Who Should The Celtics Draft if They Land a Top 3 Pick?
Celtics have only a 2.9% chance of securing the Lakers 2018 pick in tomorrow’s draft lottery if it vaults to spots Nos. 2 or 3.
That’s still better than the 2% chance Boston was given to make the NBA Finals in the immediate aftermath of Gordon Hayward’s injury. pic.twitter.com/67IOQfiONs
— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) May 14, 2018
Before I start this, the chances of the Celtics landing 2 or 3 in tonight’s draft lottery are SLIM, but it’s fun to speculate. If for some reason we do land a top three pick, you can catch me running butt naked up and down my street all night long. With that said, let’s look at some potential candidates:
DeAndre Ayton, C, Arizona
There’s no shot we land Ayton, but man it’d be nice. He’s the consensus #1 overall pick and will probably be one of the best centers in the league for a while if he pans out. But if for some reason he’s available at #2, I would personally have to fight Danny Ainge if he didn’t grab him.
Mo Bamba, C, Texas
I think there’s a lot of potential with Mo Bamba. He’s raw offensively, but I think he could turn into an elite rim protector and eventually develop a solid offensive game. He showed enough flashes during his time at Texas to make me a believer. I think of him as a Clint Capela type of center if he can live up to the hype.
Marvin Bagley, C, Duke
I’m not nearly as high on Bagley as I am the other two, but he’s still a really great prospect. He has a really high ceiling as far as his scoring potential goes. My problem with Bagley is on defense. I’m a Duke fan, so I watched a lot of games this year. And I noticed him just falling asleep a ton on D. Maybe it’s just a college thing, who knows. I’m not out on him, I just like the other two a lot more.
If you can’t tell, I think the Celtics need a center, and this draft is LOADED with athletic bigs. Al Horford isn’t going to last forever, but I think he could wind up being a great mentor for any of these kids.
So will we see the Celtics land a high pick tonight? There’s a 97.1% chance that we don’t, but honestly, this team has done some pretty crazy shit this year. I’m not putting anything out of the realm of possibility.
-Nick Cherico (@NickCherico2)