The Boston Celtics signed Josh Minott to a two-year, $5 million contract this past offseason as they look to re-tool their roster following Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury. Minott had previously spent the first three seasons of his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he averaged just 5 minutes across 93 games with the team.
He wasn't a big name heading into the offseason. But so far, this move is looking like a steal for Boston.
In his first eight games with the Celtics, the Florida native has started six of them and is averaging 9.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 steals. All of these numbers would be career highs for Minott, but his impact goes way beyond the stat sheet.
Minott is a very smart player. He never forces anything. Not bad passes, not bad shots. Nothing. Additionally, he is always active on the boards (he even recorded a career-high 15 rebounds in just his fourth game with the Celtics) and is always following up on shots taken by him, a teammate, or somebody from the opposing team.
The 22-year-old plays hard, buys into his role incredibly well, and is essentially a coach's dream. He may never be the best player in any area on the court, but he does a lot of things extremely well, and it's put a lot of Celtics fans on notice very early in his tenure with the team.
So why should Indiana Pacers fans care about Minott? It's simple. He's essentially Boston's version of Aaron Nesmith (well, kind of. Technically, their version of Nesmith would just be Nesmith, considering he was there to begin his career in 2020).
Aaron Nesmith can relate to Josh Minott's breakout year
Nesmith spent the first two seasons of his career in Boston and just rode the bench for essentially his entire stint there. As a Celtic, the Vanderbilt alum averaged 4.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 12.7 minutes across 98 games.
Though the potential was always on display for Nesmith, he didn't give the Celtics many reasons to give him an expanded role.
He looked lost often on the court, he was incredibly inefficient from deep (he shot 31.8% from beyond the arc with the Celtics), even though this was one of his strengths coming out of college, and there was no long-term role for him with the team given that he was never going to jump ahead of guys like Tatum or Jaylen Brown in the depth chart.
So what did the Celtics do? They traded Nesmith to Indiana in 2022 as part of the Malcolm Brogdon deal, and he has since become one of the best 3-and-D players in the league.
Minott's story is one that Pacers fans can resonate with because it's very similar to Nesmith's. Both players began their careers just warming a bench instead of getting consistent opportunities to prove their worth. But once they got a fresh start elsewhere, they took that chance and ran with it.
It remains to be seen if Minott will reach the same highs in Boston that Nesmith has in Indiana. But so far, he is enjoying a breakout season, and he may even be giving some Pacers fans a feeling of déjà vu.