Best / Worst Celtic 1st Round pick (lower than 15)

[expobear]

Roy - I'm surprised you would pick Jefferson. I figured lots of younger guys would choose Jefferson, mostly because they never saw Reggie. I don't know how old you are (nor do I care), but I know you were around to watch Reggie Lewis. What's the rationale?

Reggie was a fabulous player, and in terms of talent, was a better all-around player than Big Al.  I think, though, that you have to take into account how their careers played out.  We were able to parlay Big Al into Kevin Garnett, and a title.  Reggie...  well, we all know how that one turned out.  If I was holding a redraft out of all the listed players, and knew what I knew today, I'd shy away from Reggie. 

He was a phenomenal player, though, and just in his prime when he passed away.  He was definitely one of the greats.  If he'd been healthy, I think a lot of us would be having "Who was better, Paul or Reggie?" conversations.

Well, sure, if you had hindsight and knew about Reggie's heart, then I guess you'd have to shy away from him. But using that logic, how do you know Al doesn't have a heart problem? Or maybe more realistically a career-ending knee injury? And if you're not willing to speculate about a future injury, how can you speculate about a future all-star selection for Al. I'm a big fan of Al's, but he's not a slam-dunk all-star yet and there's no guarantee that he'll get there.

Anyhow, at the end of the day, I understand your rationale and don't begrudge your choice. I just happen to disagree with it.  

Two things on the hindsight debate:

1. Even in hindsight, Reggie was a great pick because nobody else taken after him comes close in career accomplishments, even though Reggie only played six years. Strangely, the best player taken after Reggie was probably Sarunas Marciulionis, who went 127th overall to Golden State, and played 7 seasons before dying in a car accident. But he only played 350 or so games to Reggie's 450.

Only 7 players picked after Reggie played more games than he did: Chris Dudley (886 games for 5 teams in 16 seasons); Greg Anderson (680 games for 8 teams in 11 seasons); Brad Lohaus (our 2nd round pick, 656 games for 8 teams in 11 seasons); Kevin Gamble (649 games for 4 teams in 10 seasons, 6 with the Celtics); Winston Garland (511 games for 5 teams in 8 seasons); Donald Royal (504 games for 5 teams in 8 seasons); and Vincent Askew (467 games for 8 teams in 9 seasons). None scored more career points than Reggie's 7902. Even in only 6 seasons, he had the best career of any player selected 20 or higher. In fact, after the 11th pick (Reggie Miller), only Mark Jackson (19) had a better career than Reggie.

2. Even if Al has a career-ending injury, that will still be a fantastic pick in hindsight, because we got what we wanted out of it - a very good young player who was marketable enough to be traded for a veteran All-NBA player and MVP candidate who brought us a championship. No matter what happens with Al Jefferson, the quality of that pick is set in stone because of what it already produced for us.

The value of other picks might go up or down, and the value of Al's pick might grow if KG leads us to more titles, but it can't go any lower because of the value already received - we've gotten a better result from that pick than we got from any other pick on the list.

In my advanced age, it's easy for me to forget the deaths of celebrities. I don't recall Sarunas Marciulionis dying in a car accident.  Are you thinking of the Croatian player Drazen Petrovic? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byj3DHNWAO8

[Las Vegas Asian]

Best: Al Jeff


Worst: Michael Smith over Tim Hardaway. Maybe I'm biased because I really liked Hardaway's game.

Edit: Wait,  lower than 15 means after 15 right? Ahh, forget it. I'm just confused.

I 2nd the Michael Smith pick though I was hoping the C's would have took Shawn Kemp.(Definitely biased because I went to high school with him.) Looking back Kemp would have been a great front court back up for McHale & Chief and a bridge for the future. Maybe in Beantown he doesn't get into all the substance & alcohol problems either that killed his potential in the middle of his career. Oh wait guess that didn't stop Vin Baker! What a waste of two talents!!! 

[ChampKind]

Roy - I'm surprised you would pick Jefferson. I figured lots of younger guys would choose Jefferson, mostly because they never saw Reggie. I don't know how old you are (nor do I care), but I know you were around to watch Reggie Lewis. What's the rationale?

Reggie was a fabulous player, and in terms of talent, was a better all-around player than Big Al.  I think, though, that you have to take into account how their careers played out.  We were able to parlay Big Al into Kevin Garnett, and a title.  Reggie...  well, we all know how that one turned out.  If I was holding a redraft out of all the listed players, and knew what I knew today, I'd shy away from Reggie. 

He was a phenomenal player, though, and just in his prime when he passed away.  He was definitely one of the greats.  If he'd been healthy, I think a lot of us would be having "Who was better, Paul or Reggie?" conversations.

Well, sure, if you had hindsight and knew about Reggie's heart, then I guess you'd have to shy away from him. But using that logic, how do you know Al doesn't have a heart problem? Or maybe more realistically a career-ending knee injury? And if you're not willing to speculate about a future injury, how can you speculate about a future all-star selection for Al. I'm a big fan of Al's, but he's not a slam-dunk all-star yet and there's no guarantee that he'll get there.

