2001 Draft Recap...

[Mark Piotrowski <markp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

interesting look back at the 2001 draft by this writer, J. Levy.  It's
an interesting thesis -- that while the 2001 draft was disappointing,
even if we redrafted today the best we could hope to get is Haywood +
Tinsley and that's not much better than what we got -- but one I don't
really agree with.

In fact Haywood and Tinsley were actually 2 players I really wanted us
to draft at 21 (of course I also really wanted Diop too -- though I
still think he may develop into a real player):
<http://www.igtc.com/archives/celtics/2001/Jun/msg00577.html>

> 21st Pick:
>
> (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.
>
> (c) Parker -- if he's as good as they are saying i doubt he's here. 
> But sounds like a nice player.

I think Levy looks at the draft as "how do you get superstar players"
and that certainly is one function of the draft, but don't forget the
C's drafted Ainge, Fox, Henderson, et al, -- key role players on very
good (and some championship) teams.  At 10, 11 & 21 I don't think you
have to be disappointed not walking away with Gasol, Randolph and
Arenas -- but we should have nabbed 1 or 2 players that would be 4-7th
best on our current team.

(the other) mark
---------

J.Levy writes THE LOST DRAFT
http://www.patriotsweekly.com/modules.php?
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=101&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

In the summer of 2001, Jim OBrien looked at the TNT cameras and said,
The Boston Celtics hit a home run with this draft.

It was important that the Celtics do exactly that. Three first round
draft picks meant the next ten years of the franchise could be decided
that warm summer night. The Celts had Pierce, Antoine, and little else
to hang their hat on... The opportunity to pick up a franchise player,
or several complimentary players, seemed ripe.

There was one thing that no one counted on: 2001 was a lost draft. It
was the worst group of talent in an NBA draft since well, since the
year before (both years stand out for their lack of players).

2001 is interesting because the Celtics had those three first round
picks and, as it turns out, there was very little chance they could
have done anything with them, even if the front office knew what it was
doing.

Heres how the draft went, with comments when appropriate:

1. Kwame Brown (Hes done nothing except average under eight points a
game.)

2. Tyson Chandler (He is averaging 13 points and 10 boards. He could
still blossom into a star but concerns about his offensive game lead
many to think hell be a 15 and 10 guy for his career -which isnt bad-
but not what you look for from the #2 overall pick)

3. Pau Gasol (A good player, but has not improved a lick since his
rookie year. His numbers have declined in every area except scoring,
where there been only a marginal improvement)

4. Eddy Curry (He does have potential. He can certainly score in the
low post. Fuse him and Tyson Chandler into one player and youve got a
guy who can score, board, block shots, and is only getting better. As
it is, he seems more like a James Edwards type from the Pistons
championship years. Could become a monster but it probably would have
already happened if it was going to.)

5. Jason Richardson (Came out of nowhere this year to become a legit
player in the league. Averaging 19.5 points and almost 9 boards hes
actually shooting the ball better too. Wow!)

6. Shane Battier (Remember before the draft, when everyone was sure
this guy was going to be great player, but just didnt have the
superstar upside of the high schoolers? Remember? He cant start on the
Grizzlies. Hes barely averaging 10 points per game over the past two
seasons. So much for polish and experience.)

7. Eddie Griffin (Shooting his girlfriend was the first notable thing
hes done.)

8. DeSagana Diop (Is losing minutes to Chris Mihm this year. Enough
said.)

9. Rodney White (There was talk that MJ might have picked him #1
overall in the draft instead he slid all the way to the Pistons, who
thought they were getting a Paul Pierce type player. Uhnope. I
remember being so disappointed that White got taken just before the Cs
selected it would have been so glorious, I thought, to suit Rodney up
in the green and white. I could envision him as our third scorer for
the next decade. Ah, the folly of youth. )

10. Joe Johnson (Whats there to say about him? Hes just not that
good. Is currently shooting under 40% in the valley of the sun. The
Celts may have actually gotten the better of the deal when the moved JJ
for Delk and Rodney Rogers even though Rogers left at the end of the
year and Delk never did anything important in his career.)

