LAS VEGAS -- Even after the departures of Kyrie Irving and Terry Rozier this offseason, the Celtics' backcourt remains fairly loaded. Kemba Walker is an All-Star addition for Brad Stevens to work with to try to replace Irving's firepower, while Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart remain slated for big roles, whether it comes into a starting or reserve capacity. Minutes will be limited for the remainder of the C's guards that will be trying to help make up for Rozier's absence and the rookie in the summer league opener that looked polished most ready to make an impact on that front was Carsen Edwards.
The No. 33 overall pick led all scorers with 20 points in a game-high 28 minutes in Boston's 96-82 win over the 76ers on Saturday night. Edwards' night was efficient despite being guarded by a pair of top tier summer league defenders in Matisse Thybulle and Zhaire Smith for most of his court time, managing to put up a strong 5-of-12 shooting performance from 3-point range in the victory.
A day later, Edwards was hard at work after practice, spending extra time breaking his film down with new Celtics assistant Kara Lawson and wanted to do anything but talk about the positives from his debut afterward.
"I mean, I like to focus more on weaknesses," Edwards told BostonSportsJournal.com. "I think it's more important to find improvement in every game. That's what everyone says about summer league, it's just trying to improve. Obviously, you want to prove yourself, but just trying to improve every game is most important. Just to see certain mistakes I may have made defensively, offensively that I feel like I could do better on. That's really what I focus on, so I watch film with coach and that's what I see."
Despite his strong scoring night, Edwards earned the most praise from head coach Scott Morrison for his tenacious defensive effort after the win, showing the kind of two-way play that made him an All-Conference player in the rugged Big Ten after putting together a team-high three steals.
“We know he’s fearless from watching him play in college, but it’s hard to see the toughness on TV,” Morrison said. “He’s getting into bodies and taking teams out of their offense. He’s taken us out of our offense all week in practice when he’s been on defense, and I thought he did a good job again tonight just really disrupting their flow and making it tough for them to move the ball where they wanted to.”
Edwards' is undersized as a 6-footer but makes up for that with strength and quickness on the defensive end. He is able to fight his way through screens, something that Rozier and Irving struggled with mightily at times during the past season. The 21-year-old is showing good fight already in this regard, bullying his way through contact to keep tabs on his man. He credits a lot of his strength in that regard to his football background coming out of Texas.
"I mean, I guess it's more just trying to work and get stronger," Edwards told BSJ. "I find ways to improve my body but the most important thing I've done is try to consistently stay healthy, but also try to strengthen up. I feel like growing up in Texas and things like that, I guess football had a lot to do with that. In football, you stay in the weight room so that's kind of how that it was for me."
That strength is apparent for him on the offensive end as well, as Edwards works to create space for himself in isolation.
Carsen Edwards using the strength and the jumper to get on the board pic.twitter.com/P61bPMJ1va
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) July 6, 2019
We all know what @Cboogie_3 can do when the ball gets into his hands, but it's this stuff - his movement and effort on cuts off the ball - that will get him his best looks at the NBA level. pic.twitter.com/GNNAydOlCO
— Marc D'Amico (@Marc_DAmico) July 7, 2019