Boston Celtics: 3 surprise flight risks for Cs this offseason
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics flight risk No. 2) Tremont Waters
Though he spent the majority of his time in the G League during his rookie campaign, Tremont Waters provided enough on the hardwood to instill real excitement heading into his sophomore campaign.
During his stint with the, then, Maine Red Claws back in 2019-20, the point guard posted per-game averages of 18 points, 7.2 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.9 steals on 43 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from deep.
With his efforts, Waters managed to lead the team to a fourth-place finish on the year with a record of 28-14 and wound up earning NBA G League Rookie of the Year honors in the process.
During the 2020-21 campaign, unfortunately, despite residing on the varsity team’s roster for the entirety of the year, he was never able to replicate this level of success due to a multitude of reasons, but perhaps the most noteworthy — at least, in Waters’ mind when it comes to his upcoming free agency decision — was because of a lack of opportunity.
While he did manage to see an uptick in the total number of games played (26), his minutes ultimately decreased (9.2 minutes per game) as Stevens opted to focus his attention at the position on Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, and rookie, Payton Pritchard, the latter of whom essentially usurped Waters as the promising young guard the team is seemingly intent on developing.
Though Walker now finds himself in OKC, the Boston Celtics still have Smart and Pritchard likely to take on the bulk of minutes at the one and, with the front office’s apparent desire to get a bit older/ more experienced, we could easily see a veteran come in this summer and fill out the point guard rotation, thus leaving the 23-year-old as somewhat of the odd man out.
Greener pastures could be desired by Tremont Waters, a man who, just last season, was rumored to be quite a valuable trade target for opposing teams, with one front-office executive reportedly stating: “He’s an NBA backup point guard right now. I told our GM to trade for him because he’s better than what we have today.”