According to reports, the Celtics had a specific target in mind when they entered Round 2 of the 2025 NBA Draft. They failed to land him and turned around.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported that Boston intended to select Rasheer Fleming, a forward from St. Joseph, with the 32nd overall choice on Thursday night, but Phoenix outsmarted Brad Stevens. In order to move up from No. 36 to No. 31 and acquire Fleming, the Suns traded two future second-round picks to Minnesota.
The Celtics decided to trade the next pick after Fleming was cut, and they got a good price in exchange. According to Charania, the Orlando Magic moved up to No. 32 and selected French wing Noah Penda, giving up the 46th and 57th picks in this round as well as second-round picks in 2026 and 2027.
The Celtics’ expanding collection of second-round picks was augmented by the trade. Earlier in the week, they also got two future seconds from Portland as part of the Jrue Holiday trade package, which was led by guard Anfernee Simons. A second-round pick was traded in the Kristaps Porzingis trade one day later, and Boston also acquired Atlanta forward Georges Niang.
On Wednesday, the Celtics selected wing Hugo Gonzalez with the 28th overall pick. Gonzalez, a 19-year-old Spaniard with a lot of energy, recently wrapped off a season with Real Madrid, a European team that has many NBA alumni on its roster but rarely employed him as a bench player.
Stevens remarked following Round 1 that “we’re just a big fan of how he plays.” He is hard-playing, tough, cuts, chases the ball, and competes. He possesses every intangible necessary to be a successful basketball player. Like everyone else at that age, he has areas for improvement, but his level of competitiveness is great.
