The Boston Celtics selected Chris Cenac Jr. 27th overall in the 2026 NBA Draft, who just signed his rookie level contract, per the NBA’s transaction log.

The Celtics drafted Cenac after just one season at the University of Houston. He was a five-star recruit only a year ago and was ranked the No. 1 center in the class of 2025. He’s 19-years-old, stands at 6-foot-11, 240 lbs. and has a 7-foot-5 wingspan.

He started 36 of 37 games and averaged 9.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. He’s not a shy 3-point shooter, but the consistency needs to improve from 33.3%. That said, he’s still productive on the offensive end, shooting 48.5% from the field.

Cenac has a great repertoire to his game for a big man. He has a great hop-step and knows how to maneuver his body in and around the paint. Cenac also has a nice shooting touch from the midrange and the high post. He’s a rim runner in every sense of the meaning and Boston desperately needs that type of player on the floor.

Celtics GM Brad Stevens isn’t expecting for Cenac to contribute too much in his rookie season, but he’d like to get him on their development plan so that he can start to do the things that Boston needs from him. It’s also still possible that Cenac could end up on a two-way contract. He said this about Cenac after the first round of the draft.

“Yeah, I mean I think he has a lot to learn- a long way to go, he’s got a lot of room to grow. But when you’re that age and you are that valued coming out of high school and then you go and you play for Coach Sampson, and he does not let you off the hook for one mistake over the course of a full year. And in everything that we learned about Chris and everything that coaches told me is that he was pretty hard on him and he was on him and all he did was come to work. And I think that’s a really impressive quality for a young guy. When I watched him play live several times this year, he didn’t always play well, but I never walked out of the gym thinking he didn’t play hard and didn’t really really really go after it. And so I think that’s a good place to start.”

Next up for Cenac is going to be preparing for his first NBA Summer League with the Celtics.

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