Just a month ago, Jordan Walsh was flying under the radar on a national scale. The 21-year-old Boston Celtics forward, a former second-round draft pick, was glued to the bench and seemed destined for the NBA’s fringes, struggling to carve out a meaningful role.
But everything flipped in a flash. A month of dominant two-way play has catapulted Walsh into the spotlight. In Boston, he’s now a local legend, and the national media—along with rival players—can’t stop singing his praises as one of the league’s rising forwards. After the Celtics dismantled the Lakers, Austin Reaves didn’t hold back in his post-game comments, telling reporters he envisions Walsh evolving into “one of the best defenders in the league for many years to come.”
As the buzz around Walsh explodes, teammate Jaylen Brown—who shares the team plane with him—dropped a subtle reminder about a core principle that Coach Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics have hammered home time and again: internalizing praise can be just as toxic as soaking in criticism.
“I don’t want to boost his head up too much,” Brown quipped about Walsh, only half-joking. “I don’t want him to start getting cute. You gotta still take care of the details.”
This idea of steering clear from over-internalizing acclaim is a recurring theme for Mazzulla this season. Fresh off the 2024 NBA championship, the Celtics’ head coach reflected on navigating the rollercoaster of his tenure, emphasizing emotional equilibrium amid external noise: “If someone tells you, ‘Good job,’ that’s just as dangerous as someone telling you, ‘You suck.’”
Plenty of Celtics players are basking in that “good job” glow from fans and media alike. Take 22-year-old Josh Minott, who’s jumped from a measly 6 minutes per game last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves to 19.2 this year. He’s emerged as a fan darling and even started for a nine-game run earlier in the campaign. Then there’s 26-year-old Neemias Queta, who’s transformed from fourth-string center to the starting big man.
Rookie Hugo Gonzalez is logging his inaugural NBA minutes, while second-year forward Baylor Scheierman has leaped from G League obscurity to averaging 12 minutes with the big club.
During Saturday’s Celtics practice, Mazzulla fielded questions on guiding his young guns through the whirlwind of sudden praise and scrutiny.
“When you have young players, you have to have all those conversations,” Mazzulla explained. “It’s stuff that happens in life. But I think our guys here—we have a good culture and atmosphere of that mental performance—to be able to work through that.”
He stressed that mastering emotional highs and lows is integral to NBA acclimation and growth.
“Everyone talks about player development as skills on-court, but what you’re talking about is a piece of player development as well—how you handle those things throughout the season,” he added. “It’s not just the praise, too. It’s handling not playing well. It’s handling, ‘Can you bounce back?’”
For Baylor Scheierman, this lesson hit home during his rookie year. The ex-Creighton standout spent most of his debut season in Maine but exploded with sharpshooting bursts in March for Boston. Early on, the temptation to ride the wave of success was real, but as a sophomore, he’s internalized the need for balance.
“If you do play well, or you don’t play well, or you play a lot, or you don’t play a lot, you kind of just take it for what it is and move on to the next game,” Scheierman shared.
Some vets have already mastered this mindset. Payton Pritchard, the 27-year-old who snagged Sixth Man of the Year honors last season, rode a wave of acclaim then. Now seasoned in the NBA’s ups and downs, he appreciates savoring the good without overindulging.
“When you’re playing well, you definitely want to—not like, soak in it, but you want to appreciate it,” Pritchard said. “Because you want to acknowledge that ‘I’m playing well.’ And then when you’re playing bad, obviously, people are going to tell you, and it’s not something you want to dwell on. But you can [acknowledge]: ‘I am playing bad, I can acknowledge I need to be better.’ So it’s a balance.”
Pritchard’s season has been a microcosm of this: starting with a frigid 18% from deep over the first seven games, then erupting for highlights like a 42-point torching of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Through it all, he’s avoided emotional extremes.
“You don’t want to be so high on it that when you have a good game, it’s like ‘Oh, I’m on top of the world,’” he noted. “Because when you have a bad game, then you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m the worst player.’ So, it’s definitely a middle ground of how to handle it.”
At its core, this is Mazzulla’s blueprint: teaching his emerging talents to rebound swiftly from setbacks—whether it’s a losing streak, a tough defeat, or a string of miscues.
“We always say, the greats are able to suck for a quarter, and they come right back,” Mazzulla emphasized. “They suck for four possessions, they come right back. How quickly can you get back to being yourself—as an individual, as a team? It’s just good learning experiences.”
This mental fortress—staying even-keeled amid praise and pressure—might be the Celtics’ most underrated edge. It’s the overlooked key that’s fueling their depth and resilience, turning young contributors into consistent forces. And while opponents are busy scouting schemes and matchups, they have no clue this internal blueprint is what’s quietly positioning Boston to dominate and seal another title run.