BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics are no different than most NBA teams that have a clear and well-defined pecking order for draft prospects.
But the more they evaluated the available talent in this draft, the clearer it became to the Celtics that the separation that they were looking for between players, just wasn’t as great as they were hoping it would be.
So for them, being open to moving the number one overall pick made a lot of sense.
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Boston’s trading away the No. 1 overall pick became official on Monday when the C's sent it to Philadelphia in exchange for the No. 3 pick in Thursday’s draft as well as a future first-round pick in 2018 (from the Los Angeles Lakers if it’s in the 2-5 range) or a 2019 pick from Philadelphia or Sacramento, whichever is the better of the two picks. If either team ends up with the top overall pick, the Celtics will get the other team’s first round pick.
“We’ve been evaluating these kids for a couple of years,” Danny Ainge, Boston’s president of basketball operations, told reporters via conference call on Monday. “We felt it was very close in the top handful of players; we still feel that way. We think there’s a really good chance that we’ll take at three, the same player we would have taken at one; an impactful asset.”
Boston is expected to decide between a pair of highly regarded forwards, Kansas’ Josh Jackson and Duke’s Jayson Tatum.
“We are very, very excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish the last few days getting this trade done with Philadelphia,” Ainge said. “I can’t wait for the draft on Thursday and continue to move forward.
Ainge added, “We’ll get a player we like in addition to further assets.”