CelticsBlog film room: J.D. Davison flashed NBA-level point guard talent in Summer League

Sure, the Celtics are all set on the level guard place — Marcus Sensible, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon all contribute to that. Every will try and facilitate the offense and run actions for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

However, the Celtics additionally added one other level guard within the second spherical of the 2022 NBA Draft — J.D. Davison. Davison flashed NBA-level potential on this 12 months’s Las Vegas Summer League. It was Davison who provided constant playmaking means. It was Davison who ran the pick-and-roll. It was Davison who received the ball to Juhann Begarin and Mfiondu Kabengele with momentum and in house.

He averaged 8.2 assists in Summer season League, which ranks third all-time behind Lonzo Ball and Payton Pritchard, per Celtics.com’s Taylor Snow. By Davison’s playmaking contributions, the Celtics have been greater than able to operating a spread-out offense, and because of Davison’s passing means, the Celtics shot 37.0 p.c from three-point vary, making them the third greatest three-point capturing staff in Vegas. That’s one thing.

Davison has the burst and deal with to drive to the fitting spot and blow by defenders, forcing the assistance protection to rotate over to him. That’s the place Davison makes his cash.

As seen within the video under, Davison has glorious contact on the dump-off cross to Trevion Williams and Begarin after dashing by a closeout. The Celtics Summer season League staff was unbeatable in early-possession actions, and that was due to Davison’s quickness.

Scoring-wise, Davison averaged 13.0 factors per recreation, and shot an incredibly-efficient 47.0 p.c from three-point vary. Davison’s contact has been up and down previously couple of years, as he was a 40.0 p.c shooter throughout his sophomore 12 months at The Calhoun Faculty, then he was close to 30.0 p.c shooter for the subsequent three years. Fluctuating utilization charges has one thing to do with it, as he solely logged a 18.78 utilization share and averaged solely 25.8 minutes per recreation in his solely 12 months at Alabama.

What makes Davison particular, regardless of his low productiveness in faculty, is his quickness and athleticism. He understands how defenders will guard him, and he makes use of his deal with to get them out of place. As soon as the defender is chasing, Davison will go into his bag — crossovers, hesitations, pump-fakes. He’ll cease on a dime so quick that the defender’s momentum will carry them ahead.

Right here’s an ideal instance of Davison executing an isolation, double-crossover transfer the Celtics went to sometimes. Davison will get Zaire Williams flat-footed after a swap and crosses over twice to freeze Williams, then he makes use of his explosiveness to fly in for an off-the-glass floater.

Davison’s mixture of velocity and ball-handling is one thing that was on full show at Las Vegas. However, one other facet of his recreation that was showcased in Summer season League was his lob-threat passing.

When Davison acknowledges the protection and locates the rim-runner, he can proceed elevating towards the basket and throw an oop. Or, since Davison is nice at improvising in mid-air, he can end with a layup or floater after the defender rolls to the lob-threat.

In Vegas, the Celtics ran an efficient offense with Davison as the first creator, and that would actually be his position in Maine whereas on his two-way deal. From the soar, he was the Celtics greatest pick-and-roll playmaker in Summer season League.

Davison wants to enhance as a constant, NBA-level 3-point shooter for defenses to really gameplan towards him. However, even when he doesn’t grow to be a knockdown, deep-range shooter, Davison can nonetheless be a foremost facilitator on any offense. He’ll spend time within the G-League to develop, however Davison is a pass-first, explosive guard the Celtics might make the most of down the highway.