Celtics Draft Pick Watch

[Vermont Green]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

[TheTruth34]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

Yeah I don't necessarily have a problem with the Pritchard pick as he's turned into a useful player.  But if it was best player available - why PP over Bane?  Most of the draft publications had Bane going anywhere from 19 to late 20s.  Pritchard was typically a high 2nd rounder.   

The worst part was the pick was attached to Kanter as the cost of doing business in a salary dump.  Sorry, this one continues to get on my nerves

[Atzar]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

Yeah I don't necessarily have a problem with the Pritchard pick as he's turned into a useful player.  But if it was best player available - why PP over Bane?  Most of the draft publications had Bane going anywhere from 19 to late 20s.  Pritchard was typically a high 2nd rounder.   

The worst part was the pick was attached to Kanter as the cost of doing business in a salary dump.  Sorry, this one continues to get on my nerves

The bolded bothers me a lot more than just picking Pritchard over Bane.  I don't really get on the "drafted X when Y was available" discussion unless it's near the top of the draft.  But the whole Kanter-Thompson-Kanter game of Musical Chairs was a mess that made us worse on the court and cost us some fairly significant assets to fix. 

[Roy H.]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

Yeah I don't necessarily have a problem with the Pritchard pick as he's turned into a useful player.  But if it was best player available - why PP over Bane?  Most of the draft publications had Bane going anywhere from 19 to late 20s.  Pritchard was typically a high 2nd rounder.   

The worst part was the pick was attached to Kanter as the cost of doing business in a salary dump.  Sorry, this one continues to get on my nerves

The bolded bothers me a lot more than just picking Pritchard over Bane.  I don't really get on the "drafted X when Y was available" discussion unless it's near the top of the draft.  But the whole Kanter-Thompson-Kanter game of Musical Chairs was a mess that made us worse on the court and cost us some fairly significant assets to fix.

The trade never made sense, because Kanter was then sent to Portland without draft compensation.  I think Danny just preferred the second rounders to #30.

[Celtics2021]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

Yeah I don't necessarily have a problem with the Pritchard pick as he's turned into a useful player.  But if it was best player available - why PP over Bane?  Most of the draft publications had Bane going anywhere from 19 to late 20s.  Pritchard was typically a high 2nd rounder.   

The worst part was the pick was attached to Kanter as the cost of doing business in a salary dump.  Sorry, this one continues to get on my nerves

The bolded bothers me a lot more than just picking Pritchard over Bane.  I don't really get on the "drafted X when Y was available" discussion unless it's near the top of the draft.  But the whole Kanter-Thompson-Kanter game of Musical Chairs was a mess that made us worse on the court and cost us some fairly significant assets to fix.

The trade never made sense, because Kanter was then sent to Portland without draft compensation.  I think Danny just preferred the second rounders to #30.

I think that’s correct.  We didn’t want #30 that year, and two seconds tied to a bunch of different teams isn’t terribly bad compensation.  There’s a real chance those two picks wind up at 33 and 36, which is a fair deal for 30.  Maybe we got a slight pick downgrade or upgrade for Kanter in the way the projections were doled out, but it was mostly #30 for two future seconds, with Kanter on the side.

[Vermont Green]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

Yeah I don't necessarily have a problem with the Pritchard pick as he's turned into a useful player.  But if it was best player available - why PP over Bane?  Most of the draft publications had Bane going anywhere from 19 to late 20s.  Pritchard was typically a high 2nd rounder.   

The worst part was the pick was attached to Kanter as the cost of doing business in a salary dump.  Sorry, this one continues to get on my nerves

The bolded bothers me a lot more than just picking Pritchard over Bane.  I don't really get on the "drafted X when Y was available" discussion unless it's near the top of the draft.  But the whole Kanter-Thompson-Kanter game of Musical Chairs was a mess that made us worse on the court and cost us some fairly significant assets to fix.

I understand that Bane is a big fish that the Celtics let get away.  Just like when we took Kelly Olynyk instead of Giannis.  But if you look at the picks from 2020 for every team that picked 19-29, every one of those teams can look back now and say we should have taken Bane.

Keep in mind that we did get 2 seconds back in the trade which as I understand it from some reliable posters here (I can't confirm this but trust the source), one of those picks got us Muscala and the other is the POR or HOU pick we have this draft.  I get that we still could have taken Bane at 14 or 26 and still traded pick 30 for the 2-seconds but it is unrealistic to judge this based on the assumption that the Celtics and every other team that passed on him, should have known that Bane was going to be this good.  This was not just a total dump of Enes Freedom (Kanter).  We will end up with Muscala and +/- Pick #37 from this draft (and were able to dump Enes who was useless).  It is a total bummer that Bane ended up being such a total steal in the draft, for sure, but he was the #30 pick.  You get that level of player at pick #30 about once every 50 years.

19. Nets draft Saddiq Bey
20. Heat draft Precious Achiuwa
21. 76ers draft Tyrese Maxey
22. Nuggets draft Zeke Nnaji
23. Knicks draft Leandro Bolmaro
24. Bucks draft RJ Hampton
25. Thunder draft Immanuel Quickley
26. Celtics draft Payton Pritchard
27. Jazz draft Udoka Azubuike
28. Lakers draft Jaden McDaniels
29. Raptors draft Malachi Flynn

[liam]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

I wanted us to draft Bane with that 14th pick and still take PP.

