Celtics draft-and-stash prospect Juhann Begarin will remain with Paris Basketball for the 2022/23 season rather than coming stateside, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
A 6’5″ French shooting guard, Begarin was selected by Boston with the 45th overall pick of the 2021 draft. The 20-year-old, who has played for Paris since 2019, has yet to sign his first NBA contract — the Celtics have opted to allow him to continue developing overseas before they seriously consider adding him to their roster.
In 2021/22, which was Paris’ first season in France’s top league (LNB Pro A), Begarin averaged 11.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.5 SPG in 29 contests (28.0 MPG). He has room to improve his shooting efficiency (.432/.309/.563), but made a strong impression as a 19-year-old playing a significant role.
Begarin has also played for the Celtics’ Summer League team in Las Vegas in each of the last two years and performed especially well last month, putting up 18.2 PPG and 5.6 RPG on .427/.333/.769 shooting in five games, all starts (31.1 MPG).
Begarin is one of two recent second-round picks the Celtics have stashed overseas. The other is 2020’s No. 47 overall selection, Yam Madar, who has played in Israel and Serbia since being drafted.
Yam Madar would be a great bench piece for Boston this year on a rookie scale contract
Currently they have Smart, Brogdon, White, Pritchard, and J.D Davison all playing PG.
No room for Madar. In fact, I would try and get a halfway decent big for Pritchard if I were Stevens.
Smart will be playing more SG than PG. White and someone else should be traded for a starting center,(6’8 r Williams gets abused by every taller centers all day. Even Horford in practice rag dolls him around. He needs to be a PF. Then sign begarin and madar.
Mgmt doesn’t think he’s ready for the NBA yet and they would prefer that he continues playing overseas for another season.
They don’t want to start the NBA clock just to sit the bench or play in Maine.
Honestly Maine is boring
And we’d like to keep it that way…..
Fin.
He looked pretty good in Summer League. Hoping for the best for him.
Hope these two remain under the Celtics umbrella! Next year for both, hopefully!
Go Celtics!