2024 Celtics Draft Workouts

[CFAN38]

We are not going to find an Al replacement by trading down.

Finding an AL replacement at 30 is probably just as unlikely. The only big man prospects available at that point have serious flaws.

At least there is a solid precedent for good to great bigs falling in the draft.

Since 2015 there have been 12 "bigs" selected to the All NBA teams and 4 of those players Jokic (41), Gobert (27), D Jordan (35) and M Gasol (48) where drafted after the 20th pick in the draft.

While not at All NBA level there there have been at least a couple allstar/all defense - solid role player level bigs drafted each year after pick 20 since 2015.

2022   W Kessler   22
2021   I Jackson   22
           S Aldama   30
2020   Achiuwa   20
           Tillman   35
2019   Claxton   31
           Gafford   38
2018   R Williams   27
           M Robinson   36
2017   J Allen   22
           T Bryant   42
           I Hartenstein   43
2016   Zubac   32
2015   Portis   22
           Nance Jr   27
           Looney   30
           Harrell   32

I am not saying its likely the Cs land a big who ever cracks their rotation in this draft but its a worth while gamble.

[Vermont Green]

Don’t we have two draft picks? #30 and a 2nd rounder?

Tankathon has us with Pick 30 and Pick 54.

As others have pointed out, we also still have draft rights to Juhann Begarin (2021 draft, current age 21) and Yam Madar (2020 draft, current age 23). 

[BitterJim]

We are not going to find an Al replacement by trading down.

Finding an AL replacement at 30 is probably just as unlikely. The only big man prospects available at that point have serious flaws.

At least there is a solid precedent for good to great bigs falling in the draft.

Since 2015 there have been 12 "bigs" selected to the All NBA teams and 4 of those players Jokic (41), Gobert (27), D Jordan (35) and M Gasol (48) where drafted after the 20th pick in the draft.

While not at All NBA level there there have been at least a couple allstar/all defense - solid role player level bigs drafted each year after pick 20 since 2015.

2022   W Kessler   22
2021   I Jackson   22
           S Aldama   30
2020   Achiuwa   20
           Tillman   35
2019   Claxton   31
           Gafford   38
2018   R Williams   27
           M Robinson   36
2017   J Allen   22
           T Bryant   42
           I Hartenstein   43
2016   Zubac   32
2015   Portis   22
           Nance Jr   27
           Looney   30
           Harrell   32

I am not saying its likely the Cs land a big who ever cracks their rotation in this draft but its a worth while gamble.

It's absolutely worth trying, but not worth expecting or getting hopes up about. Unfortunately the new second apron rules make trading for his replacement nearly impossible, so drafting is probably our best chance, but it's by no means guaranteed or even likely

[Vermont Green]

It is unlikely that you will get someone at #30 or in the second round that will be good enough to replace Horford.  But of course you are going to draft the best player available and hope for that.  Roster management is an issue though.  You can only afford to tie up so many roster spots on a contending team with unproven prospects.

Trade options are limited.  You could consider trading someone like White or even Brown, and go for a comparable star, say Sabonis or Williamson or Towns or something radical like that (I am not endorsing that or suggesting it is likely, just pointing out the mechanism).  Otherwise you are packaging someone like Pritchard or Springer with a first and getting back a much lesser player.

And there will be some free agents that are available.  All we can offer I believe are min contracts but someone like Drummond could be signed (he will only be 31 years old for next season).  Not a long term solution, but some depth to take a little load off of Horford.

[A Future of Stevens]

These modern draft videos on youtube sucks. I miss draftexpress before being absorbed by ESPN.

Those were peak draft coverage years. I believe Schmitz (draftexpress guy) left for the NBA a year or two ago, but his videos were never the same as when he was independent.

[Vermont Green]

I am going to stick this in the "Draft" thread even though it probably should go in a 2024-25 offseason-FA thread (when there is one).  We have two draft picks and draft rights to two other players (Begarin and Madar) but we will have limited roster spots.  We have 3-4 players that could be FA, Kornet, Tillman, and Mykhailiuk, plus Brissett has a player option.  Due to salary cap limitations, I am not sure any of these players will get anything more than min contract offers.

I looked at Spotrac "Practical Cap Space" as a guide so this could be little off:

Teams that can offer Min Contracts         30  (up to $3.3M)
Teams that can offer TP-MLE Contracts   15   (up to $5.2M)
Teams that can offer TP-MLE and BAE     15  ($5.2M plus $4.7M)
Teams that can offer NT-MLE and BAE     11  ($12.8M plus $4.7M)
Teams Under the Cap                              6

So the point of this is that there are not that many teams that can offer much more than min contracts.  There are 15 teams that project to be in position to offer a Tax Payer MLE contract but I feel these will go to better players than Tillman or Kornet.  Non-Taxpayer MLE contracts will definitely go to better players.  The Celtics have "Bird" rights to both Tillman and Kornet, so they can offer more than the vet min, if they want to.  So worst case, if someone does offer a full TP-MLE contract to either ($5.2M) the Celtics could "match" although they would be UFA, not RFA, so the players don't have to accept the match.

Happened to see a list ranking FAs for this off season (Hoopshype).  Tillman was 75 and Kornet was 86.  That seems very much Vet Min territory.

[boscel33]

They're not going to pick anyone.  Brad will use it for a vet to deepen the bench.

[keevsnick]

I think this is the one.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10116347-projecting-landing-spots-for-celtics-top-free-agents

This is a draft thread but the FA/roster status plays into this.  The Celtics have 9 players signed for next season:

Brown, Tatum, Holiday, Porzingis, White, Horford, Pritchard, Springer, Walsh

Queta and Hauser have Team Options that I think are both likely to be picked up.  Brissett has a player option at about $2.5M.  Seems like he sticks around also.

