Brad has only made 3 selections as the Celtics General Manager: Begarin, Davison, and Walsh.
Begarin and Walsh are very similar. Neither of them were really great at basketball. But they were young high effort, compete level guys that had phenomenal athleticism and great length. Davison is a bit different in that he doesn't have prototypical size/strength. However, like the wings, he had elite athleticism and a weak but not broken jumper.
So based on the very limited 3 pick sample size it seems Brad like raw, effort guys that are great athletes. He also seems to be very happy to draft non-shooters that could reasonably develop that jumper.
The first guy in this draft that comes to mind here would be Ryan Dunn. He, like Walsh and Begarin is an insane athlete with a phenomenal motor that sucks at offense. The big differences is that his jumper seems like a much taller task to fix than Begarin and Walsh's. Also Begarin and to some extent Walsh, had flashed some other offensive skills. Dunn becomes useless offensivley any time someone on the other team stands between him and the rim. He's more than 2 years older than those guys were on draft day. On the plus side he's more NBA ready defensively than the other two. Those guys had the tools and effort levels to become great defenders. Dunn is already NBA ready on that end.
Dunn was actually a relatively good three-point shooter in high school. But when he got to UVa he deferred to the upperclassmen and rarely shot the three. He just wanted to get on the court so he focused on defense, shot-blocking, offensive rebounding, and the occasional transition opportunity. And it worked! He got playing time.
Last season he was one of only two returning rotation players, so he was thrust into the starting lineup. His defense was otherworldly. He literally shut down point guards through power forwards. His weak-side help was incredible as he blocked more shots last season than any other UVa player not named Ralph Sampson (or center Kris Hunter in 1998)-- and that was while playing PF.
But for some reason, he got the yips. He started off cold from three, and it just fed on itself. Then it infected his free throws.
He's got really nice form, but he literally airballed at least eight FTs last year. That's not a "he can't shoot" situation necessarily. It was a "he's got zero confidence" situation.
From there he never looked for his own offense unless it was in transition, or on an offensive board. He just rarely, if ever, shot the ball.
He did have about 6-8 situations in late-in-the-shot-clock scenarios where he got the ball in the post and knew he had to shoot. In those cases he displayed a gorgeous turnaround baseline jumper. Fans didn't know what to think.
How could that turnaround be so pure, but every other jump shot was subject to his nerves? And his free throws?
What he needs to do is go to the G-League for a season and just be given the green light to shoot all the time, with no repurcussions. Then slowly give him some mop-up time in NBA games where he can slowly build his confidence.
Right now he could be an All NBA honorable mention for his defensive skills.
