Inside The Celtics

Why Hugo Gonzalez Will Eventually Be a Star for the Boston Celtics

Gonzalez is still a rookie who makes rookie mistakes and plays inconsistent minutes, but there are strong signs that he has the potential to become a huge part of Boston's future.
John Karalis|
Jan 30, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Hugo Gonzalez (28) during the second quarter against the Sacramento Kings at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images
Jan 30, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Hugo Gonzalez (28) during the second quarter against the Sacramento Kings at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images | Winslow Townson-Imagn Images

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Hugo Gonzalez’s stats don’t jump off the page. He’s averaging about nine points and eight rebounds in about 15 minutes per game. His shooting also isn’t great right now, hitting just 33% of his three-pointers. He has started twice, but he’s also not played in five games.

And I think he’s going to be a star. 

How big of a star, I don’t know, but I’m sure of it. 

So the next obvious question is “why?” What is it that makes me so confident that a 20-year-old 28th overall pick is on his way to being a franchise cornerstone? 

I’ll start with a play against the Miami Heat. This play is like the episode of your favorite show that you tell everyone to watch so they understand why you love it so much. 

It starts with understanding how his teammates are overreacting to the ball, so his responsibility is to get back out to the wing. Then he positions himself between the passer and another player at the break, reading the passer’s eyes to get the deflection. Then it’s the wherewithal to gather the deflection and go the other way with it. And THEN he takes a second to read the floor …

Hugo Gonzalez
Hugo Gonzalez spots Jaylen Brown on a fast break vs. Miami. | Broadcast screenshot

AND THEN he wraps pass around the defender, compensating for his own momentum by throwing it backwards, which ends up putting it on a straight line into Jaylen Brown’s hands, in stride. 

That pass was incredible. That play, from top to bottom, shows the processing power, instincts, and ability to make a play that can’t be taught. 

Are you hooked yet? Maybe not. How about this play, then?

Start with the little hop to his left, just to give Payton Pritchard a better angle. Then the touch pass to the corner because he saw the defender closing out hard. Then he sees the lane and drives left, crosses over behind his back, then he whips off a Pinoy step to finish with the lefty layup. 

My God. 

This is the instinctual stuff that gets my blood pumping. This wasn’t pure brute force bullying his way to the basket, or a faster player blowing by everyone, or an elite leaper jumping over people. This was a smart player with great instincts reacting to the things he saw with precision. 

There are stats that show the glimpses of what Gonzalez can be. He’s the NBA’s current net rating leader. 

He compares with Derrick White in some key individual defensive metrics. 

The basketball stuff is fun to watch, too. There are little things, like how comfortable he is going to his left hand to drive and finish.

He’s a creative finisher around the rim, and the scouting report is already out that forcing him one way or another doesn’t really help much. As the game slows down for him, his ability to drive and finish with either hand opens up a ton of possibilities. 

Gonzalez’s passing is already really good. Combined with his ability to take guys off the dribble, and some time to figure out defenses and how to manipulate them, I think Gonzalez can eventually be dangerous in pick-and-rolls. He hasn’t had time to show any work in the pick-and-roll (he has eight possessions as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, five of which have resulted in turnovers), but his work elsewhere gives me confidence that he can develop that.

He has a natural ability to make reads that will eventually be nurtured by repetition, which could lead to an ability to manipulate defenses and get them to bend in order to open up plays. 

But of course, he’s going to be playing next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown which means he’ll need to do three other things: Cut, crash the offensive glass, and defend. 

He’s already a very good cutter. No wing on the Celtics cuts more often than Gonzalez, according to Synergy Sports. He is shooting 61% on those cuts, which needs to improve, but his instincts to cut are there. So are his instincts to crash the boards. 

“That's a skill, being able to play that hard,” Joe Mazzulla said of Gonzalez earlier this season. He also said Gonzalez’s “defensive instincts are better than most young guys.”

Again, it’s that instinctive stuff that is at the heart of my argument. Here’s a kid who just turned 20, who has been getting inconsistent playing time, and he’s already shown an incredible natural ability to make defensive plays, time his cuts, attack defenses, and crash the glass.

He’s probably going a few miles per hour over the speed limit in some of these games, which leads to mistakes. He is a bit overzealous at times, and that takes him out of the team’s gameplan, which can lead to a seat on the bench, but it’s easier to rein things in than it is to draw stuff out of players. 

I have more concerns for guys who aren’t aggressive than I do for guys who are overly aggressive. Drawing effort and aggressiveness out of a player who is naturally passive tends to fall into the realm of asking someone to be something he’s not. Asking someone like Gonzalez to slow down is just asking him to be a bit of a more controlled version of himself. 

I think when you add all of this basketball stuff together, with more control and a few years to hone everything, there is a potentially great player in the making. The final basketball ingredient is a jump shot, which can be learned over time. The Celtics have never let someone’s faulty jumper get in the way of developing a player. If someone is willing to put in the work, break down what’s wrong, and build up what’s right, he can become, at the very least, a good enough shooter to be respected on the perimeter. 

His mentality is a big part of this for me. He’s not fazed by big NBA venues because he’s played in some hostile situations with Real Madrid. He carries himself like a veteran, even though he just turned 20. He scoffs at the thought of being bothered by the moment, and that allows him to have the confidence to make plays when they matter most. 

And on top of everything, he’s legitimately having fun on the floor, which might not seem like much, but it’s very important. 

The kid is playing loose. He’s not bothered by the moment. He’s enjoying the game and the process. He likes his teammates and his coaches. So when something like a challenge goes his way, he can run over and have some fun with assistant coach Matt Reynolds. 

The ingredients all add up to big things for me. I think his future, at the very least, will be Boston’s next Derrick White. It’s high praise, and I love everything about White, so I don’t say this lightly at all. I think White is one of the best pure basketball players in the league. I think Gonzalez will get to that same level in a few years. Whenever Tatum and Brown have to hand over control of the team, I think Gonzalez will be right there as part of the next group to grab it.

He’s a future star, and a cornerstone of the next generation of Celtics.

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John Karalis
JOHN KARALIS

John Karalis is a 20-year veteran of Celtics coverage and was nominated for NSMA's Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year in 2019. He has hosted the Locked On Celtics podcast since 2016 and has written two books about the Celtics. John was born and raised in Pawtucket, RI. He graduated from Shea High School in Pawtucket, where he played football, soccer, baseball, and basketball and was captain of the baseball and basketball teams. John graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism and was a member of their Gold Key Honor Society. He was a four-year starter and two-year captain of the Men’s Basketball team, and remains one of the school's top all-time scorers, and Emerson's all-time leading rebounder. He is also the first Emerson College player to play professional basketball (Greece). John started his career in television, producing and creating shows since 1997. He spent nine years at WBZ, launching two different news and lifestyle shows before ascending to Executive Producer and Managing Editor. He then went to New York, where he was a producer and reporter until 2018. John is one of Boston’s original Celtics bloggers, creating RedsArmy.com in 2006. In 2018, John joined the Celtics beat full-time for MassLive.com and then went to Boston Sports Journal in 2021, where he covered the Celtics for five years. He has hosted the Locked On Celtics podcast since 2016, and it currently ranks as the #1 Boston Celtics podcast on iTunes and Spotify rankings. He is also one of the co-hosts of the Locked on NBA podcast.

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