I’m
not much of a basketball writer, I’ve probably written one article on basketball. I've actually been writing a lot of game recaps about high school summer league basketball, maybe you should read those to get a better sense of my basketball writing (no shameless plug here!). But with the flurry of moves, rumors and trades that have happen this week
leading up to the NBA draft on Thursday night, there are a couple things that I
felt important enough to discuss.
1.
Celtics trade number one pick for
Philly’s third overall pick and a future first.
When
the trade first broke, it was originally said to be the third overall pick, a 2018
first round pick and a 2019 first round pick. I didn’t like the move but I
understood it. The ability to swap the number one overall pick for three top
ten picks, would give them enough picks to make a trade for a legitimate star in
the league (Anthony Davis). But nothing is ever as it seems and Danny Ainge
completely punted. They made the Brooklyn trade touting that the team will
have the number one pick in this draft and just watch for all the great things they can do with it. They
would have the ability to draft a franchise player or trade it for a legitimate
star in the league and Ainge punted at both those opportunities to acquire more
draft picks. I have more to discuss
about draft pick acquisition.
2.
Why do Celtics fans trust Danny Ainge in
the draft?
This
is a legitimate question that never gets asked. Everyone believes in Ainge
because he was able to take sub-par draftees and turn them into Kevin Garnett
and Ray Allen. That shouldn’t give him a pass on his drafting ability. Since
2014, the year that began this on-the-fly rebuild, Ainge has used seven first
round draft picks and 14 picks in all. He has four picks in this year’s draft.
Three first round picks in next year’s draft (depending on the Lakers’
situation), three first round picks in 2019, three in 2020 and two in 2021.
Besides the fact that a team can’t hold as many players as Ainge has and will
have presumably drafted, why do we trust him to draft legitimate NBA talent
with those picks? Just look at his draft history. It is a bunch of flops and average
NBA players.
It’s
still too early to discuss 2016, but in 2015, Ainge drafted Terry Rozier and
R.J. Hunter. Hunter was a flop and later released and Rozier has been an average to
below average NBA player to this point in his career. He drafted Marcus Smart,
a decent role player but very expendable and James Young, probably the second
biggest flop after Fab Melo in 2012. Lucas Nogueira in 2013 was a flop. Jared Sullinger, dud. Mar’Shon Brooks, bust. I could keep going on and on about this
sub-par list of Ainge draft picks (Marcus Thornton, J.R. Giddens, Gerald Green,
etc.). The biggest components to this Celtics team are not the guys that they
have drafted, but the guys that they acquired via trade (Isaiah Thomas) and
free agency (Al Horford). So then why are we so excited to have Ainge be drafting players?
3. I
firmly believe that Danny Ainge will select Jayson Tatum out of Duke
After
making the move to go down in the draft, Ainge said publicly "We
think there's a really good chance the player we'll take at [No.] 3 is the same
player we would have taken at [No.] 1.”
This
happened before the D’Angelo Russell trade that made it pretty clear the Lakers
will take Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick. Maybe Danny Ainge knew this
all along. He’s more engrossed in the league and knows more than me. But when he
said this, there was doubt the Lakers really wanted Ball and that they could in
fact take Josh Jackson with the second overall pick. Pair this with the fact
that WEEI reported that Jackson refuses to workout for the Celtics and the only
way that he does is if the Celtics guarantee him they will select him at third
overall. The Celtics did not give him that guarantee. Doesn’t this
sound like the Celtics want Tatum? Tatum is the only player out of the three
that Ainge could securely say would still be available at three. It makes even
more sense because Ainge also said "I think even before the lottery, we've
been evaluating these kids for a couple years, and we felt like it was very
close with the top handful of players and we still feel that way.” I keyed in
on the fact that Ainge said they have been evaluating these kids for a couple
of years. I believe that Ainge is saying all of this to prepare Celtics fans
that they have watched Tatum since high school, really believe in his ability
and it might not look good drafting him where they will draft him but believe
in the process and the scouting. All of this is just coming together as if they will take Tatum come
Thursday night.
It
will be interesting to see what unfolds on Thursday night. I’m hoping the
Celtics turn these picks into Anthony Davis (highly unlikely and very doubtful)
and I don’t understand why Celtics fans trust Ainge so much with all these
draft picks. Just remember, when the Celtics draft Jayson Tatum, all I have to
say is I told you so.
