The Boston Celtics’ personnel restructuring over the past two years has altered the team’s trajectory toward winning an NBA title. It also eliminated the colossal concerns that loomed over the Celtics’ backcourt after they lost Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals 4-2 of their best-of-7 series to the Miami Heat.
Boston has come a long way since the days of the 2020 NBA bubble. Brad Stevens was the head coach, Gordon Hayward was a standout player, and Kemba Walker was still an all-star point guard.
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Now all three are off the Celtics bench. Still, Boston bounced back well on many moves, including moving Stevens to the front office, hiring a new head coach in Ime Udoka, and handing the proverbial keys to the team’s offense to 2022 Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart.
Before all of this happened, former Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge drafted Yam Madar with the 47th pick in the 2020 NBA draft.
The 21-year-old prospect, who played for Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Israeli Premier League before signing for Partizan NIS Belgrade in the ABA League in 2021, is making progress. Speaking to an international scout on condition of anonymity, The Current News.com revealed an impressive update on Madar’s development.
“He’s up a level for Partizan this year and obviously it’s tougher. They’re a good team in the European leagues,” the international scout told The Aktuell News.com. “Well, his numbers would always go down a step, but he kept playing better and better as the year went on, I thought. He’s not a super smart point guard, not a great playmaker, but he’s a good set-up man; makes the right pass.”
According to Basketball-Reference.com, he averaged 2.9 assists in 17.8 minutes per game; Madar adapts to the game as an efficient playmaker. He’s also gaining rich experience playing in the Euro leagues, which has given him some outside flair lately.
In 2021-22, Yam’s 3-point percentage increased to 48.8% at 2.6 attempts per game according to Basketball-Reference.com, making Madar an NBA-eligible candidate according to an international scout according to The Current News.com for the power campaign 2022-23.
“He’s always shown that he can be a very good shot, that should earn him a place on an NBA bench,” added the scout. “He’s made good progress with it. He has a long way to go defensively. But he’s similar to Payton Pritchard in many ways. So you have to wonder what his future holds in Boston.”
Payton Pritchard, whose 41.2% 3-point touch edged out Grant Williams (41.1%) for the Celtics’ most efficient shot percentage in 2021-22, has made tremendous strides over the past two seasons. However, 3-point shooting at the Celtics comes first and it will be interesting to see if Madar can crack Boston’s 2022-23 roster ahead of the regular season.
Madar averaged 11.9 points and 2.5 assists in three league games for Boston in 2021.
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