Notably, the Celtics head coach said he will closely study seven or eight players his team could consider with the No. 3 overall pick. “You can’t control those things (like the lottery). I think the biggest thing is that there are good players in this draft. And I’m just starting to watch them more closely,” Stevens said. “(Celtics president of basketball operations) Danny (Ainge has) given me a list of seven or eight guys to really look at. And then obviously we have so many other guys coming in at other pick opportunities, and we’ll see everybody come through. It’ll be probably hard for a true sleeper to get by us. So it’s really a great opportunity with the number of picks we have, where we are with that (No. 3) pick in the draft. And there’s so much yet to be determined.”

The list of seven or eight potential No. 3 picks could include: Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown, Buddy Hield, Skal Labissiere, Deyonta Davis and/or Marquese Chriss. Ainge also likely wants Stevens to take a look at Ben Simmons and Ben Ingram just in case either of those players fall (or the Celtics somehow trade up, which seems improbable).
6 hours ago – via Booth Newspapers

After studying all the prospects, Stevens will provide his input to Ainge — who will consider the analysis, but make the final decision himself. “I don’t know (if Simmons or Ingram will slip out of the top two),” Stevens added. “That’s for the other teams to decide. But I do think there are a lot of good players. So what I’ll do, and what we’ll do is — again, Danny and his staff have worked really hard to sift through who they think might be the most likely candidates to be picked in the top ten, top eight, and those are the guys that I’ll watch in no particular order. And then we’ll rank them. We’ll come to a consensus as a staff, but Danny will make the final call and we’ll go from there with whoever is the best available at No. 3.”