A sampling of draft grades and rankings from the “experts:”
27. Boston Celtics (minus-1.1 WARP)
Consider the Celtics the anti-Nuggets. It’s clear at times that their rankings are wildly different from my projections, never more so than last season, when they took Jaylen Brown — whose stats-only projection was for negative WARP — at No. 3. I wouldn’t blame you for trusting Danny Ainge’s judgment after that.
Jayson Tatum‘s minus-0.6 projection wasn’t nearly so poor, but he ranked sixth in my consensus projections, several spots below where he was actually taken.
No. 38 pick Semi Ojeleye (minus-0.4) had a negative consensus projection, though I like his 3-and-D skill set where Boston picked him.
C+
The Celtics are probably not as brilliant as the true Ainge believers think, and they’re probably not as dumb and gun shy as some critics make them sound. That’s my only coherent Celtics thought after (another) 96-hour window of endless Celtics rumors. We’ll see what happens in free agency.
A (Tatum Pick)
Perfect fit. Celtics need a scorer to take pressure off IT4 and Tatum is the most advanced scorer in draft.
‘Thank You Brooklyn’ (Tatum Pick)
Regardless of how Tatum fits with Brown, this pick will be graded based almost entirely on how good Josh Jackson becomes. That’s not fair to Tatum, but he can wipe his tears with one of his many millions of dollar bills. (Fact: NBA rookies get paid in crisp, impossible to separate one dollar bills. It’s in the collective bargaining agreement.)
B
There are just no guarantees here, since Tatum will need plenty of touches in a system that filters so many toward Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford. Adjustments will be necessary to make this a perfect fit, and the former Blue Devil will need to spend his rookie season learning how to provide new types of contributions.
Grade: B | Fit: B
Tatum is one of the best scorers in this draft, and he could become the no. 2 option the Celtics have needed to take pressure off Isaiah Thomas. Of course, that’s if he’s staying in Boston long term. If he does, given how many players the Celtics could be adding in the next few years, the key is developing the rest of his game so he can help his team if he’s not a primary option.
On the George front, more to come in the days and weeks ahead, but this tweet from one of my least favorite writers of all time provides a window into Kevin Pritchard’s thinking:
Kevin Pritchard on the idea that some Pacers fans are done with Paul George: "I totally get that. I totally get that. It was a gut punch."
— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelStar) June 23, 2017
He’s leaving… stay tuned.
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