It hasn't taken Chris Cenac Jr. long to make an impression since the Boston Celtics drafted him. Three games into the Summer League, Cenac has looked the part of a prospect who somehow fell to the Celtics late in the first round.
It's not just that he's impressively mobile and athletic for his size, but that his feel for the game is actually pretty impressive too. The jumper is solid while looking pure, and he knows how to use his physical advantages to, well, his advantage.
We won't know for sure whether will translate when he plays actual NBA minutes, but this what about as exciting as Boston could have hoped. If it does translate, it's good news for Boston because Cenac could help conserve Mitchell Robinson.
This was already a given with Robinson's rocky injury history. In fact, that's why Luka Garza may have a bigger role than we think. But if Cenac proves from the jump that he's ready for the big time, that can be even better because while Robinson is injury-prone, you never know if Garza and Queta may also be out for an extended period.
Here's to hoping they don't, knock on wood, but if they do, Cenac has shown enough to intrigue already that Celtics fans should be excited to see what he could do against NBA competition. Though, obviously, that time should be limited to start.
Being an injury replacement for Robinson, Queta, and Garza is a reasonable bar for Cenac in his rookie season. Who knows if that's as high as it goes?
Cenac's career trajectory could start a lot like Robert Williams III
To start off this comparison, let the record show that the Celtics were linked to Williams when he hit unrestricted free agency, and for good reason. Like Cenac, Williams was also a late first-rounder. When his career started, his rookie year was quite electric, even though Boston didn't count on him much (the less we talk about the 2018-19 Celtics, the better).
Williams had a lot of veterans playing ahead of him to start - Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Daniel Theis, Enes Freedom, Tristan Thompson - but by Year 3, Williams had clearly solidified himself as a building block for Boston's future.
It's likely the Celtics won't rely on Cenac much to start, but when he takes the floor, he will excite fans about what the future holds. Even better, Cenac fell in this draft only because of a disappointing collegiate campaign. Williams fell in his draft because teams didn't trust his medical red flags (in all fairness, they weren't necessarily wrong).
All of this is to say that under Joe Mazzulla and with no medical red flags to speak of (we're knocking HARD on that wood), Cenac could be another in what's been a growing list of draft steals.
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