Has the Boston Celtics 2019 rookie class been disappointing so far?

Like most years, Danny Ainge went into the 2019 NBA Draft loaded with draft capital. Did he strike out on his four draft picks for the Boston Celtics?

The 2019-20 season’s suspension has made it tough to fully judge players’ seasons both on the Boston Celtics and across the league. Seasons were incomplete, and postseason debuts were put on hold indefinitely.

The 64 games the C’s played, in which they compiled a 43-21 record, doesn’t conclusively tell a story. We’ve seen truncated seasons in the past–the 2011-12 lockout shortened campaign was 66 games total–but this year was inconclusive in many ways…and continues to be until we get any concrete information about the state of the season.

Judging Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s potential second consecutive MVP season or LeBron James‘ comeback campaign seems fair considering the body of work both superstars have in year’s past. But what is there to say about the rookies?

We know Zion Williamson was dominant in his 23 games after returning from injury, and we have a good idea about Ja Morant‘s ability to lead a team. R.J. Barrett seems like a work in progress, as does Cam Reddish, Jarrett Culver and DeAndre Hunter as fellow lottery picks.

On the Boston Celtics, things seem even less conclusive given the structure of the team. All season, Brad Stevens relied mainly on players with professional experience ranging from third years to a decade in the association. Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward were the old-heads of the starting lineup, with Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Daniel Theis filling out the first five still on their rookie deals.

The bench saw more diverse contributions, with Marcus Smart being the leader of the pack when the team was fully healthy. Otherwise, second-year career journeyman Brad Wanamaker, NBA journeyman Enes Kanter and late first round pick Grant Williams served as the primary backups due to limited appearances by Robert Williams due to various ailments.

Grant Williams ended up being in a bigger role than what was called for him, but even then his stats weren’t eye-popping–3.5 points and 2.7 rebounds on 41/25/72 slash-lines. That said, he was the only rookie to be any bit of a regular contributor in 2019-20.

With Ainge possessing a lottery pick and two other selections in the draft, the rookies all had a chance to steal some spotlight. Unfortunately, the draft class was by and large a disappointment.

It’s tough, because #14 pick Romeo Langford was never expected to be a star right away but his durability concerns (27 games played, 47 games missed) reared its ugly head after a college career full of health setbacks hampered his value. Carsen Edwards shouldn’t have had sky-high expectations, but his summer league and preseason built up considerable hype that he was a viable option at the backup point guard position. Those were dashed by his 32 conversion rate from the field.

Tremont Waters, the team’s other pick, did well for himself in the G-League. While he was never spectacular for Boston, he was never expected to do much while operating on a two-way contract.

With all of that said, the team has two somewhat neutral and two somewhat disappointing rookies. As a whole, are they disappointing?

John Hollinger certainly seemed to elude to that in a recent chat with the Athletic’s Jay King. Given the structure of the roster being so top-heavy with established talent and rising stars, the rookies were never slated to do much heavy lifting.

That said, they have not done much to play themselves into being more attractive assets. Langford is a gamble instead of a trade chip for a player more in line with the C’s timeline because of his injury history. Williams holds more value to Stevens right now than he would on any other roster due to his understated glue guy contributions on a star-studded roster. Edwards could be seen as almost negative asset because of his long-term deal and shoddy regular season performance.

All in all, the C’s have a group that didn’t play themselves into being regular rotation members (besides Williams due to injuries) and didn’t raise their stock from regular season performance. The bar set before the season was not met as a group.

All in all the Boston Celtics 2019 rookie class has been disappointing