Tony Parker Biggest Draft Mistake in Celts History.

[Roy H.]

It wasn't a mistake not drafting Parker at 10 or 11; nobody had him going nearly that high.

The Joe Forte was a pretty bad pick, though.  Just about every mock draft had the Celtics taking Parker or Jamaal Tinsley, and we ended up with Forte.

Utilizing the 11th pick at all that year was a bad mistake, as we had the option of rolling the pick over to the next draft (when we could have had Carmelo).  Instead, the team fell in love with Kedrick Brown.  Even if the Celtics had gone with conventional wisdom they would have ended up with Troy Murphy, which wouldn't have been so bad.

The next draft wasn't the Carmelo draft.  Denver used their 5th pick on Tskitishvili.  Amare went 9th that draft.

That's right.  We had the option of rolling it over up to two seasons, which would have been the Carmelo draft.  It's probably doubtful that we would have passed on the 5th pick, but it's possible, since everyone wanted a shot at Lebron.  Even if not, I could have lived with Nene, Amare, or Caron Butler.

[slamtheking]

As for worst oversight in Celtics draft history, there have been many of them.  Marcus Banks over David West, Michael Smith over Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp, Jon Barry over Latrell Spreewell, Ron Mercer over Tracy McGrady, etc., etc.

the Smith and Barry picks still tick me off to this day.  Hate the whole Barry family for what he pulled.

Banks figured to be better -- West didn't figure to be this good.  No real complaint there.

Mercer looked much better than Mcgrady starting out.  Mcgrady didn't do anything for Toronto his first 3 years but Mercer looked like a solid SG next to Antoine and then the next year with PP added.  Think he could have been pretty decent if he hadn't been injured after trading him away.

[MBz]

In The Celtics defense, Parker got picked 28th so a lot of other people passed on him as well.  The draft is unpredictable.  Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss.  The only time I consider it a mistake is if you have a top 3 pick and you swing and miss there.  You draft on potential though.  It's very hard to tell how much of a players potential that player is going to hit.  Kedrick Brown didn't amount to much of his potential.  Tony Parker may have hit for 200% of his potential.

[slamtheking]

It wasn't a mistake not drafting Parker at 10 or 11; nobody had him going nearly that high.

The Joe Forte was a pretty bad pick, though.  Just about every mock draft had the Celtics taking Parker or Jamaal Tinsley, and we ended up with Forte.

Utilizing the 11th pick at all that year was a bad mistake, as we had the option of rolling the pick over to the next draft (when we could have had Carmelo).  Instead, the team fell in love with Kedrick Brown.  Even if the Celtics had gone with conventional wisdom they would have ended up with Troy Murphy, which wouldn't have been so bad.

The next draft wasn't the Carmelo draft.  Denver used their 5th pick on Tskitishvili.  Amare went 9th that draft.

That's right.  We had the option of rolling it over up to two seasons, which would have been the Carmelo draft.  It's probably doubtful that we would have passed on the 5th pick, but it's possible, since everyone wanted a shot at Lebron.  Even if not, I could have lived with Nene, Amare, or Caron Butler.

I think the real kick in the teeth with selecting Brown was that he's the one we should have shipped out in that deal for Rogers and Delk, not JJ.  JJ showed a lot more talent that rookie year.  Having JJ on the team when going up against the Nets in the playoffs would have been a big help IMHO.

[Moranis]

It wasn't a mistake not drafting Parker at 10 or 11; nobody had him going nearly that high.

The Joe Forte was a pretty bad pick, though.  Just about every mock draft had the Celtics taking Parker or Jamaal Tinsley, and we ended up with Forte.

Utilizing the 11th pick at all that year was a bad mistake, as we had the option of rolling the pick over to the next draft (when we could have had Carmelo).  Instead, the team fell in love with Kedrick Brown.  Even if the Celtics had gone with conventional wisdom they would have ended up with Troy Murphy, which wouldn't have been so bad.

The next draft wasn't the Carmelo draft.  Denver used their 5th pick on Tskitishvili.  Amare went 9th that draft.

That's right.  We had the option of rolling it over up to two seasons, which would have been the Carmelo draft.  It's probably doubtful that we would have passed on the 5th pick, but it's possible, since everyone wanted a shot at Lebron.  Even if not, I could have lived with Nene, Amare, or Caron Butler.

They might not have had the 5th pick if they used the 11th pick on a useable person.  Maybe they take Richard Jefferson at 11 in 2001 and end up no where near the 5th pick in 2002.  You just don't know what might have happened.  That said, given we had 10 and 21 in the 2001 draft already, it was silly to use the pick that year to get the 11th, but no one can say for sure how it would have worked out.  The real problem with that draft was that we traded Joe Johnson instead of Kedrick Brown.  If it really didn't matter which one we sent (as has been reported) then we totally choose wrong.  Imagine if instead of Johnson, Randy Brown, Milt Palacio and the 2002 1st for Delk and Rogers, we would have kept Johnson and added Kedrick Brown into the trade.  Maybe the trio of Pierce, Johnson, Walker, with Anderson, Battie, Delk, Rogers, Williams and McCarty might have gotten by the Nets and to the NBA Finals where you just never know what might happen.

[Boris Badenov]

It wasn't a mistake not drafting Parker at 10 or 11; nobody had him going nearly that high.

The Joe Forte was a pretty bad pick, though.  Just about every mock draft had the Celtics taking Parker or Jamaal Tinsley, and we ended up with Forte.

Utilizing the 11th pick at all that year was a bad mistake, as we had the option of rolling the pick over to the next draft (when we could have had Carmelo).  Instead, the team fell in love with Kedrick Brown.  Even if the Celtics had gone with conventional wisdom they would have ended up with Troy Murphy, which wouldn't have been so bad.

