Celtics
“We were very excited that Hugo was available on 28.”
Brad Stevens is high on the 19-year-old Hugo Gonzalez. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff
Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens spoke on Wednesday with his 2025 NBA First-round Draft Selection Wednesday.
Boston chose the 19-year-old six-foot-inches-long Hugo Gonzalez from Madrid, Spain with the 28th overall selection. It was a pick under the radar-a teenager who was the most recently on average 10.7 minutes per game for Real Madrid in 69 performances this season.
“We’ve been watching Hugo for a long time,” Said Stevens of the attacker during his press conference after the Draft in the Auerbach Center. “He has clearly been on everyone’s radar for a long time … Just a big fan of how he plays. He is tough, he is playing hard, he cuts, he goes after the ball, he competes. He has all the elusive libraries of a winning basketball player.
“There are things that he can get better at, just like everyone else at that age, but the competitiveness is at a high level.”
Gonzalez joined Real Madrid in 2022 and participated in their U18 team for two seasons while also combining time in the professional team. 2024-25 only marked its first season with the Pro Club, a season in which he had an average of 3.4 points per match.
With Real Madrid this last season (the team won the Liga ACB title on Wednesday), Gonzalez played alongside various former NBA players such as Bruno Fernando, Mario Hezonja, Serge Ibaka and former Celtic Guerschon Yabusele.
Stevens emphasized the importance of Gonzalez who learned from such players in recent years who learned from such players, even though they did not register on the field for many minutes.
“I think he is a young guy, but a bit of an old soul. He plays with adults for a long time,” said Stevens. “He plays in a team full of experienced former NBA players and high, high high-level professions from all over the world. This guy has been around at a high level, is very well coached.”
Stevens doubled and stated that he believes that Gonzalez was able to absorb knowledge of ex-NBA players, distinguished him from others in the design. And Stevens said that Gonzalez is exactly the kind of player who wants the organization: a competitive one.
“He plays a couple of studs, boys who have been old professionals. They know how to play,” said Stevens. “They are hard to beat. They are physically, clever, smart, extremely well coached. If you are so old in that situation, you have to earn your stripes. … It’s great if you can play in those teams.
“When you set up a Real Madrid sweater, you put the responsibility that is similar to here. I think that is a good thing. If we interviewed Hugo a few weeks ago on Zoom, it is really clear that he is about that team and he accepts and has also a learned characteristic for everyone you have never received, because these have never come again.”
When Gonzalez goes to New England, he is greeted by a handful of players in the Celtics organization that have been in comparable situations. JD Davidson, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh are also developed by Boston being developed since he has been prepared by the organization in recent years. The Celtics see their ability to grow into important players who are comparable to the way Stevens spoke about Gonzalez.
“We were very excited that Hugo was available on 28,” said Stevens.
Stevens also said that Boston is planning to bring Gonzalez “immediately” to Boston to be acclimatized.
However, Stevens was not sure if Gonzalez would compete in the Summer League promotion, which starts on July 10 in Las Vegas.
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