The Boston Celtics are a team with a bright future ahead of them. They have an absurd amount of draft picks over the next few years, so for their rebuild to go as planned, they will need to choose wisely come draft day.
The Celtics chose not to tank this season, but instead played hard and were able to make the playoffs as a 7th seed. Due to their non-tanking ways, Boston finds themselves out of the lottery, and currently hold the 16th pick. However, the Celtics may not be satisfied with this pick.
From CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely,
“Two league sources told CSNNE.com Friday that the Boston Celtics are “very open” to moving up in next month’s NBA draft.”
If the Celtics want to trade up, it’s likely that they have their eye on a certain player. That player may be Willie Cauley-Stein, the 7-footer out of Kentucky. As Cauley-Stein, who Larry Bird Recently called a “$100 Million Player,” is expected to be a top-10 pick, the Celtics would have to trade up to select him.
Should Boston move up in the draft and pick Cauley-Stein, both parties would probably be ecstatic. For the past few years Celtic fans have yearned for an athletic shot-blocking center, and that’s Cauley-Stein. The Celtics are impressed with Cauley-Stein, and that feeling is mutual.
Cauley-Stein likes what he has seen of Boston, telling Blakely:
“The organization, the way they’re running, they’re on a tight ship,” Cauley-Stein said when I asked him about his impressions of meeting the Celtics’ brass. “They got a lot of young guys, but a lot of young talented guys. To be that young and to be where they’re at is really amazing. You can tell that begins with the coaching staff. The players have to buy into it.”
Cauley-Stein sounds ready to “buy into” the Celtics’ vision, and he would be a perfect fit should Boston find a way to acquire him. If Cauley-Stein does end up on the Celtics, he would join former Kentucky teammate James Young, whom the Celtics selected with the 17th pick in the draft last summer.
Bottom line, the Celtics want to be active this offseason, and if they want to trade up in the draft, they have the assets to do so. They seem to have their eye on Willie Cauley-Stein, and if they were to draft him it would be a match made in heaven.