The next draft wasn't the Carmelo draft.  Denver used their 5th pick on Tskitishvili.  Amare went 9th that draft.

That's right.  We had the option of rolling it over up to two seasons, which would have been the Carmelo draft.  It's probably doubtful that we would have passed on the 5th pick, but it's possible, since everyone wanted a shot at Lebron.  Even if not, I could have lived with Nene, Amare, or Caron Butler.

I think the real kick in the teeth with selecting Brown was that he's the one we should have shipped out in that deal for Rogers and Delk, not JJ.  JJ showed a lot more talent that rookie year.  Having JJ on the team when going up against the Nets in the playoffs would have been a big help IMHO.

If we're going down alternate history lane, we have to consider the possibility that picking Parker, or even trading Kedrick instead of JJ, would have led to a different set of circumstances that would mean no KG trade and no 17th banner.

Our whole future path in terms of records, draft picks etc. could have been different - and ultimately worse - than what we ended up with.

I'll take the last six years any day of the week. It's been a great ride.

[slamtheking]

It wasn't a mistake not drafting Parker at 10 or 11; nobody had him going nearly that high.

The Joe Forte was a pretty bad pick, though.  Just about every mock draft had the Celtics taking Parker or Jamaal Tinsley, and we ended up with Forte.

Utilizing the 11th pick at all that year was a bad mistake, as we had the option of rolling the pick over to the next draft (when we could have had Carmelo).  Instead, the team fell in love with Kedrick Brown.  Even if the Celtics had gone with conventional wisdom they would have ended up with Troy Murphy, which wouldn't have been so bad.

The next draft wasn't the Carmelo draft.  Denver used their 5th pick on Tskitishvili.  Amare went 9th that draft.

That's right.  We had the option of rolling it over up to two seasons, which would have been the Carmelo draft.  It's probably doubtful that we would have passed on the 5th pick, but it's possible, since everyone wanted a shot at Lebron.  Even if not, I could have lived with Nene, Amare, or Caron Butler.

I think the real kick in the teeth with selecting Brown was that he's the one we should have shipped out in that deal for Rogers and Delk, not JJ.  JJ showed a lot more talent that rookie year.  Having JJ on the team when going up against the Nets in the playoffs would have been a big help IMHO.

If we're going down alternate history lane, we have to consider the possibility that picking Parker, or even trading Kedrick instead of JJ, would have led to a different set of circumstances that would mean no KG trade and no 17th banner.

Our whole future path in terms of records, draft picks etc. could have been different - and ultimately worse - than what we ended up with.

I'll take the last six years any day of the week. It's been a great ride.

it could have been better as well.  might have hung #17 much earlier.

[Donoghus]

That '01 Draft really set the team back a few years.  Just some awful organizational decision-making. 

[slamtheking]

That '01 Draft really set the team back a few years.  Just some awful organizational decision-making.

so true.

drafted 2 busts and 1 keeper then we sent out the 1 keeper in a trade and hung on to the busts   

revisionist history:
- we delay that #11 pick. 
- Take JJ with #10
- Take Parker with #21
- Still trade JJ for Rogers/Delk (same results in the playoffs we'll assume)
- Keep Rogers in the offseason instead of trading for Gin Baker
- Roll over the pick to the following year (Melo draft)
- play out the season with what we've got.  Rogers hopefully produces for the full year as that 3rd option behind PP and AW.  Parker continues to learn under Kenny Anderson.
- Draft Melo, Bosh or Wade -- whoever's looking the most promising.  Bosh probably fits the need at the time for a big rebounder and scorer.  Maybe Melo if we move PP to SG.
- A lineup going into that next year of Parker, PP, AW, Melo/Bosh and probably Battie -- that would have probably been good enough to get to the finals since they'd still have some bench depth.
- Parker, PP and Bosh/Melo as building blocks going forward is not too shabby.

[lightspeed5]

In The Celtics defense, Parker got picked 28th so a lot of other people passed on him as well.  The draft is unpredictable.  Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss.  The only time I consider it a mistake is if you have a top 3 pick and you swing and miss there.  You draft on potential though.  It's very hard to tell how much of a players potential that player is going to hit.  Kedrick Brown didn't amount to much of his potential.  Tony Parker may have hit for 200% of his potential.

tony parker hit 100% of his potential, 200% of his PERCEIVED potential.

[LGC88]

Overseas players are harder to evaluate regarding their potential. They play only 30 games a year and they don't have big staff to improve their skills. When  a player like Parker arrived so young in the draft it's impossible to tell who he will become. Spurs get lucky at 28th but you have to give them credit on the way they develop him. Long term effort that pay off.

[boscel33]

I don't know, 1989 we drafted the next Larry Bird in Michael Smith, while the next pick was Tim Hardaway.

[kozlodoev]

As for worst oversight in Celtics draft history, there have been many of them.  Marcus Banks over David West, Michael Smith over Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp, Jon Barry over Latrell Spreewell, Ron Mercer over Tracy McGrady, etc., etc.

You can write a book about NBA draft oversights. We all know it's not an exact science.

[Moranis]

As for worst oversight in Celtics draft history, there have been many of them.  Marcus Banks over David West, Michael Smith over Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp, Jon Barry over Latrell Spreewell, Ron Mercer over Tracy McGrady, etc., etc.

You can write a book about NBA draft oversights. We all know it's not an exact science.

Yeah but the thing with Parker was that Wallace wanted him, but Red did not and Red overruled him.  This wasn't just some, man we should have drafted such and such long after the fact.  This was a real debate in the draft room and unfortunately the old timer with all the built up status won the debate and was wrong.

[LooseCannon]

Is there a written account out there which explains why Red didn't want Parker?  Did Red not like Parker at all or did he like Parker but thought Forte would be better?