With the 28th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics selected Hugo Gonzalez, a 19-year-old wing from Spain.
The 6-foot-6 Gonzalez was regarded as a late first-round talent by most prominent draft analysts. He played for Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid this season but saw only sporadic playing time as a teenage bench player, averaging 3.5 points, 1.2 rebounds and just over 10 minutes per game on a roster dotted with ex-NBAers.
“We’ve been watching Hugo for a long time,” Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said late Wednesday night. “He’s obviously been on everybody’s radar I think for a long time, and then followed his year with a great Real Madrid organization and team closely and watched him in all the U-18s and those types of things. Just a big fan of how he plays. He’s tough, he’s hard-playing, he cuts, he goes after the ball, he competes. He’s got all the intangibles of a winning basketball player. There’s things he can get better at just like everybody else at that age, but competitiveness is at a high level.”
Though he lacks experience, scouting reports laud Gonzalez for his size, aggressiveness, high motor and defensive capability. One concern is his perimeter shooting, as he made just 29.3% of his 3-pointers this season. Stevens raved about his basketball character and pointed to his “cutting and … willingness to do sacrificial things” when asked what he appreciates about Gonzalez’s game.
“We talk about cuts that end up in you getting offensive rebounds, we talk about sacrificing your body on defense, we talk about competing on defense, we talk about flying back in transition, blocking a shot and catching up to a play,” Stevens said. “Those are things he’s willing to do that I like. He will become a better shooter, I believe that. We’ve got a good development program for that, so I’m excited about him.”
Stevens also confirmed Gonzalez will join the Celtics this offseason rather than being kept overseas as a draft-and-stash. It’s unclear whether he’ll arrive in time for Summer League in mid-July, however, as Real Madrid’s domestic season just ended on Wednesday. The club defeated Valencia Basket to claim the Liga ACB championship, though Gonzalez — who heard his name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver hours later — did not see action.
“Literally, they play so late that we’ll see how he’s doing and see how it feels,” Stevens said. “Summer League won’t define what his career will look like over the course of time, although we’ll all be antsy to see.”
Gonzalez’s teammates with Real Madrid included NBA alums Serge Ibaka, Mario Herzonja, Bruno Fernando, Dennis Smith Jr. and Facundo Campazzo. Though that meant minimal playing time for the young kid on the roster, the Celtics believe that environment was beneficial for Gonzalez’s development.
“He’s playing around a bunch of studs, guys that have been old pros,” Stevens said. “They know how to play. They’re hard to beat out. They’re physical, tough, smart, again, extremely well-coached. When you’re that age in that situation you’ve gotta earn your stripes. … When you put on a Real Madrid jersey, you put on the responsibility similar to here. And I think that that’s a good thing. When we interviewed Hugo a couple weeks ago on Zoom, it’s really clear that he’s about the team and he accepts and is willing to play any role it takes. That’s not an earned trait for everybody that’s in the draft, because most of these guys have never sat. And with that comes a humility and also an understanding that you’ve got to invest every day just to take advantage of whatever opportunity you get.”
Before Gonzalez the Celtics hadn’t used a first-round pick on a player who did not play college basketball since Guerschon Yabusele in 2016.
The Gonzalez selection came after two transformative days for the Celtics, who reached agreements Monday and Tuesday to trade Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to Portland and Atlanta, respectively.
The Celtics also received draft-day trade offers for Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, according to multiple reports, with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reporting some of those came from teams picking in the top 10. Boston ultimately chose to keep both core players, though future deals remain possible as Stevens restructures his roster. (He could not comment on the Holiday and Porzingis deals because they were not yet official, but he repeatedly emphasized the need for the Celtics to “regain flexibility” after feeling the crunch of the NBA’s second-apron restrictions.)
Gonzalez, who does not turn 20 until February, will have an uphill climb to crack head coach Joe Mazzulla’s new-look rotation as a rookie. Boston will begin the 2025-26 season with at least three new starters with Holiday and Porzingis gone and Jayson Tatum recovering from Achilles surgery.
The Dallas Mavericks opened the draft Wednesday night by taking Duke sensation and Newport, Maine, native Cooper Flagg with the first pick. Flagg — long considered the no-doubt top prospect in this draft class — became the first New England-raised player to go No. 1 overall since Patrick Ewing (Cambridge) in 1985.
Rutgers’ Dylan Harper went No. 2 to San Antonio, followed by Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe (No. 3, Philadelphia) and Duke’s Kon Knueppel (No. 4, Charlotte). The Jazz, now led by former Boston executive Austin Ainge, nabbed Rutgers’ Ace Bailey to round out the top five. Ainge took over as Utah’s general manager earlier this month after 17 seasons with the Celtics organization, including the last six as the C’s assistant GM.
ESPN’s Jonathan Givony called the Bailey pick “a bit of a stunner” on the draft broadcast, reporting Utah was not among the 18-year-old’s “preferred destinations.” Bailey, a talented but polarizing prospect, declined to work out for any NBA teams during the pre-draft process.
The Celtics will be on the clock much earlier when the draft resumes Thursday at 8 p.m. They currently own the second pick in Round 2 (No. 32 overall), which originally belonged to Washington. Boston acquired it from Detroit in a draft-night trade in 2023. The Celtics traded their own second-rounder this year (No. 57) to Orlando in the 2021 deal for Evan Fournier.
If Boston keeps the 32nd pick, potential targets include big men Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton) and Maxime Raynaud (Stanford) and wings Noah Penda (France) and Adou Thiero (Arkansas).
“When you’re talking about the draft, you’ve got to find guys that you think are going to be good fits for how your group plays and will bring the competitiveness and competitive character required to be a part of your group,” Stevens said. “And so I thought there were several good players still available there late, and we will go back to the drawing board and look at what we’re going to do tomorrow. But we were really excited that Hugo was available at 28.”