Does it matter if the Celtics end up with the first pick in the draft?
Debate the answer with Chad Finn and Boston sports fans at The Sports Q.
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You mentioned somewhere the other day that you’re a college basketball bandwagon jumper when it comes to the tournament. I’m the same way, a total NBA snob. It’s impossible not to look at the best players in the tournament and try to figure out how they might do in the NBA. My takeaway from this tournament is that there are at least five outstanding prospects coming into this year’s draft. And I say that knowing that Markelle Fultz is still probably going to go first and his team didn’t even make it. So does it really matter where the Celtics end up picking as long as it’s in the top three or four? It seems pretty clear that they’re going to get a potential superstar no matter what. – Sky W.
Well, now that the Celtics are in a de facto tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with the Cavaliers, the crazy dream of earning a top playoff seed and earning the No. 1 overall pick looks as real as it ever has. So that’s what I want. Man, if only Danny Ainge knew what he was doing.
I think you’re right to some degree, Sky. If everything goes haywire — such as the Nets winning 7 of 9 to end the season and not finishing with the worst record, or if they do finish with the worst record but the ping-pong balls refuse to cooperate (again) and the Celtics pick fourth — they’re still going to get a really appealing young player.
That could be Duke’s Jayson Tatum, Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox or Malik Monk, or one of the perceived top-three now (Fultz, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, and Kansas’s Josh Jackson) should one of them slip because of off-the-court stuff or having, oh, a whack-job stage dad or something. That is some consolation if the bounces don’t go their way in Secaucus during the May 16 lottery.
As it stands now, they’re going to have a 65-percent shot at a top-three pick, and the best odds, a 25-percent shot, at the No. 1 overall choice. Of course you want them to get the top pick, because you want Ainge to get the top player on his board. But the tournament has made one thing clear: The Celtics are going to get a super-talented young player no matter where they pick. (Unless they trade it. Which they shouldn’t. But that’s a Q for another day.)
What do you say? Is it imperative that the Celtics get the No. 1 overall pick, or have you seen enough high-end young talent in the tournament this year to feel comfortable with their spot no matter where it ends up? Have at me in the comments.
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