Sam Hauser posted a 39.3 percent clip from three on 6.5 attempts a game last season, with a true shooting mark of 59.0 percent built almost entirely off movement. His three best five-man lineups all included Jaylen Brown, who is now with Philadelphia, leaving Boston to find out whether that shooting translates around a different set of drivers.
His shooting profile runs on movement, not touches.
Hauser's usage rate sat at 14.1 percent last season, the lowest kind of role a rotation shooter can have and still matter. He shot 41.9 percent from the field and 39.3 percent on 6.5 three-point attempts a game, with an 85.0 percent mark at the line. The true shooting number, 59.0 percent, is the real tell: efficiency built almost entirely off catch-and-fire reps rather than self-created offense.
His best five-man lineups all ran through a player who is gone.
Boston's top Hauser lineup last season paired him with Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Neemias Queta and Payton Pritchard for 200 minutes at a net rating of +17.9. A second grouping added Jayson Tatum alongside Brown, White and Queta for 153 minutes at +6.1. A third, with Brown, White, Queta and Baylor Scheierman, ran 115 minutes at +11.9. Brown is now with Philadelphia, part of the deal that brought Paul George to Boston. Every unit that made Hauser look indispensable had Brown creating the catch-and-shoot windows he converted.
The individual numbers held up regardless of who initiated.
Hauser's own on-court marks last season were strong on both ends: a 119.8 offensive rating, a 111.0 defensive rating, and a net rating of +8.8, with rebound and assist shares under 8 percent that confirm he is not asked to create. Those are shooter's numbers in a shooter's role, and they do not depend on any single teammate by name.
His next contract year arrives as the role gets tested.
Hauser is owed $10.8 million this season, rising to $11.7 million and then $12.5 million through 2028-29, a bet that his shooting holds regardless of personnel. He is not on an injury report entering the preseason. What he needs this season is simple to state and harder to prove: the same catch-and-shoot output, now generated off George and Tatum instead of the drive-and-kick game that left with Brown this summer.
What is Sam Hauser's role on the Celtics this season?
He is a movement shooter who spaces the floor around primary ball handlers, logging a 14.1 percent usage rate and a 59.0 percent true shooting mark last season.
Why do Sam Hauser's best lineups from last season matter now?
His three most effective five-man units all included Jaylen Brown, who was traded to Philadelphia over the summer, so Boston has not yet shown those shooting numbers can hold without him.
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