Ainge's (likely) draft pick stock

[GetLucky]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

Rondo.
Tony Allen.
Perk.
Big Al.
Delonte.
Sully.
Smart.
Big Baby in the second round.
Heck, E'tuaun Moore is still in the league.

Considering where he's picked the draft, Ainge has an outstanding record of drafting Green/Wright caliber players.

Mike

Melo
Giddens
JJJ


And sorry, Big Al, Smart, Green were not picked in the late rounds. Big Baby is nowhere close to Jeff Green when it comes to being the overall better player, so is Delonte.

I'd give you Rondo and TA though. Sully fell to us because of the bad back, so I don't count him. So that's 2 since 2004 that can only be considered a good role player on a contending team (Rondo is more than that of course) that was picked in the late rounds, the rest are not.

Granted, most picks in the 20's aren't supposed to net Rondo or TA anyway, but that's what I'm afraid off. No team would take our late picks in exchange for their mid one's, where you can get a Big Al. They would definitely not give their lottery pick either. Chances are we are going to end up using those picks to select players, and chances are we get players that we wont need moving forward, basically wasting the picks, and years.

You can't "not count" any of the good results, just like you can't leave out any of the bad ones. Luck is not a valid reason to discredit Danny Ainge on. The whole sport of basketball is based on the concept of luck. Front office management, coaching, you name it, it all comes down to the lovely unpredictability of human nature. The results that Danny Ainge "gets" are directly related to what 29 other people do after analyzing thousands of assessments of thousands of players by hundreds of different people. Luck is the biggest factor in basketball dynasties, and Ainge is giving himself as many chances as possible to GetLucky (see what I did there   ), so I cannot complain.

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

I agree with you. I think that Ainge didn't go all-in for a quick retool, and that cost us a chance at a very competitive team of known commodities. I'm angry that didn't happen.

But Ainge is doing the best possible thing based on this team's current trajectory: down. He's cutting the mediocre players and getting chances (albeit small ones) to get a special one. I'm saying that, yeah, he got lucky, but he can't get lucky again without a horse in the race. At one time, The Spurs were lucky too. So was every championship team.

[guava_wrench]

Here is an analysis of the drafting of GMs. At least it is an attempt and collecting data on the topic:

http://www.nbaminer.com/draft-success-of-nba-teams/

This is also interesting in as much as it relates to all the picks:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-is-winning-the-nba-draft-lottery-really-worth/

[guava_wrench]

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

Why does it matter why Sully slipped? Ainge felt he was worth drafting. The GMs before him preferred going with different players.

In fact, Ainge took a risk on both bigs in the draft. He took a risk on Sully's health, and he took a risk on Melo's development. One out of two becoming a success works for me at that draft position.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

Rondo.
Tony Allen.
Perk.
Big Al.
Delonte.
Sully.
Smart.
Big Baby in the second round.
Heck, E'tuaun Moore is still in the league.

Considering where he's picked the draft, Ainge has an outstanding record of drafting Green/Wright caliber players.

Mike

Melo
Giddens
JJJ


And sorry, Big Al, Smart, Green were not picked in the late rounds. Big Baby is nowhere close to Jeff Green when it comes to being the overall better player, so is Delonte.

I'd give you Rondo and TA though. Sully fell to us because of the bad back, so I don't count him. So that's 2 since 2004 that can only be considered a good role player on a contending team (Rondo is more than that of course) that was picked in the late rounds, the rest are not.

Granted, most picks in the 20's aren't supposed to net Rondo or TA anyway, but that's what I'm afraid off. No team would take our late picks in exchange for their mid one's, where you can get a Big Al. They would definitely not give their lottery pick either. Chances are we are going to end up using those picks to select players, and chances are we get players that we wont need moving forward, basically wasting the picks, and years.

