With the 54th choice in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Gonzaga forward Anton Watson was chosen by the Celtics. Their second and last choice was this one.

After attending Gonzaga Prep, the 23-year-old Watson played five years of collegiate basketball at Gonzaga. He was a unanimous 4-Star recruit and the 11th-ranked small forward in the US in 2019.

The 6’8″ Watson participated in 151 games during his college career, starting all of his games in his last two years. His finest campaign to date was in 2023–2024, when he averaged 14.5 points per game on little over 41 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. But during his time in college, he only made 30.7 percent of his three-pointers and a pitiful 62.7 percent from the free throw line.

Watson was heralded as a quality defender with NBA qualities prior to the draft. The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor compared Watson to “Old Al Horford,” a player the Celtics have come to appreciate in recent years, in his “shades of…” section. For a contemporary NBA forward, Watson’s burst and switchability are dubious. Even while he had some success stopping bigger big men like Zach Edey of Purdue, it’s doubtful that he will be able to replicate similar success in the NBA.

In any case, President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens has publicly declared that Watson is unlikely to play much, if at all, in the 2024–25 NBA season given that the Celtics roster is still loaded with elite talent fresh off the franchise’s 18th Championship.

Once more, the wing with height and physicality, defensive prowess, and the ability to shoot well was the aim of the Celtics. First-round pick Baylor Scheierman is a fantastic shooter with real size who could develop defensively. Jordan Walsh, the second-round pick from the previous year, has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as Watson, including flashy shooting but real defensive ability mixed with little offensive originality or consistency.

Before selecting which player, if any, might make the regular rotation, the Celtics will probably have all three spend a lot of time with the Maine Celtics to observe how their three-and-D skills grow.