Celtics Land Purdue Guard Carsen Edwards In 2nd Round Of NBA Draft
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Celtics grabbed an extremely gifted scoring guard in the second round of Thursday night's NBA Draft. To complete their draft night trade, the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Purdue guard Carsen Edwards for the Celtics with the No. 33 pick.
Boston obviously needs a point guard, with Kyrie Irving set to leave down via free agency and Terry Rozier a restricted free agent, and Edwards should become pretty popular in Boston. He was a prolific scorer during his time at Purdue, averaging 17.8 points per game during his three-year collegiate career.
Edwards can score and do it well. He averaged 24.3 points per game as a junior, hitting 39 percent of his shots from the floor and 35 percent of his attempts from downtown. He can also get to the line (which he has in common with Boston's first two picks on Thursday night), attempting 6.1 free throws per game last season. Overall, Edwards was a 41 percent shooter during his time as a Boilermaker.
The 6-foot-1 guard turned into one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball during his three-year career, and he put on an absolute show in the NCAA tournament when he averaged 34.8 points per game. That includes a pair of 42-point performances, which came against Villanova and Virginia, who went on to win the title. Over that four-game stretch, Edwards shot 45 percent from the floor while hitting 46 percent from downtown, taking 15 threes per game.
Edwards was named to back-to-back All-Big Ten First Teams, and was a second-team All-American in 2019.