You can't "not count" any of the good results, just like you can't leave out any of the bad ones. Luck is not a valid reason to discredit Danny Ainge on. The whole sport of basketball is based on the concept of luck. Front office management, coaching, you name it, it all comes down to the lovely unpredictability of human nature. The results that Danny Ainge "gets" are directly related to what 29 other people do after analyzing thousands of assessments of thousands of players by hundreds of different people. Luck is the biggest factor in basketball dynasties, and Ainge is giving himself as many chances as possible to GetLucky (see what I did there   ), so I cannot complain.

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

I agree with you. I think that Ainge didn't go all-in for a quick retool, and that cost us a chance at a very competitive team of known commodities. I'm angry that didn't happen.

But Ainge is doing the best possible thing based on this team's current trajectory: down. He's cutting the mediocre players and getting chances (albeit small ones) to get a special one. I'm saying that, yeah, he got lucky, but he can't get lucky again without a horse in the race. At one time, The Spurs were lucky too. So was every championship team.

Okay, that's fair. Point taken.

I guess I'm still trying to accept that we are now placing the future on luck. We better hope that we are lucky in the next two years, either via draft, or get a player via draft that we can build around. If not, we're dead in the waters, and will be for a looooooong time.

[GetLucky]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

Rondo.
Tony Allen.
Perk.
Big Al.
Delonte.
Sully.
Smart.
Big Baby in the second round.
Heck, E'tuaun Moore is still in the league.

Considering where he's picked the draft, Ainge has an outstanding record of drafting Green/Wright caliber players.

Mike

Melo
Giddens
JJJ


And sorry, Big Al, Smart, Green were not picked in the late rounds. Big Baby is nowhere close to Jeff Green when it comes to being the overall better player, so is Delonte.

I'd give you Rondo and TA though. Sully fell to us because of the bad back, so I don't count him. So that's 2 since 2004 that can only be considered a good role player on a contending team (Rondo is more than that of course) that was picked in the late rounds, the rest are not.

Granted, most picks in the 20's aren't supposed to net Rondo or TA anyway, but that's what I'm afraid off. No team would take our late picks in exchange for their mid one's, where you can get a Big Al. They would definitely not give their lottery pick either. Chances are we are going to end up using those picks to select players, and chances are we get players that we wont need moving forward, basically wasting the picks, and years.

You can't "not count" any of the good results, just like you can't leave out any of the bad ones. Luck is not a valid reason to discredit Danny Ainge on. The whole sport of basketball is based on the concept of luck. Front office management, coaching, you name it, it all comes down to the lovely unpredictability of human nature. The results that Danny Ainge "gets" are directly related to what 29 other people do after analyzing thousands of assessments of thousands of players by hundreds of different people. Luck is the biggest factor in basketball dynasties, and Ainge is giving himself as many chances as possible to GetLucky (see what I did there   ), so I cannot complain.

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

I agree with you. I think that Ainge didn't go all-in for a quick retool, and that cost us a chance at a very competitive team of known commodities. I'm angry that didn't happen.

But Ainge is doing the best possible thing based on this team's current trajectory: down. He's cutting the mediocre players and getting chances (albeit small ones) to get a special one. I'm saying that, yeah, he got lucky, but he can't get lucky again without a horse in the race. At one time, The Spurs were lucky too. So was every championship team.

Okay, that's fair. Point taken.

I guess I'm still trying to accept that we are now placing the future on luck. We better hope that we are lucky in the next two years, either via draft, or get a player via draft that we can build around. If not, we're dead in the waters, and will be for a looooooong time.

I guess that's the infatuation with sports: nothing is a sure thing. It's tantalizing and torturous at the same time, especially if you're an analytical person. I definitely feel your pain though.

Looking back at Ainge's 2014 offseason will be an interesting "what if." He could've easily had a team of Rondo-Afflalo-Green-Sullinger-Asik and Olynyk, Turner, Bradley, Smart, and Zeller off the bench. Call me crazy, but that's a playoff team in the East that had some room to grow.

If the C's go into a long drought, at least all of us on CelticsBlog can commiserate together. 

