Re: Draft picks

[Geoff DuWors <gduwors@student.umass.edu>]

Shaw was a draft pick, not Gamble. They acquired Gamble from the CBA. I 
think the comments you've seen about the Celts making poor draft picks are 
more in reference to the likes of Michael Smith (BYU), Acie Earl, and 
Eric Montross, and not Lewis, Fox, Shaw, Brown, Williams, and Walker. 
Even the three picks that get the most critcized were good ones at the 
time. People don't remember how incredible Michael Smith was his senior 
year at BYU, he could even be compared to Van Horn. Bird was aging and 
Smith was to be the heir apparent to him. The same thing goes for when 
they took Earl to backup The Chief and eventually they hoped he'd step 
into his starting role once he retired. On Draft Day that year Earl was 
projected to go 9th-12th, and when he was available when the Celts chose 
it was considered a steal. Montross was taken for the same reasons. When 
they realized Earl wouldn't be a competent NBA center, they would've been 
stupid to pass on Montross's size and Tar Heel (Dean Smith) teaching. I 
know you're all saying, "But we could've gotten Tim Hardaway or Nick Van 
Exel or Eddie Jones (wouldn't that be nice? Two words: CLASS ACT)... etc, 
etc," but, isn't hindsight always 20/20?


Celts in '98!
Pissa!
Wicked Pissa!

> 
>   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
>