The Boston Celtics have had plenty of assets in the NBA draft lottery in recent times. They do in this draft, as well, but let’s start with the 14th pick.
The Boston Celtics are always a team that a lot of focus on, come draft night. For an organization that is almost always competitive, recent years have seen them more involved in the earlier parts of the draft than you’d expect them to be. The Celtics-Brooklyn Nets trade, which goes down as one of the most lopsided trades in league history has played a major role in the Celtics’ involvement. From this, 2016 saw the Celtics take an up-and-coming star in Jaylen Brown. Whilst 2017 saw the extraordinary movement from No. 1 to No. 3, as the Celts gained multiple assets and future perennial All-NBA star in Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics have created plenty of their own luck through the draft, but there have also been some questionable choices. Players such as James Young, Guerschon Yabusele, who quickly moved out of the league were selected. With picks that never worked out, the Celtics squandered opportunities to be more than just competitive. They have a great team now, which could’ve been much greater if things went differently on just a couple of these draft nights.
This year’s draft will give the Celtics a major opportunity to fill a void that could potentially take this team that one step further and compete for their first title in 12 seasons. There are plenty of areas to improve on when it comes to this successful squad for them to be able to take that extra step. Shooting and bench scoring are areas the Celtics will look to improve in, and a back-up point guard is something they’ll want to look at bringing in.
There will be plenty of players who can fill the Celtics’ voids available when they’re on the clock at No. 14, their first of three picks in this draft. Of course, with this organization, there’s always a chance that they do trade out of their spot here, but we’ll be taking a look at players they could take with this specific pick.