[tarheelsxxiii]

Tp to someone who can explain the protected ones

Agreed. Most important aspect - what are the protections on these picks? That's what really matters. I'm way too lazy to look it up, but from what I've gathered here and there, it doesn't seem too exciting

[jpotter33]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

Rondo.
Tony Allen.
Perk.
Big Al.
Delonte.
Sully.
Smart.
Big Baby in the second round.
Heck, E'tuaun Moore is still in the league.

Considering where he's picked the draft, Ainge has an outstanding record of drafting Green/Wright caliber players.

Mike

Melo
Giddens
JJJ


And sorry, Big Al, Smart, Green were not picked in the late rounds. Big Baby is nowhere close to Jeff Green when it comes to being the overall better player, so is Delonte.

I'd give you Rondo and TA though. Sully fell to us because of the bad back, so I don't count him. So that's 2 since 2004 that can only be considered a good role player on a contending team (Rondo is more than that of course) that was picked in the late rounds, the rest are not.

Granted, most picks in the 20's aren't supposed to net Rondo or TA anyway, but that's what I'm afraid off. No team would take our late picks in exchange for their mid one's, where you can get a Big Al. They would definitely not give their lottery pick either. Chances are we are going to end up using those picks to select players, and chances are we get players that we wont need moving forward, basically wasting the picks, and years.

You can't "not count" any of the good results, just like you can't leave out any of the bad ones. Luck is not a valid reason to discredit Danny Ainge on. The whole sport of basketball is based on the concept of luck. Front office management, coaching, you name it, it all comes down to the lovely unpredictability of human nature. The results that Danny Ainge "gets" are directly related to what 29 other people do after analyzing thousands of assessments of thousands of players by hundreds of different people. Luck is the biggest factor in basketball dynasties, and Ainge is giving himself as many chances as possible to GetLucky (see what I did there   ), so I cannot complain.

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

Very slim chance? Seems like pure speculation to me.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

Rondo.
Tony Allen.
Perk.
Big Al.
Delonte.
Sully.
Smart.
Big Baby in the second round.
Heck, E'tuaun Moore is still in the league.

Considering where he's picked the draft, Ainge has an outstanding record of drafting Green/Wright caliber players.

Mike

Melo
Giddens
JJJ


And sorry, Big Al, Smart, Green were not picked in the late rounds. Big Baby is nowhere close to Jeff Green when it comes to being the overall better player, so is Delonte.

I'd give you Rondo and TA though. Sully fell to us because of the bad back, so I don't count him. So that's 2 since 2004 that can only be considered a good role player on a contending team (Rondo is more than that of course) that was picked in the late rounds, the rest are not.

Granted, most picks in the 20's aren't supposed to net Rondo or TA anyway, but that's what I'm afraid off. No team would take our late picks in exchange for their mid one's, where you can get a Big Al. They would definitely not give their lottery pick either. Chances are we are going to end up using those picks to select players, and chances are we get players that we wont need moving forward, basically wasting the picks, and years.

You can't "not count" any of the good results, just like you can't leave out any of the bad ones. Luck is not a valid reason to discredit Danny Ainge on. The whole sport of basketball is based on the concept of luck. Front office management, coaching, you name it, it all comes down to the lovely unpredictability of human nature. The results that Danny Ainge "gets" are directly related to what 29 other people do after analyzing thousands of assessments of thousands of players by hundreds of different people. Luck is the biggest factor in basketball dynasties, and Ainge is giving himself as many chances as possible to GetLucky (see what I did there   ), so I cannot complain.

Why cant I? Do you honestly think Sully slips to us if he didnt have the bad back?

All I'm saying is this, we have plenty of late first round picks, there's a very slim chance that those could be moved into something useful and/or turn into a player we can use moving forward. If that's the case, then why not just keep the guys that we traded for those picks, who we know are already good. That's a much safer bet.

I agree with you. I think that Ainge didn't go all-in for a quick retool, and that cost us a chance at a very competitive team of known commodities. I'm angry that didn't happen.

But Ainge is doing the best possible thing based on this team's current trajectory: down. He's cutting the mediocre players and getting chances (albeit small ones) to get a special one. I'm saying that, yeah, he got lucky, but he can't get lucky again without a horse in the race. At one time, The Spurs were lucky too. So was every championship team.

