The Boston Celtics: Rebuilt after Ten Years of Failed Drafts
The Boston Celtics have clinched a spot in the NBA Playoffs with the best record in the Eastern Conference, which is incredible news for all Celtics fans. While I’m not that old and liked Michael Jordan much more than Larry Bird, I used to cheer on Celtic teams that had stars like Eric Montross, Eric Williams (once my favorite player), Todd “Ding Dong” Day, Travis Knight, and Marty Conlon.
It is a far cry from these Celtic teams of lore to have a lineup that has three perennial all-stars on it: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.
Honestly, I don’t get to watch the C’s that much anymore now that I’m on the West Coast, which used to be one of my favorite things to do when I was in high school. Well, it’s location and the fact that I get too restless to sit and watch basketball games more than a couple times a month.
Ok, it’s that and the fact that I still hold a hatred deep down in my soul for the NBA for the Pacers/Pistons brawl starring Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jermaine O’Neal punching fans in the face. I will never forgive the NBA for that night and the way that they likely paid off commentators and networks to say “the players have to defend themselves in that situation” in a full force PR emergency plan. I will never forget the first time I saw that on TV and vowed to not watch basketball again for a year (and I didn’t!). Since then, basketball has never returned to its spot as my favorite sport to watch.
Honestly, NBA basketball is almost painful for me to watch because I hate the league so much for standing behind players’ actions who punch paying fans in the face who make it possible for these some thugs (not all of them) to have a job that overpays them as much as it does. I know a lot of professional athletes and know that it’s not normal what happened that night, but it’s still something that I can never forgive the NBA for handling the way that it did in terms of its PR spin. It makes me sick to this day.
Anyways, where were we?Ah yes, so the Celtics had some dark days, then some bright days with Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce, who made up one of the least consistent, but most entertaining duos in all of basketball. Antoine shot 3’s like the white Jason Williams and Paul Pierce was fairly consistently awesome, but Walker’s antics made the whole team inconsistent. The team made it to the Eastern Conference finals and made the playoffs generally, but it was never going to be a championship team and rebuilding felt like it was taking forever.
Have Celtic fans ever wondered “Why did it take so long to rebuild?”
Because the Boston Celtics absolutely sucked at the NBA Draft for years! In addition to that, free agents were wooed from other teams in exchange for draft picks, giving the Celtics a fairly low number of picks until the mid-2000’s.
Not only did the Cletics choose crappy players, but they would let go of and traded players who “weren’t developing,” only to see them become superstars on another team with a better coaching staff.
And for what and for whom?
Losing seasons, some dudes who aren’t on the team anymore, Raef Lafrentz, and a frustrated team captain?
While the C’s are looking great and I wish them the best, I thought it would be fun to look at their draft choices from the past 10 years to see why it took a crapload of money, veterans, and a whole lot of time to finally make this rebuilding process a success in 2008 because of wasted years in the NBA Draft.
1997: The Tim Duncan Year
The Boston Celtics Select….
#3: Chauncey Billups: Traded him, not like he was going to be good…
#6: Ron Mercer: Spent less time with more teams than almost any player I can name whose name isn’t Marcus Banks, no longer in the league.
#55: Ben Pepper: Who the hell is Ben Pepper?
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#5: Tony Battie: Spent later years with the Celtics as one of its “marquee” players.
#9: Tracy McGrady: Understandable, considering he was a early entry gamble.
#19: Scot Pollard: Lose Chauncey Billups, but at least we have Scot Pollard in 2008, who we clearly wanted back then but just missed out.
#54: Mark Blount: Also spent later years with the Celtics and I’m sure he was better than Ben Pepper.
1998: Michael Olowokandi becomes a rich man
The Boston Celtics Select…
#10: Paul Pierce: Jesus, Take the Wheel!
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
None. No one taken after Paul Pierce has turned out to be a better NBA player.
1999: When Steve Francis was awesome
The Boston Celtics Select…
#55: Kris Clack (who the hell is Kris Clack?)
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#57: Manu Ginobili: Who I have no doubt was a sleeper and it’s a rarity to find such a talented guy so late in the draft, but WHO IS KRIS CLACK??
2000: Worst. Draft. Ever.
The Boston Celtics Select…
#11: Jerome Moiso: Who was actually pretty good in college, but I really can’t remember a single thing that he did in the league. I think I saw him block a shot once, but that might have been Manute Bol.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#17: Desmond Mason: I could put almost anyone on here above Moiso.
#18: Quentin Richardson: The Los Angeles Clippers version was more fun.
#43: Michael Redd: Everyone missed the boat on this one
2001: Drafting on “Potential”
The Boston Celtics Select…
#10: Joe Johnson: Traded, not like he was going to become one of the most well-rounded players in the NBA.
#11: Kedrick Brown: Traded after one awesome dunk and a Shawn Kemp-like hamburger eating contest that made his “potential” turn into a very fat man. Kedrick has been out of the league for years.
