I’m team Ayton. Honestly, fit isn’t a major issue with any of the prospects in this draft. My philosophy is always take best player available, especially with a coach like Stevens who isn’t afraid to mix and match lineups. If one player makes me question “fit”, it’s maybe Young because he is smallish. However, Stevens has no problems playing super small lineups like Thomas-Rozier-Bradley or Larkin-Irving-Rozier etc.
Back to Ayton, he just checks too many boxes and at this point I have no idea why he isn’t considered the consensus #1 pick. In my opinion he is easily the best prospect in the last two drafts (at least). I have a feeling that he will go #1 so unfortunately we will probably not have a chance to select him, but if we are so lucky, the Celtics should take him in a millisecond.
He will fit in beautifully in the short term with Horford, Theis, Morris, and Tatum in the frontcourt (Baynes is a FA this offseason). That mix of guys up front gives us a little bit of everything as far as versatility up front, allowing the C’s to go big with Horford at the 4, small with him at the 5, etc all while having a bunch of skilled bigs who can shoot and defend (Ayton biggest weakness but has the tools). Once Horford is gone (I love Al so this will stink for me), Ayton can assume the role of starting Center of a monster starting unit of Kyrie Irving- Jaylen Brown - Gordon Hayward - Jayson Tatum - Deandre Ayton.
When tackling the question “who fits the team better?” There are two schools of thought: 1. Who can carry out our game plan the best and 2. Who fills in a need. Theoretically, Ayton does both of these things. 1. Stevens loves bigs who can spread the floor and pass. I believe Ayton is already excellent at one of these things: shooting for a big. He is above 70% on free throws and is automatic from midrange. As far as passing, he is definitely above average and can operate from the high post like Al Horford. He also has some switchability defensively because of his super human lateral quickness. Perfect fit for our system on both ends.
The other thing: “who fills a need?” I also believe Ayton is the best answer to this question. We could use some size up front especially with Baynes a FA. We could also use a more consistent post prensence and even though we are better on the boards this year, we are still far from great at rebounding. Ayton could help fix that.
In summary, Ayton is simultaneously the best fit for our team, the player who fills the biggest need, and most importantly: the best prospect in the draft. My answer is Ayton, and the other prospects (Bagley, Bamba, Doncic, Porter, Young, Jackson jr in that order) are not close.