Okay, that's fair. Point taken.

I guess I'm still trying to accept that we are now placing the future on luck. We better hope that we are lucky in the next two years, either via draft, or get a player via draft that we can build around. If not, we're dead in the waters, and will be for a looooooong time.

I guess that's the infatuation with sports: nothing is a sure thing. It's tantalizing and torturous at the same time, especially if you're an analytical person. I definitely feel your pain though.

Looking back at Ainge's 2014 offseason will be an interesting "what if." He could've easily had a team of Rondo-Afflalo-Green-Sullinger-Asik and Olynyk, Turner, Bradley, Smart, and Zeller off the bench. Call me crazy, but that's a playoff team in the East that had some room to grow.

If the C's go into a long drought, at least all of us on CelticsBlog can commiserate together.

This has been my position since the Asik trade rumors. I think that's a legit Playoff team. Will it contend for a title? Probably not, but atleast we're setting a culture of winning and we're atleast a few little moves away from being very good. And that team can attract Free Agents.

But instead I guess we're going swinging for a homerun or an out. Good luck to all of us.

[LarBrd33]

It's true that aside from our own picks there's probably no lotto picks in the bunch... but the picks offer Ainge flexibility to shape the roster as he sees fit.   They are good to have.

[guava_wrench]

It's true that aside from our own picks there's probably no lotto picks in the bunch... but the picks offer Ainge flexibility to shape the roster as he sees fit.   They are good to have.

Brooklyn Nets. They will give a lotto pick.

[Boris Badenov]

Any claims regarding the success of a GM's drafting record needs to include a comparison to the typical success rates at the draft position for each player picked. We might also need to include considerations for draft day trades if a GM used a lot of those.

Just giving a list of good of bad picks is pointless as all GMs have picked guys who outperformed their draft position and guys who were busts.

Without this, people are just essentially insisting on their opinion and grabbing names to support the conclusion they already hold.

You mean, something like this?

There's understandably been some discussion (again) about whether Danny has drafted well or poorly, here on the eve of the draft.

Here's my take on things, hoping it gives us all reason for optimism heading into tomorrow. I also hope that this might change the minds of those who think Danny's done a bad job.

My approach here is pretty simple. Because Danny's draft position has varied over time, I think the best benchmark of his performance is how the guys he's chosen have done vs. the guys who were chosen right after the guys he picked.

I've argued this out before, but this is a more reasonable thing to do than to ask whether *any* player drafted after Danny's pick turned out to be better. (I call this the "Chandler Parsons Fallacy"). If you evaluate any GM this way he will look awful, because hindsight is 20/20.

So, I'm going to go through every Celtics draft pick since Danny took over and compare each of Danny's picks to the very next two players actually drafted. This gives us two separate lists of "but-for" talent to benchmark Danny against.

I think my approach is more informative because (a) Danny clearly could have drafted those next two guys if he wanted to, so this is a good benchmark of how he chose between closely ranked players, and (b) the very next two players drafted are a good measure of how everyone else in the league ranked talent on that very same day - rather than looking back after the fact and choosing for comparison the one guy in the next 15 who turned out to be good (like people do with Chandler Parsons).

Here we go, with Danny's actual picks on the left and each draft's next two picks on the right. For each of Danny's picks, you can assess his pick by comparing to the players on the right.


