Anthony Bennett. Killian Hayes. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Drafting isn’t easy.
Even with top picks in the NBA Draft, whiffs don’t just exist—they’re common. And the further down the board a team sits, the less likely they are to find an NBA-level talent. The Derrick Whites, Josh Harts, and Pascal Siakams of the world are rare. The Nikola Jokics and Draymond Greens are impossibilities.
For years, the Boston Celtics have been choosing at the end of the first round, and sometimes not in the first round at all. There have been plenty of hits and misses during the Brad Stevens era. A true dart board of selections spewed all over the spectrum from Yam Madar to Baylor Scheierman.
On Wednesday night, at the 2025 NBA Draft, Hugo Gonzalez joined the fray.
“We were really excited that Hugo was available at 28,” Stevens said at the end of the night.
Hugo Gonzales didn't play much for Real Madrid, but the Celtics love him because of it
As Boston canvased the board for their selection, a core set of principles paved the way for Gonzalez.
“When you’re in the draft, you’ve got 15 roster spots and then you have three extra two-ways, and when you're talking about the draft, you've got to find guys that you think are going to be good fits for how your group plays, and will bring the competitiveness and competitive character required to be a part of your group,” Stevens said.
Gonzalez spent this past season with Real Madrid, who just capped off their year with a Liga ACB league title. Rather than sitting in the green room or traveling to Brooklyn to hear his name called, Gonzalez stayed in Spain for the championship match—a game he didn’t even check into.
Despite his new title as an NBA first-round draft pick, Gonzalez was stuck on one of the most stacked rosters outside of the United States. Real Madrid had 10 players with NBA experience on their roster, including the likes of Serge Ibaka, Mario Hezonja, and Facundo Campazzo. And thats without even mentioning Sergio Llull, one of the best basketball players to never make the jump to the NBA.
Celtics fans are about to fall in love with Hugo Gonzalez pic.twitter.com/VtuLjeMEgq
— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) June 26, 2025
As a result, his statistical output doesn’t match that of a typical NBA prospect. He averaged 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in 10.7 minutes while shooting 40.8% from the floor and 28.4% from beyond the arc on 1.3 three-point attempts per game.
Though many jumped to negative conclusions based on the numbers, Gonzalez’s lack of playing time directly correlates to one of the primary reasons the front office made him a Celtic.
"He's playing around a bunch of studs,” Stevens said of Gonzalez’s place at Real Madrid. “Guys [who] have been old pros. They know how to play. They're hard to beat out. They're physical, tough, smart. Again, extremely well-coached. When you are that age in that situation, you've got to earn your stripes.”
Stevens even threw out a lofty (non-)comparison.
"We played against this when we took our team there years ago in the preseason,” he said. “We played against a 16-year-old [Luka] Doncic that hardly got in. So, Hugo's a little older, and I'm not comparing to Doncic, but I will say, it's great when you get to play on those teams. When you put on a Real Madrid jersey, you put on the responsibility similar to here. And I think that that's a good thing.”
The way the college basketball landscape is currently constructed, especially with the emergence of NIL deals, gives top-end talent more freedom than ever. AAU circuits and other associations like OTE make stardom even more accessible.
Stardom leads to ego. Ego leads to hubris. Hubris leads to self-destruction.
That track isn’t applicable to every player thrown into the spotlight. But almost every player in every draft nowadays has been a top player on every team they have suited up for.
Gonzalez’s willingness to take a step back and play for the betterment of the team drew the Celtics in.
"When we interviewed Hugo a couple of weeks ago on Zoom, it's really clear that he's about the team, and he accepts and is willing to play any role it takes,” Stevens said. “That's not a learned trait for everybody that's in the draft because most of these guys have never sat. And with that comes a humility and also an understanding that you've got to invest every day just to take advantage of whatever opportunity you get."
Watching Gonzales step onto the court, even in his limited minutes, his path forward is crystal clear. He defends with the ferociousness of a stray dog fighting for sidewalk scraps. He cuts to the basket as if each step he takes will shatter the earth beneath his feet, and his final jump will reach the stratosphere. He tracks rebounds with a ferocity that rivals Liam Neeson’s in Taken.
Yet his humility seems to eclipse it all.
Everything about Gonzalez screams Celtic. And they didn’t hesitate to bring him on board.