Boston Celtics: Redrafting the last decade of first round picks
Original pick: Jaylen Brown
New pick: Jaylen Brown
This draft was filled with a number of current borderline all-stars like Pascal Siakam, Dejounte Murray, Domantas Sabonis, and of course Jaylen Brown. Pascal Siakam was likely not on the Celtics board at three, especially with a number of young big men like Jared Sullinger on the roster.
Siakam is likely the only player of the three that will have a better career than Brown, at this point at least. Sabonis and Murray are both quality players, who have provided a lot of unappreciated help towards their respective teams, but the improvement of Brown seems to signify that he has a much higher ceiling.
Related Story. Celtics: 3 players not likely to return in '20-21 season. light
This season, Brown was a 20.4 point per game scorer, while becoming one of the team’s best defenders. Yet, he continues to grow quietly.
At the time the Celtics already had Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley, but Bradley seemed bound to enter free agency after the 2016-17 season, and Marcus Smart was a project that would take several years before seeing significant action.
After bouncing in and out of the lineup last season, Brown found his role this year as one of the most impactful players on the team. His position would be hard to replace, even if they picked up one of the other all-stars in the draft.
Even before Jaylen Brown, the Celtics were beginning to build their young core by adding Terry Rozier to their plan for the future. Was he the best available?