​The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas begins this Friday, July 10, marking the Boston Celtics’ return to the court for the first time since the end of the 2025-26 season. This year’s showcase features four Celtics draft picks from the last two years, underscoring Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’s emphasis on depth and roster flexibility. His confidence in this year’s draft selections and in the organization’s development program is clear as Boston eyes growth across its young talent. Here are the four players to watch this summer and what Celtics fans should expect from each in the weeks ahead.
No member of Boston’s Summer League squad will attract more eyeballs than Hugo González. The 2025 first-round pick already earned meaningful NBA minutes as a rookie, establishing himself in Boston as a high-energy wing with sharp defensive instincts and a hustle-driven impact that has won over the team’s fan base. On a broader stage, González has also become a name that surfaces in trade discussions surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to his development. Watching him this summer will reveal how his game evolves from last season, when he was productive but not yet efficient, as he takes his next steps on a Summer League court.
Boston’s valuation of González centers on the impact he makes without the ball. He is expected to contribute through screening, timely cuts, on-ball pressure, stout defensive actions, and the ability to knock down open threes. These components are likely to define his upcoming season, with Summer League serving as a testing ground to refine those strengths while he broadens his on-ball repertoire. The Celtics may run some sets through him, but the bigger indicator of his growth will be his ability to read plays off the catch, attack closeouts, and pressure the rim as a driver. González already has a solid shooting foundation, having connected on 38.7% of catch-and-shoot threes and 41.1% of corner threes. His jump shot can be sharpened in any gym, and the Summer League will offer him multiple opportunities to reinforce his mechanics in game situations.
For González, the more meaningful development may come from decision-making with the ball in his hands. If he can elevate his ability to attack closeouts, make smarter reads off drive-and-kick actions, and consistently translate those reads into productive scoring or playmaking opportunities, his overall impact could rise to a new level and raise his long-term ceiling. The Summer League will be a valuable barometer for how quickly he can translate off-ball efficiency into on-ball decisions and how well he can balance scoring with creating for teammates.
Amari Williams is the other Celtics veteran in the Summer League fold, bringing prior NBA experience from 2025-26. He appeared in 22 games for Boston that season, including a couple of starts in January. Williams also proved his mettle in the Maine Celtics, where he posted eye-catching numbers: about 17.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.8 blocks per game. Standing with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, Williams has both the scoring touch and the passing ability to overwhelm many non-NBA-level defenders, and those tools can be especially potent against Summer League competition. The lingering question about Williams revolves around the durability of those tools when faced with more physical, pro-level centers and bulkier interior defense. The pattern of that concern showed up in a notable game against the Chicago Bulls, when Williams found himself matched up in a way that did not maximize his advantages.
In that particular start, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla opted to place Williams on Jalen Smith rather than the Bulls’ starting center, Nikola Vučević. The decision limited Williams’s opportunities to exploit his height and length, as Smith’s perimeter skills pulled Williams away from the interior and negated some of his size-up advantages down low. The result was a game plan that, perhaps unintentionally, minimized Williams’s upside by constraining his optimal usage. The Summer League will be an opportunity for him to demonstrate that he can hold up against bigger, stronger centers and that his physical gifts—most notably his length and mobility—can translate into consistent production at both ends of the floor.
Beyond González and Williams, the other Celtics players entering Summer League bring additional layers of potential. One area to watch will be how the Celtics deploy the roster, whether through multiple lineups, varied roles, or different pace-and-space schemes designed to maximize each player’s strengths. The summer context offers a chance for the organization to explore alignment between players who bring high motor and defensive versatility and others who provide more traditional scoring and playmaking. For fans, the Summer League will serve as a preview of how the Celtics intend to build depth and versatility from within, as well as how Stevens and his staff evaluate talent that could contribute meaningfully during the regular season.
As the Celtics kick off their summer with four rookies and returning players, observers should pay attention to how each player adapts to the pace, physicality, and decision-making demands of Summer League basketball. González’s on-ball growth and decision-making, Williams’s ability to assert his size advantage and interior presence, and the overall development of the roster as a whole will inform how Boston approaches its internal development pipeline and its strategy for pursuing both immediate improvements and long-term sustainability. Fans should expect competitive games, deliberate development, and a clearer sense of how Boston’s next wave of players could shape the franchise’s trajectory in the years ahead.