11. Kedrick Brown (I really wanted Kedrick to succeed. I took him in a
fantasy draft. I had an article half written about how Obie had to get
him more playing time. The truth is, when Kedrick plays, he doesnt do
enough to demand that he stay on the court. All good players do things
on the court that demand PT from their coach. Kedrick just doesnt. )

12. Vladimir Radmanovic (Is finally starting. Is also shooting under
37%.)

13. Richard Jefferson (Pretty good player. Over-rated. Doesnt board
enough. Hes the beneficiary of Jason Kidds excellent passes. Did you
know that Kidd gets six assists a game that came from dunks or very
close shots? He leads the league in this revealing stat, showing that
his passes result in easy shot opportunities for his teammates. FYI:
82games.com has this and many more fascinating stats to light up your
NBA life.)

14. Troy Murphy (A player whose play justifies where he was selected,
only the third player so far to do so, along with Jrich and Gasol)

15. Steven Hunter

16. Kirk Haston

17. Michael Bradley (Theres no point in writing anything about those
three guys.)

18. Jason Collins (Mediocre. No wait, thats not fair. Less than
mediocre. 8 Points and 5.6 rebounds as a starter this year, with less
than one block a game. Unlike Richard Jefferson, he is clearly not a
beneficiary of many Jason Kidd passes.)

19. Zach Randolph (And here he is. Probably the best player in this
draft. Came into his own this year. Averaging almost 21 points, over 11
boards, and is shooting 51% from the floor. Wow! Franchise me, baby!)

20. Brendan Haywood (If you were to wake me up when he averaged seven
points per game, Id be concerned that, like Sigorney Weaver at the
beginning of Aliens, 57 years would pass in a heartbeat. Wed probably
skip the shot of me in my underwear though.)

21. Joe Forte (Supposedly, this was Red Aurbachs pick. I think that
was a lame move b the front office not to take responsibility for their
draft picks, but whatever Rick Pitino speaking on TNT just before we
selected, said he thought we would take Tony Parker (okay, he called
him Troy Parker). Sigh. If only we had, Rick, if only we had. But how
could we have known this was the one personnel decision you nailed?)

22. Gerald Sasser

23. Brandon Armstrong

24. Raul Lopez

25. Gerald Wallace (This really was a nightmare of a draft, wasnt it?)

26. Samuel Dalembert

27. Jamal Tinsley (Now that Indy has a real coach, he cant get off the
bench.)

28. Tony Parker (Boy, that Troy Parker kid really did work out, huh?)

That was it for the first round. There were two guys taken in the
second round who can play: Gilbert Arenas at 31 and Mehmet Okur at 38.

If the draft were held today, it would probably go something like this:
1. Randolph
2. Gasol
3. Arenas
4. Richardson
5. Parker
6. Chandler
7. Murphy
8. Curry
9. Jefferson
10. Kwame Brown ?
11. Okur?
12. From here on out, it doesnt really matter anyway.

Basically, the Celtics had almost nothing to choose from. They needed a
point guard, a center, and a wing player. Of course, the front office
took three wing players and bragged about how smart they were. Moving
past any obvious jokes about the front offices IQ, the point is this:
if the Celtics had indeed drafted a point guard and center with the
10th and 11th picks, rather than wing players, it seems likely they
would have taken Haywood and Tinsley. At 21, they would have probably
taken the best player available, which they thought was Joe Forte (who
many of us thought would become a very good NBA player.) So, instead of
JJ, Kedrick and Forte, we couldve had Haywood, Tinsley and Forte. And
we would probably be no better off.

Who could have known that this draft would be so diluted that three
years later, only seven or eight guys would have made a consistent
impact in the league?

Not the players. Not the media. Not the fans. And, clearly, not Jim
home run OBrien.