to develop a pipeline of young talent into rotational players while under controllable contracts. The first player Boston will need to work out well for them in the immediate near future is JD Davison.
Davison was drafted at the bottom of the second round in the 2022 NBA Draft, 53rd overall and he averaged 12.5 points with a 50.6 percent field goal percentage during his rookie season in Maine, with five double-doubles and one triple-double.
JDD operates best within the arc, as he only shot 31.7 percent from deep last season and attempted 75 percent of his shots from inside the arc (2PT: 75.1%, 3PT: 24.9%).
In Maine last year, JDD ran the floor and became an expert at feeling out the pick-and-roll. It’s part of the game that he worked on this season with Boston’s other two-way player in 2022-23, Mfiondu Kabengele.
On the defensive end, Davison has great size and the athleticism to defend well and is able to create second chance opportunities because of it. He also welcomes the defensive challenge, which is great to see.
The focus in Maine was for Davison to become more comfortable running the pick-and-roll offense and to improve his overall shooting. He’s a natural facilitator, which needs to be emphasized as the Celtics are in need of a distributor at the point guard position.
If you followed Maine at all in 2022-23, then you’d know that there’s a lot to look forward to from Davison, as Gary Washburn of The Boston’s Globe recently expressed on his podcast.
“JD Davison is going to be playing in the Summer League. His development is going to be interesting to watch. Davison is a guy I’m intrigued with. Could they fill Davison with Payton Pritchard’s role as they feel like Pritchard might be moving on. Davison is a guy to watch. He’s been working on his 3-point shot, he’s a lightning-fast kid.”
The Celtics could very well issue Davison another two-way contract to allow him to sharpen his skills as a facilitator and gain more experience in the system Boston wants to run, while also improving on his 3-point shooting as well.
It’s worth mentioning that if JDD showcases himself well during Summer League, he could very well be given a roster spot on a team friendly NBA deal to play in Boston.
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