Marcus Banks        Luke Ridnour           Reece Gaines
Kendrick Perkins    Leandro Barbosa        Josh Howard
Al Jefferson        Kirk Snyder            Josh Smith
DWest/TA            Kevin Martin           Sasha Vujacic
Justin Reed         David Young            Victor Sanikidze
Gerald Green        Hakim Warrick          Julius Hodge
Ryan Gomes          Robert Whaley          Alex Hervelle
Orien Greene        Dijon Thompson         Lawrence Roberts
Rajon Rondo         Marcus Williams        Josh Boone
Leon Powe           Ryan Hollins           Cheikh Samb
Glen Davis          Jermareo Davidson      Josh McRoberts
Gabe Pruitt         Marcus Williams        Nick Fazekas
JR Giddens          Nikola Pekovic*        Walter Sharpe
Bill Walker         Malik Hairston         Richard Hendrix
Semih Erden         n/a                    n/a
Lester Hudson       Chinemelu Elonu        Robert Dozier
Avery Bradley       James Anderson         Craig Brackins
Luke Harangody      Pape Sy                Willie Warren
Jujuan Johnson      Norris Cole            Cory Joseph
E'Twuan Moore       Chuk.. Maduabum        Targuy Ngombo
Sullinger/Melo      John Jenkins           Jared Cunningham
Kris Joseph         Ognjen Kuzmic          Furkan Aldemir


By my count Danny has picked 11-12 legit NBA players, with 2 stars and several starting-caliber players.

The second list has 5-6 NBA players, with one borderline star and a couple of borderline starters.

The third has 4 NBA players with one star and two borderline starters.

To me, this is pretty indisputable. Danny outperforms his draft position. The guys he picks are pretty consistently better than "comparable" picks, year after year. A team of Danny's picks would IMO slaughter a team with players from one of the other two lists.

The talent at the top is notable - Rondo at 21 is without question the best player taken at no. 21 in *any* NBA draft since 1980. Al Jefferson is the second best taken at 15 (only Nash is better).

http://www.mynbadraft.com/nba-draft-picks/15th-overall/150509/

http://www.mynbadraft.com/nba-draft-picks/21st-overall/210509/

But also, what is notable is how many of Danny's low picks in the second round at least become NBA players, when so many other players taken in similar spots never play at all, or only a handful of games. I consider myself a close follower of the NBA, and I found myself saying "who?" more often than not on those other lists.

Anyway, here's hoping we get another good pick tomorrow. More Rondo-ish, less Giddens-y, if you will.

* You cannot consider Pekovic a possible pick for Danny because Pek needed to be drafted in the second round for his buyout to be realistic. (The next player drafted after Sharpe was Joey Dorsey).

** If I've missed anything (this was a lot of work!), let me know and I'll edit the list.

[Boris Badenov]

Another tidbit: I've been feeling "meh" about all these late 1st picks we have coming, but if you believe this figure, they're not much worse than picks in the 10-15 range.

The key (also, if you believe the numbers) is getting top 10 and especially top 5 picks. This is our dilemma. If Ainge can somehow swing our #8 this year plus #21 and #30 for #4 (as a hypothetical example), all this will be much more worth it. And if he does that two years in a row, we will be in great shape.

[GratefulCs]

2015: BOS 1st, LAC 1st, PHI 2nd, BOS 2nd, WAS 2nd

2016: BOS 1st, BKN 1st, DAL 1st, CLE 1st, PHI 2nd, MIN 2nd, MIA 2nd, DAL 2nd, CLE 2nd

2017: Best of BOS/BKN 1sts, MIN 2nd, CLE 2nd

2018: BKN 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

2019: MEM 1st, BOS 1st, BOS 2nd

Can i put this on a jersey?

Seriously though, Ainge is going to be one busy guy on draft night the next few years. He can't possibly use all those selections though, so it'll be interesting to see how he spends them.

Thanks for the info.
They have 4 1st round picks in 2016? Obviously they can't use all these picks.
Something's got to give.

But who would trade their All Star player or their top 5 pick for late first round picks? It's not like we have a promising prospect that we can include with those?

Im afraid we're going to have to use all those picks (which in turn could be mediocre players under contract for a few years), or just sell them for cash.

You don't get a superstar through the late picks. You use the picks to get guys like Green and Wright when your team needs them.

Then why cant we just keep those guys?

Knowing Ainge's draft history, the chances of him getting a Jeff Green or Wright quality player is very slim.

2007: Pick No.5 - Jeff Green.

I honestly couldn't stop laughing when I saw this

[tarheelsxxiii]

Thanks, Boris. TP.