Tag: Brooklyn

Celtics Defy All My Expectations And Land the No. 1 Overall Pick. What’s Next?

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In a stunning turn of events last night, the Celtics did NOT get hosed by the ping pong balls in the NBA Draft Lottery. More than 12 hours later and I am still shocked.

I was biting a towel, I was ready for it, I was fully expecting the C’s to get porked last night. We even had that smiling bastard Magic Johnson up there threatening to steal our shine.

I just want to take a quick second to once again thank the Brooklyn Nets for what may go down as the worst/best trade in the history of sports. Hershel Walker, please sit down.

I mean the number of times the C’s have taken a beating by the ping pong balls is insane. This team has never won the draft lottery. Ever. Now obviously having 17 championships doesn’t routinely put you in pole position to win the No. 1 overall pick. But even when they’ve been up there hoping against hope, they typically get fucked. Lets just run through the past few years real quick.

  • 2014: Best odds at No. 5 overall. C’s dropped to No. 6 and took Marcus Smart
  • 2007: The Oden/Durant draft that would make or break two franchises. Best odds at No. 2 overall. C’s dropped to No. 5 somehow and draft Jeff Green. Green then got shipped out in the Ray Allen trade.
  • You can go through the whole history of the Celtic’s lottery results here, but the only time the C’s EVER improved their position was 1986, when they had the best odds at No. 5 and ended up at No. 2 where they took Len Bias. Who, ya know, died 2 days later. So, not a great example.

Now we turn our attention to the beautiful and shiny words “Number One Overall Pick.” By most accounts Markelle Fultz is the guy to take here.

Unless of course Danny wants to wet his beak in the Big Baller Brand and take Lavar (I mean Lonzo) Ball.

Everyone after that is too much of a project to reach for at No. 1. I don’t give a shit that the Celtics have 11 guards on their roster, don’t mess around, take the best player. And as previously mentioned, me and Markelle are already best friends and he’s looking forward to wearing green, so just make it official Danny.

Or the C’s could trade the pick. I don’t know about you, but now that its officially the No. 1 pick I’m a little more hesitant to deal it unless you are getting an absolute stud. I love Jimmy Butler, but 2 years of Butler for 10 years of a potential stud like Fultz? Eh. Paul George? Not for the 1 year he has left on his contract. By all accounts George wants to be a Laker, so I don’t see this happening.

I heard Toucher and Rich this morning throw out Anthony Davis, who I would trade legitimately everyone on the roster to get. I don’t know why The Brow always gets thrown out in trade rumors. I legitimately believe he is going to be the best player in the NBA sooner than later and teams don’t just give those guys away.

The move here is to draft Fultz and let Brad Stevens figure it out. Him and Isaiah would be a dynamite 1-2 scoring punch. Team them up with Horford, Crowder, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley (assuming no one gets traded) and thats a pretty goddamn good team. Or maybe the C’s deal one of their guards like Bradley and bring in a guy like Gordon Hayward.

Either way, I think you keep the pick and continue to build. If you can swing a max guy like Hayward then that only accelerates things. What I don’t wanna see is perennial all-star Markelle Fultz playing for someone else while we bemoan the fact we sold that guy for 2 years of some to-be-named rental.

The C’s have traded a couple of lottery picks over the years that look bad. (No, not Jeff Green because he sucks.) The fact that the C’s traded Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson, who were drafted 4 years apart, instead of building with a core of Billups, Johnson and Pierce, is nuts. Thats a pretty solid team right there. Throw in Antoine Walker with that core? Kobe and Shaq woulda had no rings and maybe Toine wouldn’t be broke playing ball in Puerto Rico.

PS – I can’t help but dance on the graves of the fallen.

Celtics Can Now Achieve the Rare Feat of Claiming the No. 1 Seed AND the No. 1 Overall Pick in the NBA Draft

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The Celtics have the opportunity to earn one of the more rare accolades in all of sports this week. They could lock up the No. 1 seed in the East with a win on Wednesday (thanks to another Cavs loss Monday night) to go along with the potential No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

Now the Celtics are still at the mercy of some goddamn ping pong balls, but thanks to the Nets being an abysmal basketball team, they’ve already locked up the best odds at the No. 1 overall pick of any team this year. So it would be pretty wild to see one of the best teams in the league (at least by record) with the No. 1 overall pick. That never happens. The last time I can remember anything close to that would probably be the Celtics winning the 1985-86 title and then drafting Len Bias No. 2 overall. Hopefully it works out a little better this time around.

Normally you need to hit rock bottom before you can start getting better in the NBA. Or just be the Cavaliers: get three No. 1 overall picks in 4 years and then have the best player in the world come back to town. That also works. But usually you have to absolutely bottom out so you can get a lottery pick and start building around that top talent from the draft. You don’t do yourself any good consistently being a No. 6 seed and then getting a draft pick in the 20’s. Thats how you become the Atlanta Hawks.

Sometimes you’ll see a rare case with a good team having one real down year, luck out with a top pick after a terrible season, then get back on track. Case and point the 1996-97 Spurs who had Tim Duncan fall into their lap. They went 59-23 in the 1995-96 season then fell to 20-62 the next year before taking Duncan No. 1 overall and then jumping back up to 56-26 and starting the run of success they’re STILL on.

But you never see a top team with a top draft pick while they’re CURRENTLY a top team. So for all the shit Trader Danny takes, the fact that he’s been able to maneuver the Celtics into this situation by trading two aging superstars in their late 30’s for multiple Lottery Picks is amazing by itself.

If the Celtics can turn just ONE of those Nets draft picks into a home run, then this is the Herschel Walker trade of the NBA that will be talked about forever. I cannot wait to watch that 30 for 30.

What if I told you a General Manager took an aging roster and turned them into a Lottery ticket? This is the story of how Danny Ainge swindled the suddenly cash happy and attention starved Brooklyn Nets out of a bushel of NBA Lottery picks and got the Celtics back to the promise land with the quickest rebuild in league history. Trader Danny. Directed by Bill Simmons. 

Or they’ll continue to butcher draft picks with players that aren’t good enough to make the roster so they have to stash them in Europe and the Celtics fade back into mediocrity. That is a frighteningly real possibility. But you gotta figure Danny is due to hit on a stud. Maybe that superstar is already here in Jaylen Brown, but it sure as shit won’t hurt for Danny to get 2 more cracks at it. Since the Nets ain’t getting better any time soon and we’ve got their picks both this year and next. Or maybe Danny swings the draft pick for a guy like Paul George. Either way the Celtics are gonna need another superstar to make a real run at another Larry O’Brien trophy.

We’ll see, but as loud as that clock is ticking on this window of opportunity to make something big happen, name one GM in the entire freaking league who wouldn’t sell his soul to be in Ainge’s position right now. Just don’t blow it, Danny.