The NBA Draft is nearly going to be the main subject of the sports world as the NBA Finals will come to an end tonight in Oakland, California.
The Boston Celtics have been very vocal in saying what they’re thinking about and more importantly, who they’re thinking of taking. We heard that European prospect Dragan Bender is a big candidate, Marquese Chriss, Kris Dunn, Buddy Hield have all been mentioned beside the Celtics. ESPN’s Chad Ford has his guesses.
If they stay at 3, I think it’s safe to say — this is frustrating, but I think it’s safe to say that they’ve narrowed it down to four guys: Jamal Murray, Kris Dunn, Jaylen Brown out of Cal, and Marquese Chriss out of Washington. I think if they go upside, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go Jaylen Brown. He fits a need. He’s a wing who’s very athletic. He did not shoot the ball well at Cal this year, but he shot the ball very well in workouts including the workout that he did with the Celtics, and if you’re saying at No. 3, look, let’s just swing for the guy who could be a superstar down the road and we’ll take a risk, then Brown seems like a pretty good calculated risk. If they want an immediate impact player, then I think that’s Kris Dunn or Jamal Murray. Dunn doesn’t necessarily fit a need. The Celtics have been drafting point guards for a while, but I will say that Dunn is a better point guard prospect than anybody that currently sits on the Celtics’ roster right now, which is appealing, and there’s a defensive ability, especially that’s very, very attractive.
Murray brings shooting, which is something the Celtics could use a lot more of and they need, as well. His defensive abilities, though, are very questionable, and I think that’s the concern there.
Fact is that we don’t know who they’re feeling more than others. But what we do know is that candidates have been cut down to 3 or 4.
“We’ve been narrowing at this point. We have them in groups more than specific (players). Maybe for our first pick we have it narrowed to these three or four guys, the second group a little bigger – eight or 10, because you don’t know whose going to be there. You do your best at guessing and debating the groups,” Ainge said.
“It’s hard to guess what other teams are going to do, especially after the first couple of picks,” Ainge said. “It gets harder. All the media reports and discussions we’ve had with other teams, we still don’t know how the draft is going to go. Other teams [don’t know]. For instance, we don’t know who we’re going to take at 16, so how can I anticipate what another team is going to do? So these things are hard. So, you’ve just got to take the player you like the most and not outsmart yourself.“
Austin Ainge is right, the 3rd pick is easy for them because they know it will most likely be Simmons and Ingram gone before they’re on the clock. But once you get to the later picks it is really a crap shoot. Especially with this year, I haven’t seen any similar mock Drafts.
But this particular story could be irrelevant since they have thought about trading the pick, something that Boston fans prefer by miles. We shall see.
