With the No. 51 overall selection in the NBA Draft, the Celtics selected LSU point guard Tremont Waters. The Connecticut native was introduced to the Boston media on Monday with his fellow rookies and referenced some pretty familiar guards.
At 5-foot-11, Waters lacks the size generally needed to be an effective defender at the professional level. As he showed at LSU, however, the 21-year-old can score with the best of them, despite his small stature. He learned some of those scoring skills from a source with plenty of Boston ties.
“This might touch some people,” Waters said as he smiled and looked around, “but growing up in high school I watched a lot of Kyrie Irving videos. The way he spins the ball and uses angles off the backboard and everything, just those type of mechanics, I grew up doing the same things. No hard feelings towards him, he’s actually one of my favorite point guards. I know it’s a business, but I had to say that.”
Waters and the media laughed off his answer, but the guard’s scoring touch is very impressive. What he lacks in size he makes up for confidence with the ball and his ability to get to the rim. Those characteristics should sound familiar to Celtics fans, and Waters noted the similarities on Monday.
“I was picked 51st and it doesn’t make me hold a grudge or anything,” Waters said. “But I’m definitely out here trying to prove a lot like Isaiah Thomas. He was a smaller guard that came into the league with a lot of doubters, and he just showed that as long as he remains himself and plays basketball and has the heart that he had, it’s going to take care of itself.”
IT is a pretty high bar to set, especially with Celtics fans, but Waters is entering his professional career with the right attitude.
