Baylor Scheierman has been the talk of the town for a few months. After a mid-season breakout, he became one of the two players the Boston Celtics refused to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, then Mike Conley Jr. shouted him out for his approach to the game. With Jaylen Brown gone, Boston will have to depend on their wing depth to replace him, and Scheierman might be who they rely on most.
There's actually good reason to believe that's a safe bet because Scheierman showed something specifically from last season that hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention: he stepped up in big games.
To accurately recap Scheierman's sophomore season, let's start with this: the only reason why he got time (besides Jayson Tatum's absence) was his defense. Offensively, Scheierman wasn't negative, but wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire. However, even before he started break out, he started giving glimpses of the vital player he was.
Against Detroit, who got the No. 1 seed, Scheierman put up 13 points on five-for-seven shooting in a November 26 NBA Cup game. Then on January 10, he put up 10 points in a hard-fought loss to San Antonio, who went on to make a surprising run to the NBA Finals.
While Scheierman's scoring numbers and shooting efficiency slowly went up from February onward, he started giving more standout performances against legitimate threats.
-February 4 vs. Houston (win): 15 points, 10 rebounds, five-for-10 shooting
-March 8 vs. Cleveland (win): 16 points, 10 rebounds, six-for-eight shooting (four threes)
-March 25 vs. Oklahoma City (win): 11 points, five rebounds, four-for-eight shooting
-April 9 vs. New York (loss): 20 points, seven-for-eight shooting (six threes)
-April 12 vs. Orlando (win): 30 points, seven rebounds, six assists, six three-pointers
Before anyone goes all Sesame Street with "One of these things is not like the others" with that Orlando game, Boston intentionally rested their A-team against a Magic team that needed to win. Scheierman's role in beating the Magic was undeniable and pretty telling.
Because Scheierman stepped up when Boston asked him to (sometimes it was because they didn't have better options), it's why everyone should be stoked to see what he can do with a potentially expanded role.
There was only one problem
Even while Scheierman was extremely impressive with the low bar he had, he didn't exactly keep this up in the playoffs. Against the Philadelphia 76ers, Scheierman didn't do much in that series. A negative he was not, but Scheierman didn't really do much. Even worse was that when Boston made him a surprise starter in that Game 7, he didn't do much with it.
That's going to be his real challenge. He has proven he can step up against some of the very best teams in a regular season setting, but the postseason will be where Boston will get to know the real him.
It's not like anyone looks at that Sixers series and says, "Oh yeah, the Celtics lost because Baylor Scheierman couldn't deliver!" It's just that, with the undeniable proof that he can swing games against good teams, part of his true breakout will be if he can prove to keep that going in high pressure situations.
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