by tsn correspondent
PETER MAY  Boston Globe
This could have been a big weekend for Rick Pitino. His horse, Halory Hunter, was one of the favorites to win the Preakness. And his basketball team, the Boston Celtics, had a chance, albeit a small one, of landing one of the top picks in the lottery.
All Pitino could hope for was that the lottery produced a better result than the Preakness. Halory Hunter broke a leg training for the second leg of the Triple Crown and never made it to Pimlico. Pitino sent general manager Chris Wallace and his chauffeur, Tim Sypher, down to New Jersey hoping for better luck.
"They owe us one," the coach said, referring to last year, when the Celtics had the best statistical chance to get the No. 1 pick and ended up with the third pick (their own) and the sixth pick (Dallas). "Last year, we could have had Duncan and Van Horn."
The Celtics went into the lottery with a 1.4 percent chance of landing the top pick and only a marginally better one of cracking the top three. Barring that, they'll pick 10th.
Wallace said, "I'm bringing down two good luck charms." He failed to identify them. "One is something new. The other is something old which has ties to the Celtics and to their glory years."
He wouldn't say if the old charm was a brick from Boston Garden, which is in the process of being torn down. . . .
If they do pick 10th, the Celtics will be picking from what Wallace feels is the second main group of players. Included in that group, at least for consideration, will be high schoolers Rashard Lewis and Al Harrington.
Pitino has had some fun at Wallace's expense, saying his general manager wants the draft picks to be as young as possible.
"If there's some eighth grader out there, Chris wants me to draft him," Pitino said.
The coach said he has a long-standing bias against drafting high school kids, but admitted he needs to soften his thinking on the matter.
"All I told Rick is that we can't eliminate anyone because of how old they are or where they're from," Wallace said. "We have to look at high school kids. We have to look at European kids. We have to look at everybody."
Wallace said he thinks Lewis will be the first high schooler chosen, probably in the early to mid teens. Harrington should follow shortly thereafter, he said, probably before No. 20. He doesn't see what all the fuss is about.
"Since Garnett came out, we've had five kids declare and four went in the first round, the lowest being (Jermaine) O'Neal at Portland," Wallace said. "The other one (Red McDavid from Williamstown, N.C.) wasn't even close to being a pro. But if you ask the people that made those picks, my guess is they'd make them again. They have done all right."
"And," Wallace went on, "if you look at the people who drafted the high school kids, they are among the most well-respected minds in the league. Kevin (McHale), Jerry (West) and Isiah (Thomas) all are presumed to have a good eye for talent. And so is (Bob) Whitsitt (who drafted Shawn Kemp a year out of high school). So I don't think it's as big a deal as everyone says it is."
The Celtics have not had any players in for interviews or workouts, but that will change after the lottery. They deliberately have held off in case they do get lucky. Why bring in Ansu Sesay if you're going to be picking in the top three?
"It's a waste of our time and money," Wallace said.
If they pick 10th, the Celtics will be looking primarily at big men who, hopefully, have some kind of offensive game. Wallace thinks Michigan's Robert Traylor might be available and he would get a long look. Others they will investigate might include Keon Clark, Michael Doleac, Matt Harpring, Pat Garrity, Sesay, Lee Nailon, and, maybe even Kentucky's Nazr Mohammad, although he is not a scorer.
Pitino said he wants someone good enough to start. That means someone better than Walter McCarty. He hasn't gone into his bunker yet, but the coach did say he didn't see much talent oozing at the power forward spot.
He may well decide to deal the pick, hopefully packaging it with an unwantable (Travis Knight, Pervis Ellison and Greg Minor all qualify). That would improve his cap position to go after a big free agent, which the coach is determined to do.
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