The Boston Celtics selected LSU guard Tremont Waters with the 51st overall pick in the second round of the NBA Draft on Thursday night, and afterward, Waters said the Celtics picked him for his toughness.

“They saw the type of dog I had in me,” said Waters, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.

At 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, Waters certainly has to have a quite a bit of dog in him in order to make it on the professional level, and given that the Celtics had Isaiah Thomas for two-and-a-half years, they know something about diminutive guards.

Waters is coming off of a sophomore campaign in which he played 33 games and averaged 15.3 points, 5.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 2.9 steals over 32.4 minutes per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor, 32.7 percent from three-point range and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line.

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The 21-year-old arrived at LSU in 2017, and during his freshman year, he went on to register 15.9 points, six assists, 3.4 boards and two steals across 33 minutes a night while making 41.7 percent of his field-goal attempts, 35.1 percent of his long-distance tries and 80.1 percent of his foul shots.

Waters actually entered his name in the 2018 NBA Draft, but he did not hire an agent and eventually withdrew.

His best game of the 2018-19 season came against Texas A&M, when he poured in 36 points, seven rebounds and three steals while going 11-of-18 from the floor, 5-of-8 from three-point range and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe.

The Celtics won 49 games and made it to the second round of the playoffs this year, but with Kyrie Irving and Al Horford likely leaving via free agency, they are having to enter rebuilding mode sooner than they hoped.