The importance of scouting

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Sorry this is a followup on my last post, and may seem somewhat
un-Celtics related or out of place. At Boston's current draft position
(11, 14, 17), below is a further breakdown of players available in
previous years. Everyone of these drafts could have helped the Celts a
great deal, assuming we picked "smaht" instead of "retahded".

The most surprising thing is the number of quality players taken either
at or after the 17th pick (Michael Finley, Theo Ratliff, PJ Brown, Sam
Cassell, Jermaine O'Neil, Rashard Lewis and so on). This really puts the
onus on quality scouting, and makes the second half of the draft more
intriguing than it might normally appear.

We'll need a great job by Chris Wallace and for the leprechaun to smile
on us one more time. BTW, I know I'm jumping the gun with this draft
talk and that many of you could care less about this subject at this
moment. I guess all the NCAA goings-on has me thinking about it.
Definitely a great tournament so far. I'm rooting for Boston (BC Eagles)
to "Beat LA" (USC).

I'd also love it tonight if we delivered a can of whupass on our
favorite trade partner Dan Issel, as per usual, and hope we are
energetic tonight despite the B2B.  I plan to tune in to the game even
from my Euro time zone. Pierce only played three quarters last night, so
who knows he might go for a hat-trick tonight with another 40 game. That
would be a treat.

Go Celts Go!


Here were the options with picks 11, 14 and 17+.

1993
11th- Allan Houston
14th- Scott Burrell or Rex Walters?
17th- Sam Cassell, Chris Mills or Ervin Johnson

(2nd round draft picks included Nick Van Exel and Bryon Russell)

---------

1994
11th- Jalen Rose
14th- Eric Piatkowski
17th- Aaron McKie or Wes Person

(2nd round draft picks included Howard Eisley, Michael "The Animal"
Smith, Voshon Lenard and Lawrence Funderburke)

---------

1995
11th- Gary Trent or Corliss Williamson
14th- Alan Henderson or Brent Barry
17th- Theo Ratliff or Michael Finley

(2nd round draft pick Eric Snow)

---------

1996
11th- Kobe Bryant
14th- Predrag Stojakovic
17th- Jermaine O'Neil

(2nd round draft picks included Othella Harrington and Shandon Anderson)

---------

1997
11th- Derek Anderson
14th- Maurice Taylor
17th- Bobby Jackson

(2nd round draft picks included this year's ROY candidate Marc Jackson
of GS and Stephen Jackson of the Nets, along with Alvin Williams and
Mark Blount)

---------

1998
11th- Bonzi Wells
14th- Michael Dickerson
17th- Euro-prospects Nesterovic, Turcan and Stepania went at around this
stage. But here's where it gets really interesting. 2nd round draft
picks included Rashard Lewis, Cuttino Mobley, Ruben Patterson, Shammond
Williams and Jahidi White.

---------

1999
11th- Corey Maggette? (Jason Terry went 10th overall)
14th- Ron Artest
17th- James Posey or Vonteego Cummings

(Todd MacCulloch, Wang Zhi Zhi in the second round)

--------

A few more drafts:

1992
Players available with a 17th pick: Eric Murdoch, Rick Fox, Randy Brown,
Bobby Phils and Zan Tabak. Either Dale Davis or Terrell Brandon were
available at #11.

1993
Players available with a 17th pick: Doug Christie, PJ Brown, Matt
Geiger, Hubert Davis, Tracy Murray, Oliver Miller, Jon Barry etc.) At
#11-14 only Robert Horry and Bryant Stith are still in the NBA, while
Harold Minor and Malik Sealy are gone.

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