'It was his vision': Celtics draft pick Jordan Walsh has been planning ...

Celtics “He plays like, ‘I know I stand out, and thus I want to stand out.’”

When Jordan Walsh was a freshman at Faith Family Academy in Texas, he made an audacious, three-pronged prediction to head coach Brandon Thomas. 

First, Walsh planned to win a state championship. Then he would make the McDonald’s All-American team. Then he would get drafted into the NBA. 

The equation was simple. Executing the math, of course, was much harder. 

“Kids tell you that stuff all the time,” Thomas told Boston.com on Friday. “Do you believe them? Do you believe that’s what they want? Yeah, that’s what they want. But you also know that only 1 percent of high school players make it.”

Walsh wasn’t ranked on any of the prestigious national lists at the time — a gangly 15-year-old who Thomas described as a “baby deer.” 

Still, Walsh had a few attributes that gave Thomas pause. He was an obsessive worker, arriving at the gym hours before a school day began. In his off time, Walsh trained with Dallas-based coach Charles Stoker, whose grueling workouts helped teach him how to be a physical player in a physical game. 

Additionally, Walsh had the physical measurements to dream big. He was roughly 6-foot-4 as a freshman with long arms and huge hands. Thomas was also blown away by Walsh’s footwork. 

“Even though his body was still kind of gangly, his feet were something of a 5-7, 5-8 guy,” Thomas said. “He can really get in and out of cuts, and he can destroy an agility ladder. He’s extremely gifted with his feet.”

So Thomas was willing to hear his young star out, and Walsh quickly blossomed into a high-level contributor. As a freshman, he started every game on the Faith Family Academy varsity team, and when the postseason rolled around, the team — as Thomas put it — “got hot at the right time.” They stormed to the state semifinal, where they upset a heavily favored opponent and set up a showdown in the state finals.

In the finals, Faith Family Academy let go of the rope in the first half, falling behind by as many as 13. But they came storming back, and in the closing seconds of a tie game, the ball found its way to Walsh. He caught it, leaped, and slammed in a two-handed buzzer-beater that gave Faith Family Academy its first-ever state title. 

“I was like, ‘Oh my God. He’s going to lob it to Jordan,’” Stoker told Boston.com. “And when he did, and Jordan caught it and dunked it and the buzzer went off, man I almost peed in my pants, bro. I ain’t even going to lie to you. …

“It seemed like the start of a new beginning for him. A new journey.”

‘An unorthodox way of defending’

Walsh has come a long way since his days as a baby deer. He was a McDonald’s All-American in 2022 (so check off box No. 2) and a five-star recruit before joining Arkansas. Now, as he enters the NBA, he’s an agile 6-foot-7 forward with a monstrous 7-foot-2 wingspan, huge hands, and the potential to defend multiple positions at the NBA level. 

Walsh’s defense is unique. 

“He has a special ability laterally and with his wingspan to, like, swallow people up defensively,” Brad Stevens told reporters following the draft.

Stoker used Walsh’s performance against Kansas guard Jalen Wilson (another second-round selection on Thursday) in the NCAA tournament to describe Walsh’s defensive potential. In a 72-71 victory over the top-seeded Jayhawks, Walsh hounded Wilson’s movements and controlled his angles. 

“It’s really hard to put into words,” Stoker said of Walsh’s defensive style. “It’s very unorthodox. He has an unorthodox way of defending.”

“There’s an intensity and focus when it comes to that,” Thomas added. “He’s just a ball hawk. He would have been a great free safety if he wasn’t 6-7. He anticipates well, and he’s so aggressive. He moves extremely hard.”

Walsh’s defense should get him on the floor in the NBA, but a consistent jumper would drastically change the course of his career. The stats aren’t encouraging — Walsh shot just 27.8 percent from deep and 71 percent from the free-throw line in his lone season at Arkansas, and shooting was a concern at the AAU/prep level as well. 

However, Walsh put together a nice performance as a shooter at the NBA Combine, and Stevens noted the improvements in his press conference on Thursday. 

“We had him in twice for workouts, he’s just getting better and better,” Stevens said. “And I’ve always thought his touch looked good, but he looked hesitant at times. So I think over time, he’ll become a really good shooter who has the athleticism to finish and drive closeouts”

Stoker agrees with Stevens that Walsh’s form has always been solid. He believes Walsh’s problems early in his career stemmed largely from a lack of confidence. The duo has been doing two-a-day workouts six times a week since Walsh arrived back from Arkansas, and part of the work includes 250-350 made 3-pointers on a daily basis — the first time in Walsh’s career that he has focused so single-mindedly on his shot. 

“After college, we really knew what he needed to focus on to get him to the next level, and that’s to become a consistent 3-point shot maker,” Stoker said. “That’s what we really focused on day in and day out … the majority of the time, let’s get catch-and-shoot, one-dribble pull-up, 3-point shot, all different variations of shot-making 3s. That’s what we really wanted to focus on.

“By the time he was ready for his NBA workouts, he was ready to kill it.”

‘Ready to get to work’

On Friday, Walsh accomplished the third of the three goals he outlined for Thomas when the Celtics selected him with the 38th pick. 

Walsh and his circle celebrated the draft at former NBA forward Charlie Villanueva’s house.

Villanueva and Walsh met when the young forward was in ninth grade. Like Villanueva, Walsh has alopecia, an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss. 

Thomas believes the condition contributes to Walsh’s intense, “borderline reckless” style of play.

“I think with Jordan, clearly he looks like nobody else,” Thomas said. “When he’s out on the court, I think he plays like that. He plays like, ‘I know I stand out, and thus I want to stand out.’ …

“When kids started growing their hair out and dyeing their hair, we used to say, ‘Well, if you’re going to wear your hair like that, you better be a player, because everybody is looking at you.’ With Jordan, it’s one of those things that he knows. He knows he stands out, he knows he’s a guy when you go into the game, you’re expecting to see him do something. I think just that chip on his shoulder of wanting to deliver — he’s not going to be one of those guys that is going to go into a game and be OK just standing over in the corner on offense and just being a pedestrian player. Nah. You’re going to know he’s out there one way or the other. He’s going to make something happen.”

A wing defender of that caliber has a lot of value in the NBA, and Walsh had an inkling the Celtics might be the team to pick him up — he thought his conversations with Stevens went well, and his workouts were solid.

Still, draft night is a stressful time. When Walsh’s name was called, he stood in Villanueva’s cavernous kitchen with a small smile on his face as family and friends cheered and milled around him.

“That’s all he kept saying last night: ‘I’m ready, I’m ready to get to work,’” Thomas said.

Someone produced a Celtics hat and handed it to Walsh, who accepted it, stripped his beanie off, and put it on with a big smile that almost looked dazed. He put both his hands on his head, still beaming.

“Once he made his mind up that he wanted to stay in the draft, the anticipation and the anxiousness of getting drafted, knowing where you’re going, and who wants you and things of that nature, I feel like that weight has been lifted since his name was called,” Stoker said.

For Thomas, seeing his former player — once a gangly 15-year-old, now a grown man — check off his final box was surreal.

“It was his vision,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t just a dream, it was something that he envisioned. His work ethic, his commitment, his approach to the game, it surpassed what his vision was. …

“This is one of those guys, where yes, he ended up growing, but he had the work ethic before he had all of those things. That makes me feel like he’ll make it because he knows how to work. He’s not just a naturally talented, gifted kid who has always had it easy. He’s had to work for it.”