When have the Celts ever gotten a good pick? When have they ever gone into a lottery and came out with "phew. That is exactly why we did this"? or even "thank gosh we didn't go down"? Joe Johnson? When they were supposed to be 8th and got 8th?
The lottery never helps the Celtics. They have never gone into it and come away with any kind of advantage over other teams. They have never won, or even moved up, in the lottery. They have only lost the lottery.
Plus this team was far too good, even early on, for a top 6 pick. This team was looking at maybe 9th at best. Frank Kaminsky. Whoop de doo.
assuming the above is a real question and not simply a snarky over generalizaiton, by good pick, do you mean "top 6"? (since bird was taken at #6, it is reasonable to extend "good pick" this far out.)
if so, then a 5 minute search on the web would have shown you this:
2014 - 6th pick
2007 - 5th pick
1997 - 3rd pick & 6th pick
1996 - 6th pick
1986 - 2nd pick
1980 - 1st pick, traded down to 3rd pick
1978 - 6th pick
Hold on, here. We're forgetting one very important detail in this discussion - are we talking about doing well in the lottery with our own picks, or those of another team's, because it looks a lot worse for us, believe it or not, if we're just looking at our own picks.
In 1980, after that dumbass owner of ours traded Tom Barker (whoever that is, lol
) and 3 FIRST ROUND PICKS in the 1979 draft for Bob McAdoo
. There are simply not enough facepalms to illustrate how stupid that move was, especially since those picks ultimately ended up as 3, 9, and 21 in a draft with Bill Cartwright (who went at 3) and Sidney Moncrief (ugh), not to mention, Magic, obviously, in the top 5.
Fortunately, Dick Vitale was in charge of the Pistons, lol
(are you serious? Ohh, ohh...
), and Red took him to the cleaners by trading McAdoo for two of Detroit's first round picks in 1980, which turned out to be the 1st, overall, and 13th, and as we all know, Auerbach then sent those picks to the Warriors for Parish and the 3rd pick, where we took McHale, but the overall point here is that our pick did not win the top pick in 1980, nor could it have given our record after Bird's first season.
Similarly, in 1984, after winning the title, Red traded Gerald Henderson to the Sonics for THEIR 1986 first rounder, and, as Arnold (I always thought it was funny that Cousy called him Arnold
) had hoped, Seattle found themselves in the basement at the end of the 85-86 season, winding up in the lottery, and we got the 2nd overall pick, so, again, that wasn't OUR pick, and, again, how could it have been when we won 67 games and a title that year.
In addition, our 1986 first rounder had been traded with Max in 84-85 to get Walton from the Clippers, and I've always wondered two things about that trade - 1). if we'd traded Max after 1984 instead of 1985 when his value was never higher other than after the 1981 finals due to his great game 7 performance against the Lakers, could we have gotten Walton a year earlier, and if so, does that mean a 3-peat from 84-86 (obviously we would have needed more firepower from the backcourt, as well, but you get the idea)? We'd probably have had to include a first rounder in such a trade, so let's say ours from 1985, instead of 86, meaning that we'd have the 2nd and 24th picks in the 1986 draft, which brings me to number 2). Do we take Mark Price at 24, giving us Len Bias and Price in one draft?
Holy sh!t. We wouldn't have needed Sichting, anymore, so he could have been traded for a 1st rounder of whatever, but even if we'd won close to, if not, 70 games in 86-87 with Price and Bias being our first two off the bench
, we would have had the 23rd instead of the 22nd pick in 87. I don't think that San Antonio, which had the Lakers' pick after handing over, I mean, trading
, Mychal Thompson to LA at the 87 deadline, would have taken Reggie Lewis at said spot, meaning that we could have rebuilt on the fly and gotten our next core in place to take over from DJ and Danny (who probably just goes back to his bench role) down the road, while at the same time giving us the best bench in the league in Price, Lewis, and Bias for the present. A title run from 84-88, etc., doesn't seem out of the question, and history would have been very different, imo. WOW
. Sorry for the tangent.
Topic: Bob Cousy says he'd rather tank/draft than get stuck in the middle of the pack. (Read 14613 times)