[tonydelk]

Looks like Portland may be packing it in. 


DAMIAN LILLARD
PG, PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
lillard
Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant are all out for Monday's matchup with the Pelicans.
All four players are listed with specific injury designations, but these are shutdowns in what has been a lost season for the underwhelming Trail Blazers. We wouldn't expect to see any of them back on the court for the final two weeks of the NBA season, but there's been no official shutdown announcement yet.

[Vermont Green]

POR is now tied with IND ORL for 5th worst, meaning pick #35 or #36, depending on a coin flip.  There is probably no chance POR drops any further down as they are 6.5 ahead of CHA (not mathematically impossible but highly unlikely).

The best that the HOU pick can be is #33 but it does not seem like HOU is going to catch SAN.

Current status:  Pick #35 or #36

Possible Range:  Pick #33 or #35 to #38 (pick #34 is very unlikely)

[Celtics2021]

POR is now tied with IND for 5th worst, meaning pick #35 or #36, depending on a coin flip.  There is probably no chance POR drops any further down as they are 6.5 ahead of CHA (not mathematically impossible but highly unlikely).

The best that the HOU pick can be is #33 but it does not seem like HOU is going to catch SAN.

Current status:  Pick #35 or #36

Possible Range:  Pick #33 or #35 to #38 (pick #34 is very unlikely)

I think you mean Portland is tied with Orlando, not Indiana.

[boscel33]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

We took Nesmith with Cole Anthony SITTING RIGHT THERE!

[Vermont Green]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

We took Nesmith with Cole Anthony SITTING RIGHT THERE!

Yeah, Nesmith turned out to be a bad pick.  Cole Anthony, Bane, and a host of others would have been better picks.  That is just how the draft goes.  Nesmith was not the only "bad" pick in the top 14 though.  I know this has long been debated but in spite of some monumental misses in recent years, the current title contending team has been built largely through good draft picks:

Tatum
Brown
Smart
Williams
Williams
Pritchard
Davison

This season, we have more FA or Trade additions that are making an important impact (Horford, White, Brogdon), and Hauser wasn't drafted but he was a find.  But you need a mix.  You need to draft well and you need to trade and sign well and sometimes just get lucky to be a title contender.

[Vermont Green]

In terms of HOU, and potentially conveyance of their 2nd round pick to us, they are currently 1.5 games behind SAS.  If they can pass SAS, we get their pick (#33):

HOU:  DET, LAL, DEN, @CHA, @WAS
SAS:  @GSW, @SAC, @PHO, POR, MIN, @DAL

It is not unrealistic to think HOU could go 3-2 with wins against DET, CHA, and WAS (if they actually try).  The only "expected" win for SAS would be POR, the way that POR is playing lately.  That would allow HOU to move ahead of SAS and we would get pick #33. 

As for POR, they are likely going to stay in the range of #35-#37, probably #35 most likely.  Other than the game @SAS, their schedule is all playoff or play-in teams that will have something to play for.  POR could well lose-out.

[Goldstar88]

BBBAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

We still could have drafted him at 26 that year.  But Ainge fell in love with Pritchard.

The thing with this is that Pritchard at #26 was a very good pick.  Not off the charts good like Bane turned out but still a very high value pick for the end of the first round.  Heck, we took Nesmith at #14 that year, Bane would have been a better pick than Nesmith too.  There are probably 25 or more teams that wished they had taken Desmond Bane over whoever they ended up with.  Bane was a quintessential sleeper in the draft.

We took Nesmith with Cole Anthony SITTING RIGHT THERE!

Yeah, Nesmith turned out to be a bad pick.  Cole Anthony, Bane, and a host of others would have been better picks.  That is just how the draft goes.  Nesmith was not the only "bad" pick in the top 14 though.  I know this has long been debated but in spite of some monumental misses in recent years, the current title contending team has been built largely through good draft picks:

Tatum
Brown
Smart
Williams
Williams
Pritchard
Davison

This season, we have more FA or Trade additions that are making an important impact (Horford, White, Brogdon), and Hauser wasn't drafted but he was a find.  But you need a mix.  You need to draft well and you need to trade and sign well and sometimes just get lucky to be a title contender.

I’d prefer trading late first round picks for known quantities while the team is contending. Also, Pritchard probably should have been a 2nd round pick like Davison was. I don’t recall seeing any mock drafts with Payton going in the first.

[Vermont Green]

I’d prefer trading late first round picks for known quantities while the team is contending.

I agree.  Trading our recent late first round picks has helped us to get White and Brogdon.  Definitely the right strategy for a contending team.

Also, Pritchard probably should have been a 2nd round pick like Davison was. I don’t recall seeing any mock drafts with Payton going in the first.

I am not sure what you are trying to say with this.  Our next pick in the second round that year was #47 (we took Nadar).  Hard to believe that Pritchard would have been around for another 20 picks.  Pritchard was good value at pick #26, a good pick.  I can see the argument that we could have gotten him at #30, but he was still a good pick at #26.  Obviously, Bane would have been a better pick, but that doesn't make Pritchard a bad pick.