Celtics have had mixed results in draft in prior years – Seacoastonline.com

By Jim Fenton| Brockton Enterprise

There is always plenty of hope in the air on the night when the NBA Draft takes place.

Young basketball players find homes to chase their dream of having a professional basketball career, and 30 teams have new additions to their rosters.

Sometimes, those draft connections work out, but a lot of other times, they dont.

The Celtics, who went into Wednesday nights draft with three first-round choices and one more in the second round, have had mixed results over the past 10 years when it comes to the draft.

In the first round, starting with Avery Bradley being picked in 2010, the Celtics have acquired seven players who made an impact in their rotation.

The second round, however, has produced very little help from the 14 players they have taken in the past 10 years.

The Celtics have six of their first-round selections on their roster, including Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams, Grant Wiliams and Romeo Langford.

Two players from the second round Semi Ojeleye and Carsen Edwards are also on the roster while Tremont Waters appeared in 11 games and spent most of the season with the Maine Red Claws.

Tatum and Brown, both drafted No. 3 overall thanks to a trade with the Brooklyn Nets, are the players the Celtics are banking their future on.

Tatum, in line to sign a lucrative extension next month, made the All-NBA third team in his third season after averaging 23.4 points.

His is becoming one of the top offensive players in the league and appeared in the NBA All-Star Game last February.

Brown, who is signed through the 2023-24 season, averaged 20.3 points and continues to get better in every aspect of his game.

Smart was taken No. 6 in the 2014 draft and has developed into one of the best defensive players in the NBA.

Robert Williams has dealt with injuries through his first two seasons and played just 29 games this past year.

The Celtics are in need of an athletic big man and Williams could fill that role, but his inconsistency has held him back.

Langford, the No. 14 pick last year after one season at Indiana, showed some promise as a rookie but was sidetrack by injuries while Grant Williams looks like hell be a solid role player after his performance as a rookie.

As for the other first-rounders acquired by the Celtics since 2010, Bradley spent seven seasons in Boston before getting traded in a salary-cap move. He is now a free agent after opting out of the resumption of the season this past summer as a member of the champion Los Angeles Lakers.

In 2011, the Celtics drafted Providence Colleges MarShon Brooks in the first round, but via a trade, actually wound up with JaJuan Johnson of Purdue as their top rookie that year. Johnson played just 36 games for the Celtics and is now with Bayern Munich in Germany.

The two first-round picks in 2012 were Jared Sullinger, who averaged 11.1 points and 7.7 rebounds in 258 games over four seasons, and Fab Melo, who played six games and died at the age of 26.

Via a trade with the Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics picked up Kelly Olynyk via the draft in 2013, and he was a quality role player for four seasons and now plays for the Miami Heat. Terry Rozier was a first-round pick in 2015, and after four seasons with the Celtics, signed a contract with the Charlotte Hornets.

The same draft that produced Brown in the first round also brought the Celtics Guerschon Yabusele and Ante Zizic at Nos. 16 and 23. Yabusele is back playing in France after doing little in 74 games with the Celtics while Zizic was part of the Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas trade and is now playing in Israel.

Since 2010, the players taken by the Celtics in the second round include Luke Harangody, ETwaun Moore, Kris Joseph, Jordan Mickey, Marcus Thornton, Deytona Davis, Demetrius Jackson, Providence Colleges Ben Bentil, Abdel Nader, Ojeleye, Kadeem Allen, Jabari Bird, Edwards and Waters.

Harangody appeared in 28 games for the Celtics before being shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers in his rookie season while Moore got into 38 games as a rookie, his only season with the Celtics. Moore is still in the NBA with the New Orleans Pelicans.

Joseph, who played six games with the Celtics, wound up with the Brooklyn Nets and was sent back to Boston as part of the trade involving Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce for the draft picks that netted Tatum and Brown.

Mickey got into 41 games over two seasons with the Celtics and is now playing in the EuroLeague while Thornton went to play in Australia after being drafted and is now playing in Germany.

Davis was traded away on draft night while Jackson played five games for the Celtics and is now on a team in Lithuania.

Bentil was waived at the end of his first training camp and played three games for the Mavericks. He was on the Panathinaikos team that won the Greek championship inthe 2019-20 season.

Nader got into 48 games for the Celtics and was recently part of the Chris Paul trade, joining the Phoenix Suns after being with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Ojeleye has gotten minutes the past three seasons, Edwards received little playing time as a rookie while Waters was the NBA G-League rookie of the year.

Allen is now playing in France after getting into 18 games with the Celtics. Bird played 13 games for the Celtics, but he was arrested in 2018 for domestic abuse and kidnapping of a former girl friend, and has not played since.

Go here to read the rest:
Celtics have had mixed results in draft in prior years - Seacoastonline.com