Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
The 6-foot-4 [Terrence] Ross has operated in a vacuum for most of the season. But Ainge had heard enough to request that workout, and it’s easy to see why. Ross is that rare college player who not only can hit from 3-point land, but is also known for his mid-range game, including a nice touch on his pull-up jumper. His percentages suggest that he’s also efficient with his shot.
[…] If the Celtics want a shooter and scorer, there will be options with the 21st and 22nd picks.They will be forced to beware of sliders. Beyond Ohio State power forward Jared Sullinger, the most notorious appears to be Baylor’s Perry Jones, a terrific 6-11 athlete and scorer whose motivation has been questioned. Besides, they already have a player of similar skills in JaJuan Johnson. They could get lucky if St. John’s forward Moe Harkless — a prototypical “power 3” — drifts far enough down the board.
Otherwise, they could do worse than to go for one of the most underrated players in the first round — Kentucky guard Doron Lamb.
Herald: Celtics consider several players, draft position
This Herald piece mentions eight different players at two different portions of the draft, which basically tells us that the Celtics might trade up to try to get an immediate-impact player… or they might stand pat and hope someone decent is still available…
Who are they going to draft?
It literally could be anyone. Royce White’s name continues to come up, so it’s hard not to believe they’d pass on him at this point. But it’s so wide open that there is no consensus at all on who the Celtics will take. I Googled NBA mock draft and opened five of the top links. One of them gave me two different mocks…
… so in six different mock drafts… which means 12 available selections for the Celtics… there were NINE different names (Terrence Ross, Fab Melo, Jared Sullinger, Jeffrey Taylor, Terence Jones, Andrew Nicholson, Marquis Teague, Perry Jones, Quincy Miller) at all five available positions.
No one knows.
No one knows who will slide. No one knows which GM will make a boneheaded pick reaching for someone way too high. No one knows what Danny Ainge’s strategy will even be.
One thing I do know: If the Celtics stand pat and make their selections at 21 and 22… don’t get too excited. Those players will very likely NOT be impact players, especially if the Celtics re-sign Kevin Garnett. This team is not built for rookies to get much playing time. This isn’t the “learn on the job” team like the Charlotte Bobcats. This is “learn in practice from Hall of Famers and then maybe apply it in the D-League” town.
I don’t want to COMPLETELY dismiss the possibility, but it’s just realistically not feasible. Sure, Royce White could come in and be a player who had a condition (in his case, an anxiety disorder) that scared a lot of teams off and he slipped much lower than he should have gone… but it’s much more likely that the guys selected at 21 and 22 deserve to be drafted closer to the top of the second round than the first.
To sum this all up: temper your expectations for this draft. It’s “deep”, but deep in the sense that you might find a decent role player in the 20’s that won’t take 3 or 4 years to develop. It’s not deep in the sense that this becomes an Oprah-style give away…
“YOU GET AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT PLAYER… AND YOU GET AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT PLAYER!!!”
The draft is unlikely to fill an immediate need… so don’t even let yourself go down that road. People can’t even agree on who the C’s will draft and what positions they’ll fill… how can we expect them to make an immediate impact?
The rest of the links:
WEEI: NBA Draft’s potential Celtics – JaMychael Green | Perry Jones | Nemanja Nedovic | Ken Horton | Scott Machado | Tornike Shengala | Greg Mangano | Herald: Mixed bag for Ainge | Celtics could stay on point | Danny Ainge’s best and worst draft picks | Best of the bunch: Shooters and Wing scorers
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