Baffling Draft Pick Places Major Pressure on Danny Ainge, Celtics in Offseason
BOSTON — If there was an area that Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge could be pleased with entering the 2015 NBA draft, it was the backcourt.
Let's do some math.
Before Thursday night's draft, the Celtics already had nine players signed to guaranteed contracts for the 2015-16 season. Five of those players were guards (Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner and James Young).
Then, a funny thing happened when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the Celtics' No. 16 pick.
Danny Ainge summoned a 6'1", 190-pound, 21-year-old guard from the University of Louisville, Terry Rozier. He was one of three guards (No. 28 R.J. Hunter and No. 45 Marcus Thornton) the Celtics selected, along with power forward Jordan Mickey at No. 33.
OK, maybe it wasn't funny. Puzzling would be a better word.
Using all four picks in the draft and grabbing another point guard in Rozier was hardly an ideal scenario for the front office. Ainge openly admitted earlier in the week the team was aiming to package picks to move up into the lottery from No. 16, and he reiterated that aim in his post-draft press conference.
"We tried hard to trade up," said Ainge. "We spent the last couple weeks trying to move and, really, today was the only time that we had any indication that we could move up. But we were trying.
"At the end of the day, it’s like Red [Auerbach] used to say, ‘Sometimes the best trades you make are the ones you don’t make.’ Maybe we were going too hard at it. There was a time when I thought, ‘Whoa, this is getting a little out of control.’ We’re putting a lot of eggs in one young player’s basket. So I’m not frustrated. In the long run, maybe it’ll be the best."
Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com reported that Boston offered the Charlotte Hornets up to six draft picks for the opportunity to move into the No. 9 spot to select Justise Winslow.
With Winslow out of reach, the Celtics settled for the best player remaining on their board at No. 16 in Rozier, despite his unclear fit on a roster loaded with guards.
What do the Celtics have in the Louisville point guard? And what does his pick mean for a jam-packed backcourt in Boston this summer? It’s safe to say the Celtics are dealing with more questions than answers heading into the start of free agency, but the future looks hazy for several players on the team.
Was Rozier a Reach at No. 16?
The selection of Rozier in the middle of the first round was surprising for reasons beyond the team’s stockpile of point guards. Most mock drafts projected Rozier well south of No. 16. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had him going at No. 24, while DraftExpress.com pegged him at No. 30.
Could the Celtics have traded back from No. 16 and still managed to pick up Rozier while adding to the team’s pool of assets? Head coach Brad Stevens wasn’t sure that was possible while speaking to 98.5 The Sports Hub after the selection.
“He was a guy we thought would probably be available, but not much longer, based on how he was ascending,” Stevens said of Rozier’s draft position.
So how does Rozier fit into Boston’s plans? Ainge views him as a point guard, despite the fact that he had to serve as more of a scorer than distributor for a lackluster Louisville offense this past season.
Rozier’s 17 points-per-game average wasn’t his central appeal to Boston, though.
“He’s really athletic. And he’s really tough. And I love those kind of guys,” Ainge said. “I think he has a great upside as a two-way player. He’ll live in the paint. He can get where he needs to get. He’s got great speed, athleticism, length and he’s a terrific defender. I believe his shooting numbers will continue to improve as well. He has great form, great mechanics, and we had him in for a couple of workouts, and we really grew to like him.”
Many of Rozier’s talents overlap with core pieces of Boston’s current backcourt, including Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley. The Celtics have some impressive guard options in that group, and gaping holes remain elsewhere on the depth chart, with limited roster space to fill those holes.
All of this should lead to a busy next few weeks for Boston’s front office.
What Will Ainge Do About the Backcourt Logjam?
“We probably don’t have room for [all four picks on the roster]," Ainge said. “So we’ll work out deals where guys can play overseas in some of the situations.”
The second-round picks of Mickey and Thornton are two candidates for that route, but removing them from the picture for next season still leaves a deep pool of players with not enough minutes to go around to appease everyone.
“We have a lot of guards,” Ainge said. "We’ll figure it out. I like them all. We may have to make some tough choices, but we really like all the guys.”
Ainge later added, “We’ll finish our roster this summer and obviously there’s holes in the big spots, and not so much in the guards right now. Our roster isn’t complete. If you’ve learned anything, that’s one thing you should know: What you see today is not what you’ll see tomorrow.”
The path to clearing those holes in the frontcourt is with the team’s surplus of guards, as well as the arsenal of draft picks. Ainge reluctantly stayed patient Thursday night with these assets, but he will have to cash some in during the next few weeks to build a complete team for the 2015-16 season.
Smart was floated in trade rumors prior to the draft, and Alex Kennedy of BasketballInsiders.com reports that league sources believe the Celtics may make him available once again after selecting Rozier, in order to land an appealing wing or big man. Rozier’s strong defense and Hunter’s shooting could make Bradley an expendable piece as well if Ainge can land an upgrade.
Without acknowledging any specific moves are forthcoming, Stevens noted that the veteran guards left standing in the backcourt will be in for a dogfight as they battle for playing time next season.
"You're in the NBA,” Stevens said. “This is a competitive industry. Those guys are established in what they can do. Those guys are putting in a lot of time and a lot of extra effort. They expect there to be 15 roster guys. Five are playing and the rest are waiting their turn. That's just the way it goes. I think the best people don't compare, they compete. And I think that's what we have to do."
In the meantime, the team will continue to try to find the necessary puzzle pieces to put together with their new parts in the coming days in hopes of completing a challenging rebuild.
“We’re a team that’s building for a championship,” Ainge said. “We’ll continue to do that by trying to find the best players we can.”
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