Boston Celtics: 3 surprise players that could land starting gigs in 2021-22

Surprise Boston Celtics starter No. 3) Dennis Schroder

When it was announced that Dennis Schroder had signed on to the Boston Celtics this summer, many were highly impressed by the fact that they landed a man once perceived as an $80 million talent on a one-year, $5.9 million deal.

Because of this, the signing was pegged as being free agency’s biggest steal and, with this, the Cs got another player to help bolster their point guard depth which, in fact, was their weakest area within the rotation.

According to writer/ reporter Keith Smith, when signing with the Celtics the German-born baller had no assumption that he was coming on to serve as the team’s starting point guard:

"Dennis Schroder signed with Boston with no expectation of a starting role. Celtics made it clear that Ime Udoka will evaluate roles and minutes. Also, this will be Udoka’s decision only."

Now, while this is certainly a great thing to read for any Boston Celtics fan, as it means Schroder’s coming on to the team simply to play basketball rather than fill any sort of ego, make no mistake about it — once training camp and preseason begins, the 27-year-old will be gunning for that starting guard slot.

Though he may have had a lowly 2020-21 campaign, he still went on to post solid averages of 15.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game on 44 percent shooting from the floor and nearly 34 percent shooting from deep.

During the season prior when in Oklahoma City, Schroder put forth one of his best seasons as a pro, averaging 18.9 points, four assists, and 3.6 rebounds on 47 percent shooting from the field and 38.5 percent shooting from deep.

On top of all this, despite starting just 63 total games over the past five years, during this span, the point guard is one of only 16 players in the association to log 6,000 points and 1,500 assists.

While recency bias may have some forget, it wasn’t all that long ago that he was viewed as a potential franchise point guard.

With the Boston Celtics, perhaps he can fix his reputation up and thrust himself back into a similar conversation as being a quality starting one.