The Boston Celtics waited patiently before utilizing their lone first-round selection in the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday night.
Over three hours after the draft kicked off from Barclays Center, the Celtics selected Baylor Scheierman with the 30th overall pick. Scheierman, 23, a left-handed 3-point-shooting specialist, averaged 18.5 points with nine rebounds and 3.9 assists while shooting 38.1% from beyond the arc during his fifth collegiate campaign at Creighton.
Adding an outside shooting specialist never hurts, especially when adding a young newcomer to head coach Joe Mazzulla’s offense. Scheierman is joining a defending champion Celtics squad where Sam Hauser is the offense’s go-to 3-point sniper off the bench. He became just the third Creighton alum to be drafted by Boston — joining Gene Harmon (1974) and George Morrow (1981).
Scheierman, a 6-foot-6, 205-pound prospect with plenty of room for defensive improvement in leaping to the NBA, earned a First Team All-Big East selection. He also ended his collegiate career with the Bluejays by becoming the first-ever Division 1 men’s basketball player to reach 2,000 (2,333) points, 1,000 (1,256) rebounds, 500 (580) assists, and 300 (356) 3-pointers.
Before transferring to Creighton, Scheierman spent three seasons with South Dakota State, averaging 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
“If the right person is available at 30, then we will take him,” Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told reporters Tuesday, per NBC Sports Boston. “If we have a couple of people that we think are still the right person then we’ll see what our options are and what kind of flexibility we have.”
Boston still has the No. 54 selection left in its back pocket, which if used, will be announced during Thursday’s second round.
