With the draft coming up in a little less than a week, I thought I'd look back at the Celtics draft air-balls since 1990. The main criteria for this list is: "We drafted that guy instead of THAT guy?! Damn." Obviously, if the draftee turned out to be garbage, but there was nothing but garbage drafted after him, then I really have no argument.
I'll kick it all off with a guy who has a first name for a last name:
1993
Acie Earl, 1st Round, 19th overall pick
Prior pick: Luther Wright, 18th overall
Whoops: Sam Cassell (24th)
1994
Eric Montross, 1st Round, 9th overall pick
Prior pick: Brian Grant, 8th overall
Whoops: Eddie Jones (10th), Jalen Rose (13th)
1997
Ron Mercer, 1st Round, 6th overall pick
Prior pick: Tony Battie, 5th overall
Whoops: Tracy McGrady (9th)
1999
No first round pick - the pick was traded (along with Andrew DeClercq) to Cleveland for Vitaly Potapenko; had the Celtics (or, more to the point, Rick Pitino) kept the pick, it would've been the 8th overall. Who could they have selected there? Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jason Terry, Corey Maggette, Ron Artest, Andrei Kirilenko
2000
Jerome Moiso, 1st Round, 11th overall pick
Prior pick: Keyon Dooling, 10th overall
Whoops: Hedo Turkoglu (16th), Quentin Richardson (18th), Jamaal Magloire (19th), Morris Peterson (21st), Michael Redd (43rd)
2001
Kedrick Brown, 1st Round, 11th overall
Prior Pick: Joe Johnson, 10th overall
Whoops: Vladimir Radmanovic (12th overall), Richard Jefferson (13th overall), Zach Randolph (19th)
2001
Joseph Forte, 1st Round, 21st overall pick
Prior pick: Brendan Haywood, 20th overall
Whoops: Samuel Dalembert (26th), Jamaal Tinsley (27th), Tony Parker (28th), Gilbert Arenas (31st)
Looking back, it hasn't been so much the players that the Celtics have drafted over the years that have been bad. It's the decisions that have been made with them after the fact that have. Like trading Chauncey Billups after 4 months. Or trading Joe Johnson for Rodney Rogers (Rogers was a terrific add at the time, but there was no way the Celts were winning the title that year).
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. And the Celtics aren't alone in whiffing on some picks. Every team at some point in time has done the same thing. Some do it seemingly every year. And in a few days, some teams will do it again.
Original Story:
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