I've seen references to the 2016 draft a lot lately, and every time I look at the Celtics' cap sheet I still see Demetrius Jackson's name on there. Yes, we still have a guy on our salary cap that we waived in 2017. My question is... why did we keep him at all?
2016 is always going to be known by Celtics fans for two things: Jaylen Brown, and the "stash" strategy. Brown was a grand slam. I'm reading some of the contemporary reporting around that draft, and so much of it is that JB was an athlete who couldn't shoot, etc. Jaylen made all of those commentators look like idiots.
But the second part of that draft involved drafting Yabusele and Zizic, trading the #31 and #35 picks, etc.. It was all about roster space. Both Danny defenders and detractors have viewed his performance in the 2016 draft through the lens of the need to consolidate picks and/or not having enough roster spots.
And yet... Demetrius Jackson was given a roster spot. The 45th pick in the draft. It's never made sense to me, the argument that we didn't have room for a 1st rounder but that we did have room for Jackson. I hated the Yabu pick. Dejounte Murray was falling like a stone, and I wanted him at #16, and definitely at #23. But we passed, because "we had no roster spots". (Full disclosure, I did like Zizic, who was a toss-up with Zubac, but I probably would have taken Labissiere. And, I really wanted Devonta Davis, as well, and wouldn't have traded #31. So, I suck, too.)
Has there ever been an explanation given? Has the media ever challenged the reasoning? Was it more about cap space (the summer of Horford and Durant) more so than roster spots? I can't remember the exact figures: was the margin that thin?