In light of how the top prospects have played this year and in the tournament, I'm thinking Danny wasn't trying to be misleading by stating he doesn't think the draft class is as good as it's been touted.
really thinking more and more that if he doesn't land one of the top 3 prospects, he trades that first pick for an established player or young player with potential and a lower pick.
I've said this before, but . . . who?
This notion gets batted around a lot. "If we don't get a top 3 pick, Danny will trade the pick for an established player or trade down for a young player with potential." To me, it seems to be motivated by a desire to find a "quick fix" and a distaste for pinning all our hopes on unproven young players.
Making a move like that might make sense, in theory, but I'm not sure there are any home-run options available as far as that goes. Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love come to mind, of course, but I tend to think those names are a little far-fetched.
There are only a couple guys who come to mind as "young players with potential" -- Chandler Parsons and Greg Monroe. Each of their current teams might consider trading either of them for a top 10 pick in order to avoid paying them in restricted free agency. But I'd rather see Danny make a play for either of those guys with some of our current assets and future picks.
My impression is that there are probably not any superstars outside of the top 3 in this draft, but that there are still a lot of very talented players with All-Star potential who will be available where the Celtics are likely to be picking.
I've been saying this for awhile but not really delving into the options out there. figure I'll wait to see what Danny actually does rather than spend a lot of time investigating a lot of possibilities that won't happen.
Personally, I think the picks in the 5-8 range (where it looks like we'll land) will be about the same talent level. Danny may use that to the team's advantage by trading that pick for a young all-star or someone still improving and another pick later in the draft. use that 1 asset to fill a couple of holes.
Just to throw out an example. Say Danny likes Mclemore (I'm not a fan), Sac is souring on him, we have the 5th pick and Sac has pick 8. Sac may have their eye on say Gordon and is sure he'll be gone by 8. Danny may be able to get Mclemore, #8 and maybe some other sweetener for #5. Mclemore could become the starting SG we need (pure speculation for the sake of this discussion) while Danny could take a flyer on Vonleh at #8 to possibly become part of our Center rotation.
Possible Next year:
Rondo, Mclemore, Green, Sully, KO with Pressey, AB, GW, Bass, Vonleh, second #1, Anthony, Fav on the bench (whether Johnson and Babb are here isn't terribly relevant).
The team is young but with a bunch of assets to either develop or deal for better players. Bass and Anthony are now expiring deals that can be used in deals as well.
