Carsen Edwards was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 33rd pick in the 2019 NBA draft after playing an outstanding March Madness tournament for Purdue.
The 1.6m guard was seen as the microwave scorer off the bench who many hoped could blossom into a modern day Eddie House given his ability to score from deep. Unfortunately, despite numerous strong performances in the Summer League, Edwards was unable to crack the Celtics rotation and spent most of his time with the team’s G-League partner in Maine.
After two seasons and 68 regular-season games, the Celtics parted ways with the tiny point guard and sent him to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the trade package that landed Boston Juancho Hernangomez last summer. Unfortunately, Edwards never got an opportunity in Tennessee when that Grizzlies waived him shortly after he joined their rosterand the Texas native has been in the G-League ever since.
But on Sunday, March 3 The Athletic Shams Charania reported that the former Celtics guard has earned a second chance in the NBA and has signed a two-year deal with the Detroit Pistons.
Since being released by the Grizzlies, Edwards has found himself for the Salt Lake City Stars, where he has impressed in 31 games this season. Edwards has averaged 35.9 minutes a night for the Stars, averaging 26.7 points, 4.1 assists and 2.4 rebounds per contest while shooting 38.3% from deep and 46.4% from the deep field shot.
If the former Celtics guard can carry some of that form to the NBA, he’ll easily find time in the Pistons rotation as they desperately need points from the bench and currently sit 29th as a team in the NBA on three points .
Edwards, 24, is no stranger to the G-League having appeared in 13 games for the Maine Red Claws during the 2019-20 season. During an interview on the CelticsBlog podcast, then-Red Claws (since renamed the Maine Celtics) head coach Darren Erman, now on the coaching staff of the New York Knicks, spoke glowingly about the sniper.
“He’s trying to play the game right. There were games where he had to shoot for us. He helped us beat Greensborough in a tackle where he had a 40 point game.
There were other times when he fit right in, he learned shot selection and his defense was good. He even played the three for us. Sometimes we challenged him to guard the better players in the G-League and I really liked him,” said Erman.
Edwards joined the Celtics during a period of championship contention. The team was considered one of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference, and expectations for success were high. Unfortunately, the odds for a second-round draft pick that bid little outside of his score were always stacked against Edwards.
However, head coach Brad Stevens gave Edwards a chance to earn his place in the rotation. Unfortunately, the Purdue grad struggled to adjust to the pace of the NBA game and often found his shots falling short, which inevitably sent him to the bench.
Sure, Edwards has had good moments in a Celtics jersey like his 18-point night against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 24, 2021, or his 16-point night against the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 5, 2021 — but those nights were fleeting and are always considered outliers.
Hopefully Edwards has improved his all-around game and will find a role for himself in Piston’s bench rotation because the team needs his skills, all he has to do is produce with a constant clip. No matter what the future holds, the former Celtics guard has a second chance to crack the NBA and that’s all one could ask for.
