Just a year after claiming the NBA Championship, the Boston Celtics are heading into the offseason. The Cs, who were knocked out in dramatic fashion by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, also suffered another huge loss during that series. Boston lost its franchise player, Jayson Tatum, who tore his Achilles tendon while diving for a loose ball. Now, not only will the Celtics be without him for the next season, they’ll also have to find his replacement, which is a daunting task.

More so, given the massive tax implications looming over the franchise. This has forced Joe Mazzulla and the front office to look for options within the franchise, and one player they’ve identified is none other than Baylor Scheierman. The 24-year-old shooting guard was the 30th overall pick by Boston last season, and although he didn’t get much game time in his rookie year, things might be about to change going into his second year in the league.

In fact, he’s already getting a lot of attention in the Summer League, which is going on in Las Vegas. Despite missing several three-pointers, Baylor Scheierman hasn’t stopped shooting. His inspiration? None other than Luka Doncic. Tatum’s back-up spoke about how he looks up to the Lakers’ point guard, as someone he’d like to base his style of play on, along with a few other stars. “Um, I think for me, I just try to take a lot from a bunch of different guys.” He said.

“I don’t think it’s like necessarily one guy. Watch Mike Conley because he’s got a great floater. Watch Luke Doncic because he plays with good pace, plays off two feet, got good passing. So, it’s just like Duncan Robinson flying off. So it’s just like taking bits and pieces from other guys, um, that they do well, trying to implement them into my game.” The 24-year-old sophomore guard explained which players’ films he watches and why. He explained that he wants to implement Doncic’s pace and elite passing skills into his game next season.

This is massive for the Boston supporters. That’s because Baylor Scheierman has a lot of upside to his game, and if he manages to instill some aspects of Luka Doncic, Mike Conley and Duncan Robinson, he’ll surely be a force to reckon with in the future. However, there’s a lot of work to be done by the 24-year-old, as he’s had a shaky start to the summer. However, that’s not entirely his fault, given that the Boston Celtics have made a huge change in their playing style.

The Boston Celtics make a major change ahead of next season

There’s no doubt that the Boston Celtics will not be contesting for the championship next season after what happened to Jayson Tatum. Not to mention the players they’ve had to ship due to luxury tax issues. This has left them with no choice but to change their style of play and adapt for the upcoming campaign. But the question is, how will they do it? Joe Mazzulla’s answer to this question is through pace. Something that even Baylor Scheierman emphasized while talking about which players’ films he’s watching.

Not just that, Celtics breakaways have become a common sight during the Summer League in Las Vegas. Boston is hoping to increase the tempo at which they play the game. But why? You might ask. To put it simply, it’s to force more turnovers and create breakaway chances. This is something they’ve missed since the last season. The team became too reliant on shooting threes and volume and suffered from a thin turnover margin as their own giveaways added to the misery.

However, Brad Stevens and the management took note of these issues and are determined to put an end to them. Not to mention, they need to play on the strengths of their new-look roster in Jayson Tatum’s absence. While this new strategy has yielded results in the Summer League as the Cs are 3-1 in Vegas, there are still a lot of obstacles to overcome for Joe Mazzulla and Co., as they gear up for a pretty huge campaign next season with this newly constructed roster.