#21: Joseph Forte: One of the worst Celtics draft picks of this whole bunch, not only because Forte couldn’t play in the NBA, but his character was absolutely awful as well. I’ll let Wikipedia do the rest of the talking for me:
“Unfortunately, his most memorable moment with the Celtics came when he wore a Scooby-Doo shirt on the sidelines during the playoffs. In two seasons with the Celtics and the Seattle SuperSonics, Forte averaged 1.2 points and 0.7 assists per game, struggling to convert from his natural shooting guard position to point guard
. He was eventually waived by the Sonics due mostly to attitude and legal problems. While with the Sonics, he was arrested on gun and drug charges in Maryland, as well as an assault charge in which he allegedly punched a man in the face during a pickup game.”
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#13: Richard Jefferson: Not better than Johnson, but way better than Brown or Forte (though Marty Conlon was better than Joe Forte).
#25: Gerald Wallace: See above.
#27: Jamaal Tinsley: Not really because Tinsley is THAT good, but the Celtics were obviously looking for a Point Guard and we chose Joe Freakin’ Forte. This isn’t half as bad as…
#28: Tony Parker: See Manu Ginobili. Damn you, international scouts for the San Antonio Spurs.
#31: Gilbert Arenas: Plug him in wherever Kedrick’s “potential” was supposed to go and you have a player for years.
#35: Brian Scalabrine: We missed him in the draft, so why not get him later for more?? The Celtics did just that with the well-traveled NBA utility man.
2002: A Seven Foot Five Inch Tall Chinese Guy
The Boston Celtics Select…
#49: Darius Songaila: Actually, not a bad pick this late in the draft because he was a great player at Wake Forest. He wasn’t a Tim Duncan, but he was a good value at this spot, but of course the Celtics got rid of him too before he became a serviceable player and good defender for the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#55: Luis Scola: Ok, I admit this is nit picky.
2003: Lebron James or Darko Milicic?
The Boston Celtics Select…
(#16: Troy Bell: No longer in the league and traded to Memphis for…)
#13: Marcus Banks: Banks didn’t really play on the Celtics and gets traded more than anyone, much like he won’t anywhere but the Phoenix Suns, and traded for…
(#20: Dahntay Jones: No longer in the league and traded to Memphis, which turned into…)
#27: Kendrick Perkins: Can’t complain about this one as Kendrick has finally turned into a strong inside presence for the Celtics.
#56: Brandon Hunter: Nope, don’t know him either, though something tells me he stuck around for a minute.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
#29: Josh Howard: Just a cornerstone of one of the most high powered offenses in the league, that’s all.
#51: Kyle Korver: He has to be better than Brandon Hunter and he could have been the C’s 3 point shooter.
2004: Was Dwight Howard another Kwame Brown? (No)
The Boston Celtics Select…
#15: Al Jefferson: Was actually a player with a ton of great potential and this eventually turned into part of the deal for Kevin Garnett.
#24: Delonte West: See above, but change Kevin Garnett to Ray Allen.
#25: Tony Allen: Can’t complain about the value of getting a quality player like Allen this late in the first round.
#40: Justin Reed: Meh.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
None.
2005: How many North Carolina players can go in the first round?
The Boston Celtics Select…
#18: Gerald Green: The dunk champion that Kedrick Brown was supposed to be, but this pick also turned into Kevin Garnett. It would have been fun to have seen Jefferson and Green grow together in Boston.
#50: Ryan Gomes: Another good player who played some very good minutes for the C’s, but again, turned into Kevin Garnett so it’s tough to say this wasn’t a good pick. The T-Wolves got a ton of young talent in that trade.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
None.
2006: Where are the All-Stars?
The Boston Celtics select…
#7: Randy Foye: Never played on the C’s, but seems like a decent player for the Timberwolves, who are pretty much the old Boston Celtics.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
N/A
2007: Greg Oden or Kevin Durant?
The Boston Celtics select…
#5: Jeff Green: Traded to Seattle, eventually became part of Ray Allen.
#32: Gabe Pruitt: A USC guy who can score, but clearly has a pretty good shooting guard and small forward ahead of him.
Notable players who were taken after the Celtics’ picks
Too early to say.
I think it’s tough to find any team that was as bad at the NBA draft as the Boston Celtics were in the mid-90’s to mid-2000’s. It’s only after really looking at these drafts that you can see just how horrible the talent scouts and management was to choose horrible players and trade away good ones. One way or another, we kept a couple of them and we’re going to the playoffs.
Go C’s.
Big thanks to CelticsBlog.com for linking this blog, much appreciated, guys!
Actually, this assessment is not very fair.
First, the worst drafter of them all are definitely the LA Clippers. Kaman and Livingston are pretty much the only bright spots in an endless line of misfits.
Second, the problem with the Celtics wasn’t that they drafted poorly. They just did a terrible job developing their young talent and trading. Apparently, Kedrick Brown could have been sent out instead of Joe Johnson. Duh. Likewise, Billups was having a horrible rookie campaign (big surprise, rookie PG), and Pitino moved him before the season was over.
Mercer was a pretty decent player for us, but apparently wanted too much money to resign and we moved him. Luckily (for us, unfortunately for him), his off-court issues completely killed his career.
