The Boston Celtics took a slightly different route than we expected in our NBA Wire-wide roundtable mock draft that pitted all our editors against each other in the annual free-for-all we call the NBA draft.
Firstly, though we doggedly tried to trade up with all our picks and even several of our less expensive players, we were simply unable to do so.
We also had trouble using a late first to move big men Enes Kanter and/or Vincent Poirier, which was evidently unappealing to our other NBA Wire editors.
While we have no way of knowing whether or not that is how things will play out on draft night, we learned making a draft-night trade takes a lot more work than we anticipated; we may want to temper our expectations as a result.
NBA Wires roundtable: 2020 NBA mock draft https://t.co/GlK2whNYXD
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 16, 2020
We did draft four prospects under the assumption we’d find a way to make space later — though our approach was at least a little different than many of the consensus moves later in the draft.
For the Celtics lottery pick, we went with Villanova’s Saddiq Bey.
For the uninitiated, he is an NBA-ready wing with positional flexibility and shooting perceived to be the safe bet the Celtics will need to contend well into the next half-decade or longer.
The 26th pick — widely seen to be in play for stashing Argentinian floor general Leandro Bolmaro — instead went to Washington’s Isaiah Stewart.
While it might be a bit high if his jumper doesn’t come along, there’s good reason to believe it might, making his high-energy game more than a second-unit adjustment.
We did draft a stash-able player for No. 30, but went with French big man Killian Tillie instead of Bolmaro.
We preferred to roll the dice on his existing skills not getting derailed by injury over waiting for the rest of the Barcelona floor general’s game to catch up to his passing.
Knowing Danny Ainge wouldn’t be happy unless we took at least one guard under six feet tall, we also drafted the NCAA’s leading scorer in Markus Howard with our final pick of the draft at No. 47.
Be sure to check the entire roundtable draft to see where your favorite prospects ended up — more than a few convention destinations didn’t quite pan out the way we expected.
