draft ramblings

....waiting at work for the computer i'm working on to format, figured i'd blurt out some random thoughts about the Celtics and the draft and the future of the team:

10th Pick: I don't really have a strong feeling here. If Battier is available great. If its Joe Johnson, cool. If by some fluke Griffin or Gasol or White fall this far, wonderful. And if they are ALL gone (which i actually think they will be), i'm fine with Kendrick Brown -- if Wallace is.

I agree that if he's worth picking at #10 i want to keep him. If the rumors that Wallace wanted to take McGrady are true, why should i think that taking Brown is a reach? I am not as nervous with Wallace & O'Brien calling the draft shots as i am with Pitino b/c i think they aren't drafting to keep their jobs -- it seems like they are a little more even-keeled. They don't seem to be looking at this draft as make-or-break, but a chance to improve our team. They are thinking how to improve the team NOW as well as not hamstring our chances at improving the team in the future.

11th Pick: Diop -- i REALLY hope that if he's on the board the Celtics don't pass him up (I think you wait until . The chance to get a potentially dominant center (not a serviceable one like i think Haywood and Woods will be, but a Domninant one) is so rare that i just don't see how you pass up Diop. We have 3 picks. The worst that will happen is 2 are complete busts. I would much rather have Diop be a major bust (gamble and lose) than have Kendrick Brown or Troy Murphy be "decent" players. Now if we had 1 pick i'd sing a completely different tune. Diop also sounds like a good smart kid, learning english and helping teach others.

If Diop is on the board and we pass him up, my night is ruined (with the possible exception of some freak slipping of 2 of the "concensus" top 6 or 7 (i.e. Gasol and Battier or Richardson)). I will really be mad.

If Diop is gone (which he may very well be), i'll be pretty disappointed. The player who intrigues me recently is Troy Murphy of all people. When he was being mentioned as a lock i almost died -- visions of Michael Smith, Danny Ferry and Matt Harpring kept me up at night.

But reading that he has really worked hard to prove himself after the college season ended seems to be the opposite from players like Curry who have sort of coasted. I think it says something about him. And he sounds like a REAL pf, which would allow us to eventually move Antoine to the 3 or 1. I'm not sure i'd want him at 11 still, but if it happens i won't walk into traffic, like i was planning to about a month ago.

(a) Brendon Haywood -- i imagine he'll be gone, but if not TAKE HIM!!! I think he's going to turn out to be Robert Parrish-lite or Brad Daughtery-lite: A center who doesn't do any one thing great, but does many things really well and plays for a decade. The fact that he (and L. Woods) is not freaking out, but being somewhat philisophical about sliding (saying that he and Woods and Ken Johnson are talking about it and understand that they are sliding b/c GMs are enamored with "upside", not b/c they can't play) make me like him even more.

(b) Jamaal Tinsley -- everything i've read about him says "winner" to me. I liken him to Mark Jackson. There are point guards who might be better but you can't deny that Mark Jax WINS wherever he goes, he's a LEADER. that's what Tinsley sounds like. I predict that a lot of the "old men" of the draft -- the college seniors--come out with a vengence next year to prove that they should have been taken higher: Haywood, Tinsley, Woods, Johnson, etc.