And then of course, there was the Gin Baker fiasco, where we were stuck paying about 30 million over 4 seasons for someone who wasn’t even fit to play most of the time. For further evidence of GM Chris Wallace’s abilities, see the Pau Gasol trade… I mean, he is a nice and classy guy, but his management was, at best, questionable.
Also, hindsight is 20/20. There are plenty of folks who went second round or undrafted. Happens all the time in the NBA, since players evolve constantly and not everyone is a finihed product when they enter the league. Especially with second-round picks, you roll the dice. Brandon Hunter was an undersized PF who had a pretty good NCAA career (lead the nation in rebounding, if I remember correctly). This backfired badly, because the dude ended up being a 6′6 one-trick pony, but similar players that Ainge picked recently – Ryan Gomes and Leon Powe – are panning out to be at least solid rotation players in the NBA.
Marcus Banks, actually, played quite a bit for us. He has some skills, good quickness and speed, but unfortunately the more he played, the more obvious it became that MB is all about MB. That’s why we moved him in the Wally deal, and Rondo is everything we expected Banks to be.
By the way, you missed the Rondo pick completely (via the Suns), as well as Powe and Glenn Davis. All solid players, all picked way later than they should have.
Much appreciated, Koz. By no means is this meant to be a comprehensive list, just more of some thoughts I was having last night while watching Sportscenter. As an LA resident, I have to agree with you that the Clippers drafts look make some of those Celtics drafts look pretty good. While a lot of the drafts were bad, you’re right in saying that it’s the player development and the trades that make some of these look especialy bad.
No doubt Rondo and Glen Davis have had a big impact on the C’s this year, with Rondo being arguably more than anyone expected from his this year. I should have thought about those trades more, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I still feel like the C’s did a pretty horrible job in the draft for a bunch of those years. Lately, I think they’ve done a great job!
Celtics fans make me sick and this blog proves that most of you are just plain ignorant.
Pierce gets a free pass for everything he did. Spitting at the Cavs bench. Demanding a trade if he didn’t get Garnett. Refusing to listen to Doc Rivers until a contract year but instead you insult Walker and blame him for the Celtics not getting further.
It is ridiculous and just more proof none of you actually watched this team in the early 00’s because you are clueless.
“Walker’s antics made the whole team inconsistent”
Really that is funny because in 2002 Pierce was whining on the sidelines and whining about him not getting the ball enough until Walker yelled at him.
Fact is Pierce has never done anything without someone else on the team dealing with all the real stuff you have to deal with in Boston.
You know what, Why bother. This is why half the United States hates Boston because of so called fans like you.
I actually liked Walker more than Paul Pierce when he was on the team for his passion, leadership, and how competitive he would be (the huge playoff comeback against the Nets still goes down as one of the greatest games I’ve ever watched).
The reality is that Antoine Walker’s shot selection was unbelievable while he was on the team. For as much good as he did, you never knew what Antoine you were really going to get night in and night out, which was really entertaining, but tough to handle as a fan. Antoine’s 3 point percentage would be atrocious, but he’d just keep firing them up there, which never seemed to make sense. He was a really likable player (the wiggle was on every commercial and it was great), leader, and he gave the team some fire.
It’s hard not to like Pierce as a fan because not only did the guy get stabbed in the face (not that this has anything to do with basketball), but he goes to the line a ton for being so aggressive and driving to the hoop instead of settling for the jump shot. He’s a clutch performer and I think he’s the type of player to build a team around.
People will always hate Boston. It’s part of living there.
My heart ached as I watched with Celtics collapse from the death of Maryland great Lynn Bias and Reggie Lewis to the debacle of hiring Pitino. Now it is “fantastic” to see the great Celtics emerge once again to NBA royalty. I grew up with McHale, Bird, Johnson, Angie, “Chief” Robert Parish, Ainge, and Walton as they did battle with the great Lakers and Pistons teams, so the seeing Boston in the mix of another run toward glory is music to my ears. I take my hat off to Angie for making Boston the team to beat again!
DC,
Actually, for a post centered around the Celtics bad drafting, I think you went a little easy on the C’s. They whiffed on a TON of good NBA players with some of these picks.. for example in 2003, they could have not only had Howard and Korver, but Barbosa or Diaw (granted Diaw is the French Tim Thomas, but he’s decent), or Travis Outlaw (who looks like a stud in Portland).
And then, in 2004, the Kings must have breathed a sigh of relief when they watched the Celtics take two dudes not named “Kevin Martin” right before they snatched him up?
As you said, hindsight is 20/20… you can do this to almost any team in any draft. But the reality, like you touched on, is that some teams (the Spurs) seem to be pulling out quality everywhere they look, and the C’s made some awful decisions.
(by the way, I totally disagree with your NBA-hate for the palace brawl. I mean, the brawl ruined the Indiana Pacers (who had the best team in the beast) because of the suspensions and PR fallout, and the NBA “no fighting” rule that cost Amare and Diaw last year was basically put in so that nobody ever brawled, so that on-court issues would be unlikely to escalate.)
Interesting text!, dude
nice work, guy
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The Boston Celtics have clinched a spot in the NBA Playoffs with the best record in the Eastern Conf [...]…