Why Hugo Gonzalez is a 'Critical Piece' of Celtics future, according to Brad Stevens

The Boston Celtics playoff flameout will very clearly be a sore subject in Boston for a little while, but there are still a lot of important things that happened during the regular season that should be celebrated. 

Among them is the development of rookie Hugo Gonzalez, who had a big impact on many games during the regular season and finished just behind Jaylen Brown in cumulative +/- this season at +246. Gonzalez has been a high-energy guy who plays as hard as anyone, crashes the glass, makes hustle plays, and is as competitive as anyone on the team. His instincts hint a very bright NBA future, something Brad Stevens seems to see as well. 

“Hugo has had a great rookie year and I think is a critical part of us moving forward,” Stevens said at his end-of-season press conference Monday morning. “His athleticism can beat the moment in the big games. That's a real thing. You can see it, you know it. His strength is off the charts. He's probably the strongest, he's one of the strongest guys on our team pound for pound right now as a 20-year-old, so he's got a bright future.”

A bright future and a pretty good present seem like a formula for getting some minutes in the playoffs, especially when a couple of the games looked to be taking place in the great molasses flood. If nothing else, Gonzalez could have served as a sort of pace car to get the rest of the team up to its desired speed. 

Clearly Joe Mazzulla saw something different, which Stevens explained. 

“He didn't separate himself from those other guys,” Stevens said. “As a front office person, I can't sit here and say that one person should have been playing over another, should have been playing over another. There wasn't enough separation. I knew Jaylen [Brown] should be playing. I knew Derrick [White] should be playing, I knew Payton [Pritchard] should be playing. At the end of the day, that’s part of a team, but I'm encouraged by all of them, but there wasn't a lot of separation.” 

In fairness to Mazzulla, Gonzalez was prone to the kinds of mistakes the Sixers were thriving on as they came back to win the series. Gonzalez was no stranger to overzealous pursuit and fouling, which the Celtics were fighting through all seven games. He also hasn’t been a very reliable shooter, and because the Celtics were getting so few drive-and-kick looks, those generally had to go to people more likely to make them (even though that didn’t work very well either). 

Either way, Gonzalez has done enough to be a critical piece moving forward. It’s one thing Celtics fans will be able to count on as the page gets turned to next season.