Chad Ford Mock Draft 4.0 - Celtics Picks

[mcshane41]

Size? Portland thought they needed size when they drafted Bowie over MJ. Then they draft Oden over Durant. Forget size, ALWAYS pick BPA. Trades and Free Agency are for filling needs, the draft is for re-stocking your talent pool.

[libermaniac]

Jeffery Taylor seems intriguing.  Great athlete.  Great defense.  Plays better in the half court, and has developed a very good jumper according to the draft express article.


http://nbadraft.net/players/jeffery-taylor
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jeff-Taylor-1351/

[clover]

Jeffery Taylor seems intriguing.  Great athlete.  Great defense.  Plays better in the half court, and has developed a very good jumper according to the draft express article.


http://nbadraft.net/players/jeffery-taylor
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jeff-Taylor-1351/

A 22yo 3 with limited ball handling and shot creation skills doesn't intrigue me as much as some of the younger, high-potential wings in the draft.

[ManUp]

Jeffery Taylor seems intriguing.  Great athlete.  Great defense.  Plays better in the half court, and has developed a very good jumper according to the draft express article.


http://nbadraft.net/players/jeffery-taylor
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jeff-Taylor-1351/

A 22yo 3 with limited ball handling and shot creation skills doesn't intrigue me as much as some of the younger, high-potential wings in the draft.

He plays lock down defense, is a world-class athlete, and can't be left unguarded. Sounds like a perfect fit to play in just about any system to me. He's a safe pick with decent upside if he pans out he'd be exactly what a contender looks for as a complementary wing.

[nickagneta]

I just don't see Taylor still being available at 22. He seems to me to be a top 18 type player.

Besides what younger wings are better than him or Green who or both fairly accomplished safe picks for the 20-25 range or so?

Harkless? I don't see it. I saw a few early St John's games and he didn't impress me. He was throwing up like 14-16 shots to score 12-15 points. He hustled his but off but seemed lost at times defensively and was a fairly poor FT shooter. His passing was average for a college player.

Miller? He played soft and disappeared for long stretches and really never reached a level that his coaches thought he would. Has great potential but some question his drive, and that's huge.

I will say Tony Mitchell is someone that intrigues me. But he ultimately is probably a PF or a tweener like Jeff Green. Except for the fact the dude can rebound.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I just don't see Taylor still being available at 22. He seems to me to be a top 18 type player.

Besides what younger wings are better than him or Green who or both fairly accomplished safe picks for the 20-25 range or so?

Harkless? I don't see it. I saw a few early St John's games and he didn't impress me. He was throwing up like 14-16 shots to score 12-15 points. He hustled his but off but seemed lost at times defensively and was a fairly poor FT shooter. His passing was average for a college player.

Miller? He played soft and disappeared for long stretches and really never reached a level that his coaches thought he would. Has great potential but some question his drive, and that's huge.

I will say Tony Mitchell is someone that intrigues me. But he ultimately is probably a PF or a tweener like Jeff Green. Except for the fact the dude can rebound.

I agree. While a really solid pick Jeff Taylor could be, i don't see him going past 15. He's not superstar nor star material but he's one of those guys who can come and contribute  in a small yet impactful way. He's also a very good defender.

[arambone]

Moe Harkless Game-by-Game Stats
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/57023/moe-harkless

Harkless got more efficient as the season went on, as freshmen often do. Great upside, and he doesn't even turn 19 until next week.

Jeff Taylor is 4 years older and had comparable production.

[csfansince60s]

I just don't see Taylor still being available at 22. He seems to me to be a top 18 type player.

Besides what younger wings are better than him or Green who or both fairly accomplished safe picks for the 20-25 range or so?

Harkless? I don't see it. I saw a few early St John's games and he didn't impress me. He was throwing up like 14-16 shots to score 12-15 points. He hustled his but off but seemed lost at times defensively and was a fairly poor FT shooter. His passing was average for a college player.

Miller? He played soft and disappeared for long stretches and really never reached a level that his coaches thought he would. Has great potential but some question his drive, and that's huge.

I will say Tony Mitchell is someone that intrigues me. But he ultimately is probably a PF or a tweener like Jeff Green. Except for the fact the dude can rebound.

Would love to have Jeff Taylor locking down with Bradley and Rondo, that's a scary defensive 1-2-3. He is an elite defender who can defend 3 positions.

Most mock drafts have him going between 20 and 30. (See Walter Football draft database:
 
 http://walterfootball.com/nbadraftdata.php


This gives 51 mock drafts and is a great site to visit. I recommend it highly.

I too would love to have Tony Mitchell, butI think that he is staying in school. After Taylor, I take BPA, possibly Harkless, regardless of position.

[mqtcelticsfan]

Size? Portland thought they needed size when they drafted Bowie over MJ. Then they draft Oden over Durant. Forget size, ALWAYS pick BPA. Trades and Free Agency are for filling needs, the draft is for re-stocking your talent pool.