Anyhow, at the end of the day, I understand your rationale and don't begrudge your choice. I just happen to disagree with it. 

Two things on the hindsight debate:

1. Even in hindsight, Reggie was a great pick because nobody else taken after him comes close in career accomplishments, even though Reggie only played six years. Strangely, the best player taken after Reggie was probably Sarunas Marciulionis, who went 127th overall to Golden State, and played 7 seasons before dying in a car accident. But he only played 350 or so games to Reggie's 450.

Only 7 players picked after Reggie played more games than he did: Chris Dudley (886 games for 5 teams in 16 seasons); Greg Anderson (680 games for 8 teams in 11 seasons); Brad Lohaus (our 2nd round pick, 656 games for 8 teams in 11 seasons); Kevin Gamble (649 games for 4 teams in 10 seasons, 6 with the Celtics); Winston Garland (511 games for 5 teams in 8 seasons); Donald Royal (504 games for 5 teams in 8 seasons); and Vincent Askew (467 games for 8 teams in 9 seasons). None scored more career points than Reggie's 7902. Even in only 6 seasons, he had the best career of any player selected 20 or higher. In fact, after the 11th pick (Reggie Miller), only Mark Jackson (19) had a better career than Reggie.

2. Even if Al has a career-ending injury, that will still be a fantastic pick in hindsight, because we got what we wanted out of it - a very good young player who was marketable enough to be traded for a veteran All-NBA player and MVP candidate who brought us a championship. No matter what happens with Al Jefferson, the quality of that pick is set in stone because of what it already produced for us.

The value of other picks might go up or down, and the value of Al's pick might grow if KG leads us to more titles, but it can't go any lower because of the value already received - we've gotten a better result from that pick than we got from any other pick on the list.

In my advanced age, it's easy for me to forget the deaths of celebrities. I don't recall Sarunas Marciulionis dying in a car accident.  Are you thinking of the Croatian player Drazen Petrovic? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byj3DHNWAO8

Marciulionis is still alive in kicking.  Injuries eventually took their toll on him and forced him out of the league.  It was Petrovic that died in his prime while with the Nets.

[Greg]

No love for Dee Brown?

He had some good years for us, and did more for us than Al did as a Celtic, bringing energy to the Garden during some down years.

But no question, the nod has to go to Reggie.

1. Reggie
2. Dee Brown
3. Big Al

[Bankshot]

Best:

1. Rondo - starter on a championship team
2. Big Al - great low post scorer that netted the Cs KG
3. Reggie Lewis

Worst:

Gerald Green

[Las Vegas Asian]

Reggie was a fabulous player, and in terms of talent, was a better all-around player than Big Al.  I think, though, that you have to take into account how their careers played out.  We were able to parlay Big Al into Kevin Garnett, and a title.  Reggie...  well, we all know how that one turned out.  If I was holding a redraft out of all the listed players, and knew what I knew today, I'd shy away from Reggie. 

He was a phenomenal player, though, and just in his prime when he passed away.  He was definitely one of the greats.  If he'd been healthy, I think a lot of us would be having "Who was better, Paul or Reggie?" conversations.

That being said, I'd still go with Al over Reggie. Reggie had just reached his prime at the time of his death and was avg just over 20pts/game on a team where he was the only featured scorer. A very good player but not great.

Al is not even sniffing his prime yet at only 23, and he will be a 20-10 to 25-15 player in the post for the better part of the next 10yrs. In 3-4 yrs the McHale helping out the Celtics jokes will seem stupid if Al's career continues on its current arc. Al is a potential HOF PF which are much harder to come by than a 20pt/game swingman.

I can say with some certainty that Reggie would have been a GREAT player if he would have finished out his career. Good players don't come into their 2nd year & score 18.5 ppg while playing along side with "Blackhole" McHale & Parish who both had one of their highest scoring seasons. Reggie in his prime arguably could have been the 2nd best SG in the league at that time.

[hwangjini_1]

...
1981 Charles Bradley 23 - Eddie Johnson maybe? we passed on him twice. But we did get one of the best players available at our pick with Danny Ainge at 31.
...

everyone knew ainge would be a good nba player. i believe the celtics got ainge was because ainge had also been drafted by the toronto blue jays and he told everyone that he wanted to play baseball for a living. i think he believed that his body would hold up longer in baseball than basketball.

but, after hitting something like .227 in the majors as a second baseman it dawned on him that his baseball career just might not last as long as he had thought. plus, red really pushed him to sign with the celtcs.

more fun celtic trivia.

[wahz]

folks, it just isn't right to not include Rondo. We can be nearly certain that Phoenix drafted him for us. He should count. And if he counts my choices are Al first, because he begets KG, Reggie 2nd and Rondo third...and maybe moving up.