Sam Hauser Returning to Boston
The Boston Celtics season came to the best ending imaginable to the 2023-2024 NBA season for the franchise as they were crowned 2024 NBA Champions on June 17, 2024, in TD Garden, winning their 18th NBA Championship of all time, a league record. This championship marked Boston’s first since 2008 and the first during the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era, making it a bittersweet win for all members of the team, especially for Celtics center Al Horford, who won this NBA Championship at age 38 during his 186th career playoff game. After the Celtics' last few years of struggles of almost winning it all but never being able to finish the job and hold the trophy up, we have to give credit where credit is due and point out that newcomers Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis took this team over the top. However, the great play of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser can not go without discussion either.
Hauser, upon his completion of a successful five-year college career, three years at Marquette and two years at Virginia, declared for the 2021 NBA Draft. Hauser went on to go undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft but signed a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics in August of 2021, splitting his time between the Celtics and their G League affiliate, the Maine Celtics. In February of 2022, when he was still a rookie, Hauser’s two-way contract was converted into a standard NBA contract in major part because of his successful three-point shooting that helped the Celtics reach the 2022 NBA Finals. After the Celtics fell to the Warriors in six games during the 2022 NBA Finals, in July of 2022, the Celtics re-signed Hauser on a three-year, $6 million deal with a team option after the second season. Today, as Hauser’s second year on his contract recently came to a close, and with free agency in the NBA starting this coming Monday, the Celtics picked up the last year on his contract, which as we can all imagine was a no-brainer for Boston.
Hauser, who is coming off his best season with the team, averaged nine points, made 197 three-pointers, and shot over 42% from behind the arc during the 2023-2024 NBA regular season. He then averaged over 5 points in the 2024 NBA postseason where he shot 38% from three-point range and made 27 triples, 11 of which were made throughout the five NBA 2024 Finals games. While Hauser is no doubt due for a nice payday next summer, Celtics fans can rest in the fact that one of the best shooters in the league will at least be on their roster for one more season as they chase their second straight NBA Championship.
