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On the second day of free agency, the Celtics agreed to a two-year, $5 million deal with former Timberwolves forward Josh Minott. The young player who was drafted with the 45th pick in 2022 after one year of college at Memphis, only played 46 games for Minnesota last season, averaging 2.6 points and one rebound. And yet, there are good reasons to be excited about him.
The most impressive upside of his profile is his defensive abilities. Back at Memphis in the NCAA, he posted a 3.1 STL% and a 5.4 BLK% — numbers that are clear indicators of elite defensive potential. His measurements were impressive for a wing. At the Draft Combine, he was measured standing 6-foot-8.75 in shoes with a 6-foot-11.75 wingspan, which explains why he looked so imposing on defense in his college days. But what about his impact in the NBA?
Per CleaningTheGlass.com, he has played fewer than 250 minutes of non-garbage time so far in his three-year career. The young Jamaican wasn’t able to break into the rotation, stuck behind Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Julius Randle, and Donte DiVincenzo. Therefore, we cannot use his NBA stats to analyze him and find insightful information… but we can watch the tape!
He didn’t play a lot of meaningful minutes, but some of them came in January against the Boston Celtics. We’ll look back at his performance against the team we know the most to understand what Josh Minott can bring to the table.
When he entered the game in the first quarter, he was guarding Jayson Tatum. Tatum was the inbounder on the baseline action and got the ball again after a back screen. Minott was able to navigate the screen and block Tatum’s lay-up attempt with his long arms. Impressive.
On the next play, in transition, Minott got the ball beyond the line, faked the pass, drove, and euro-stepped around Luke Kornet. But he couldn’t create enough space to score, so he tried to pass the ball to Julius Randle with one hand. The idea was good, but Tatum was there to steal the ball. Yet, the fake and the drive before the turnover look encouraging to me.
Because he is not considered a shooting threat, the Celtics put Luke Kornet on him so the big man could stay in the paint to protect the rim. Yet, Minott showed some nice basketball IQ with a smart backdoor cut on the defense when Kornet was helping, offering a solution to the ball-handler and forcing two free throws.
After Tatum, he also defended Derrick White, as he is quite quick for his size. The Celtics ran their classic empty-side pick-and-roll with a pass at the top and then a second pass to the roll man. Minott got caught behind Al Horford after the switch and tried to intercept the ball when Jrue Holiday passed it, but that’s what the Celtics wanted, and they now had an open shot at the rim.
He was subbed out a few moments later and only came back late in the third quarter. After punishing Kornet for ignoring him with a cut, he then punished him with a corner three as the big man was helping on the drive. He is not a shooter, but he made more than 75% of his free throws in the NCAA, leading me to think there is some shooting touch.
Offensively, he has some burst to take off, too. In this transition, he gets the ball with a little bit of space because Holiday is a bit late in his rotation. He goes left and pushes the ball far to use the empty paint and gain momentum for a beautiful dunk against White.
Then, a few minutes later, he won yet another duel against D-White. He defended him on the pick-and-roll and, at first, struggled to go around the screen. He went under to compensate for the delay in his defense, but White initiated a drive. Minott was able to stay connected with his hips, and when White took off for the lay-up, Josh blocked him against the glass without fouling, thanks to his positioning and reach.
On his last defensive play, he stayed connected on every switch and ended up on Holiday, who wasn’t able to deal with Minott’s level of aggression and length. The young player was able to strip the ball from the hands of the champion and showed why wingspan and hand-eye coordination matter in the NBA.
Against the Celtics, we didn’t see much off-ball defense, but he could be interesting as a low man or on the weak side to generate turnovers from skip passes — like here against the Houston Rockets.
If the Celtics’ coaching staff is able to optimize his passing, cutting, and basketball IQ on offense—despite the non-shooting threat—then his defensive upside could unfold, and this could turn into a very interesting contract for the Celtics. He is young and will make mistakes, but the hardware and the software are obvious on the defensive end.
