Draft picks

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

  I've seen some comments about the Celtics making lousy draft 
picks.  I don't understand that.  I've always been impressed with the 
Celtics' ability to draft players who turn out to be better than most 
of the people picked immediately before them.  For a long while they were 
picking around 15th - 17th, and they got some very good players like 
Kevin Gamble and Rick Fox down there.  Was Brian Shaw a draft pick, too? 
I think he was another "mid-teens" pick.  Reggie Lewis turned out to be
much better than almost everyone picked before him.  Antoine Walker was
the 6th pick, and the Celtics knew he was good enough to trade up for
and would probably be available, so they traded up from 9th to get
him.  He turned out to be at least as good as half the guys picked
before him.

  Of course, they've made a few bad 1st round picks over the last 10 
years, too, but in the draft, no team makes great picks every time.  
There's always an element of chance there.  Overall, they've done
better than most teams for where they've been drafting from.  We can
probably thank Larry Bird and Red Auerbach for that.

  The place where the Celtics have messed up the most is in the free agent 
signings of recent years.  

Jon McIntyre