There are 3 players that become UFAs, Kornet, Tillman, Mykhailiuk.

A very likely scenario is that everyone but Mykhailiuk comes back.  That only leaves one roster spot.  If we make a first round pick, it becomes a guaranteed contract (like Walsh).  A second round pick can be signed to a two-way (like Davison). 

As it stands, it appears likely that we will have Springer, Walsh, and Queta on the regular roster.  That is 3 spots taken up by "prospects", players who in the past are not part of the rotation and don't contribute much.  We probably don't want or need another prospect on the regular roster.  Better to take a second rounder and put him on a two-way.

If I had to guess I'd say somebody will pay Kornet more than the Celtics are willing to with their tax bill incoming. He proved he was a rock-solid rotation big man this past year. I hope he's back but I think he might be gone.

I'd like to see the C's take a big man and work on developing him over the next few years. Al has one year left on his deal, KP has two and is injury prone. If you lose Kornet having a younger more athletic big man to give some regular season minutes too would be nice. Queta and Tillman sort of fit that mold but their limited offensive games make them mean they are only situationally useful.

We know the C's love big men who can shoot, and if the plan is to bring back Tillman maybe they take a more offensive oriented draft big as a compliment to Tillman on the bench then fill the minutes as more of a platoon situation. At 30 maybe that's Kyle Filipowski who is a solid passing and shooting big man. He has t-rex arms like Kelly Olynyk but much like Kelly he's usually in the right position defensively at least. He's seems like a guy who might contribute right away. Or maybe they go Ulrich Comche as a longer term development play.

[Roy H.]

Adam Zagoria: The Boston Celtics hosted a pre-draft workout over the weekend that included the following, per league sources: Ryan Dunn (Virginia), Justin Edwards (Kentucky), Enrique Freeman (Akron), Judah Mintz (Syracuse) 5 hours ago ? via Twitter AdamZagoria

[boscel33]

It is unlikely that you will get someone at #30 or in the second round that will be good enough to replace Horford.  But of course you are going to draft the best player available and hope for that.  Roster management is an issue though.  You can only afford to tie up so many roster spots on a contending team with unproven prospects.

Trade options are limited.  You could consider trading someone like White or even Brown, and go for a comparable star, say Sabonis or Williamson or Towns or something radical like that (I am not endorsing that or suggesting it is likely, just pointing out the mechanism).  Otherwise you are packaging someone like Pritchard or Springer with a first and getting back a much lesser player.

And there will be some free agents that are available.  All we can offer I believe are min contracts but someone like Drummond could be signed (he will only be 31 years old for next season).  Not a long term solution, but some depth to take a little load off of Horford.

Can't see them trading Brown unless they are getting a boatload back.  I could see White, last year of his deal coming up, but you had better have some one in mind to be his replacement (Springer?). 

[liam]

If I was Brad ( unless he loves someone at 30) will trade back and grab two second rounders...

[green_bballers13]

The Celtics should trade out of this draft completely.

The team already has a logjam of backups and role players like Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, Oshae Brissette, and Hauser. If they resign Xavier Tillman, and extend DWhite, that would give us 11 players. We don't need 11 players, and we don't need to add any more young role players. We can always use stars, but that's probably not happening late in this draft.

Bundle picks for future trades, especially as this team gets really expensive with DWhite and Jayson Tatum's deals. If they trade out of the next couple of drafts, they may be able to consolidate picks and/or add great pieces like we've done with DWhite, Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday.

[Kernewek]

The Celtics should trade out of this draft completely.

The team already has a logjam of backups and role players like Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, Oshae Brissette, and Hauser. If they resign Xavier Tillman, and extend DWhite, that would give us 11 players. We don't need 11 players, and we don't need to add any more young role players. We can always use stars, but that's probably not happening late in this draft.

Bundle picks for future trades, especially as this team gets really expensive with DWhite and Jayson Tatum's deals. If they trade out of the next couple of drafts, they may be able to consolidate picks and/or add great pieces like we've done with DWhite, Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday.

I am not sure I agree with your conclusions overall, especially because this team is going to get very expensive after White and Tatum's extensions.

If anything, Boston's front office is under immense pressure to hit as hard as they can on all of the draft picks they have moving forward, because 'adding great pieces' is going to be significantly more difficult in the future.

[tonydelk]

The Celtics should trade out of this draft completely.

The team already has a logjam of backups and role players like Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, Oshae Brissette, and Hauser. If they resign Xavier Tillman, and extend DWhite, that would give us 11 players. We don't need 11 players, and we don't need to add any more young role players. We can always use stars, but that's probably not happening late in this draft.

Bundle picks for future trades, especially as this team gets really expensive with DWhite and Jayson Tatum's deals. If they trade out of the next couple of drafts, they may be able to consolidate picks and/or add great pieces like we've done with DWhite, Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday.

I am not sure I agree with your conclusions overall, especially because this team is going to get very expensive after White and Tatum's extensions.

If anything, Boston's front office is under immense pressure to hit as hard as they can on all of the draft picks they have moving forward, because 'adding great pieces' is going to be significantly more difficult in the future.

The Celtics need to start drafting now.  Hauser will command more then the C's can pay.  He needs replaced after 2025.  Al will also need replaced after next year.  I doubt Kornet get resigned and maybe even X pending what kind of contract he get's from another team.

[green_bballers13]

This team is so deep, it can't find time for guys like JD Davison and Jordan Walsh who might be able to play. Add a pair of guys similar to them, do it in 2025 and 2026, and now you have a bunch of guys that can't make the squad.

I think they need to consolidate so that they can get players that will actually play.