Let's not revise history here. Oden was considered a superior prospect by most at draft time. Sure, it looks bad now, but Oden was widely considered the best player available. Big men are typically more valuable than wing players.

[clover]

Moe Harkless Game-by-Game Stats
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/57023/moe-harkless

Harkless got more efficient as the season went on, as freshmen often do. Great upside, and he doesn't even turn 19 until next week.

Jeff Taylor is 4 years older and had comparable production.

Then there are the 19yo's Fournier and Miller too.  There's great depth at the 3 in this draft.

[nickagneta]

Moe Harkless Game-by-Game Stats
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/57023/moe-harkless

Harkless got more efficient as the season went on, as freshmen often do. Great upside, and he doesn't even turn 19 until next week.

Jeff Taylor is 4 years older and had comparable production.

Then there are the 19yo's Fournier and Miller too.  There's great depth at the 3 in this draft.

That's not even considering the guys that will be gone by then like Kidd Gilchrist, Barnes, Ross and Jones.

[goCeltics]

http://www.draftexpress.com/stats.php?year=2011%2F12&q=&per=per40pace&qual=prospects&sort=6&min=20&stage=all&league=NCAA&conference=0&Compare=Submit+Comparison&pos=SF&sort2=DESC&pid[35664]=35664&pid[47462]=47462&pid[34223]=34223&pid[44486]=44486&pid[60200]=60200&pid[60061]=60061&pid[44915]=44915&pid[60036]=60036&pid[35042]=35042

here a comp of some of the SF's, think taylor a better scorer in college than harkless, but there is a 4 four year age difference/experience

The wing that is likely to be available that i like in the first round is taylor's teammate jenkins.

Think stanback is the guy that nobody mentions that may have a nba career

One thing about harkless is that he had great rebounding numbers and played as a 4 in college, but he is too small play that position in the pro's. A tweener like crowder, but harkless projects better as an athlete at the 3 than crowder.

[Celtics4ever]

I simply do not get all the obsession with Big East guys here. 

[Galeto]

I suppose Harkless technically played PF at St. John's but positions can be so nebulous in college as to be irrelevant.  His fluidity and athleticism are swingmanesque and he mostly functioned offensively from the perimeter.  After watching some of his latter games, I was impressed by how much more unselfish he was.  I thought he was a bit of a black hole earlier in the season. The willingness to change his mindset perhaps shows that he's coachable.

Honestly, I don't see Harkless being all that great.  He's a bit upright and lacks that sideways lean the above-average or better swingman have but with the 22nd pick, I wouldn't mind if the Celtics gambled on his youth and athleticism.

[LarBrd33]

Chad Ford is not the most gifted mind at creating Mock Drafts.  In each of his first three mock drafts he had the Celts taking two under-sized PFs in the first round, even though the Celts main need is size.  Now he has them taking a head case C who has never played man-to-man defense and a head case under-sized PF who is terrified of flying on planes.

Guess what?  In the NBA, teams play man-to-man defense and fly on planes every single day.

Royce White wouldn't be the worst pick (considering the C's have two in the first), but he is an under-sized PF prospect with a reputation for not only mentally checking out of games but also being afraid to get on airplanes.  Those aren't good traits, especially if the team doesn't have vet influences like KG around next season.

Fab Melo would be a horrible pick and will be a DUD in the NBA.  Not only is he dumb (and I say this respectfully), but he's so dumb that a top-tier program like Syracuse couldn't even keep him on the court for part of the regular season and the entire tourney.  Do you know the leeway top-tier programs get with their players?  They get tutors, they get to re-take tests, they get graded on curves, they get summer school, and I wouldn't put fudging grades past them.  Melo has to be beyond dumb to get kicked off the team twice in one season.  Dumb human beings don't usually get smarter when the pressure turns up and they become millionaires.    

Leaving his intelligence aside, Melo has NEVER played man-to-man defense or pick-and-roll defense, and all of his wonderful blocks come from lingering in the paint in a zone.  If he lingers in the paint in the NBA, it's called 'Defensive 3 Seconds.'  He has to learn an entirely new system of playing defense.  He also has NO offensive game to speak of.

I wrote the following on April 10th, when I listed the players I think the Celts should look at in the first round: "I’ve always been a big Syracuse Orange fan, but I have a rule: Don’t draft Syracuse players!  They never turn out well in the NBA.  I’m including Carmelo in that statement.  They don’t get enough exposure at man-to-man defense and defending the pick-and-roll (which is the NBA’s bread and butter), their offense usually revolves around perimeter chucking and iso plays, and they’re notoriously poor free throw shooters and rebounders.  Hakim Warrick was one of my all-time faves and I so badly wanted the Celts to draft him, but he turned out to be just a marginal player.  This rule is why I have no Syracuse players on this list, though I was very tempted to add Dion Waiters."

Supposedly Kevin Garnett didn't qualify academically to even ATTEND College.  So maybe book smarts doesn't always equal basketball smarts.