Per a report from Adam Himmeslbach of the Boston Globe, Juhann Begarin will remain overseas for the 2022-23 season:
According to a league source, Celtics 2021 second-round draft pick Juhann Begarin will return to Paris this season to continue his development in France’s top league, LNB Pro A.
Begarin, who turned 20 last week, had a strong showing in Vegas.— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) August 15, 2022
Begarin was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 15th pick in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft. Begarin played 2021 Summer League with the Celtics before spending the season with Paris Basketball in his native country of France.
During the 2021-22 season, Begarin played for Paris Basketball during their first season in LNB Pro A, the highest division of French basketball. Begarin started in 25 of his 29 appearances and averaged 11.1 points on 43/31/56 shooting splits for Paris. He also grabbed 4.2 rebounds per game, while snagging 1.5 steals.
Begarin came back stateside to play for the Celtics at the 2022 Las Vegas Summer League. In his second go-around in Vegas, the 6-foot-5 wing started in all five games and averaged 18.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 31.1 minutes per game.
Begarin only just turned 20 years old at the beginning of August. Stashing him overseas for another year of continued development makes sense for both Begarin and Boston at this point. Bringing him over this year would have started his contractual clock in a year where he very likely would have seen most of his playing time with the Maine Celtics of the G League.
The Celtics other former second round pick, Yam Madar, is also expected to spend the upcoming season overseas. Madar opted out of Summer League to spend the offseason training and playing with the Israeli National Team. Team Israel will be in Group D of the upcoming EuroBasket tournament, which will start at the beginning of September.
Following EuroBasket, Madar is expected to sign with an overseas club for another year of high-level experience. Boston may then choose to bring Begarin, Madar, or both, over to the NBA for the 2023-24 season.
