Celtics' Ideal 2023 NBA Mock Draft and Players to Target in Draft-Day Trades
The Boston Celtics are, by relative NBA standards, in tremendous shape.
Their deep, star-studded roster has helped them reach the Eastern Conference Finals in three of the past four seasons. They have perhaps the Association's top wing tandem in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, plus a loaded supporting cast to...well, support them.
Saying all of that, though, this group has yet to produce its championship breakthrough, and the clock is ticking to figure this out. Championship windows don't often stay open for long, and Boston's will be trickier to manage amid escalating contract costs.
The Celtics won't radically remake their roster this summer—unless extension talks with Brown reach a boiling point—but they could shake things up after watching this group fall short of its championship goal. When Boston goes looking for upgrades, here's what the team should be after at the draft and on the trade market.
Ideal Mock Draft
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35. Ben Sheppard, SG, Belmont
Unless the Celtics trade for more picks, they'll only get one crack at this draft, and it won't come until the second round.
Ideally, Ben Sheppard's sizzling showing at the combine won't take him out of Boston's draft range. He absolutely could get an earlier look than this, but as a soon-to-be 22-year-old who spent his college career in relative obscurity, it's not at all outlandish to imagine him falling this far.
If he does, Boston should be ready to pounce. Adding him would immediately beef up this perimeter group with sharp-shooting, pick-and-roll creation, downhill driving and defensive activity.
This past season, he averaged a career-high 18.8 points while shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 41.5 percent from range. Those are really strong numbers, even if the competition level was less than elite.
Trade Target: a 1st-Round Pick
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With Boston potentially soon securing both Brown and Tatum on supermax extensions—which could cost the club more than $600 million—the Celtics need to find some cheap contributors. The easiest way to do that is by adding players on rookie deals.
Boston might want better odds of finding young, cheap talent than the No. 35 pick can offer. The Celtics could have a chance to climb the draft board, too, by potentially packaging that pick with Payton Pritchard.
Even if that only moves Boston 10 spots up the selection order, that might be worth it. That bump alone might position the Celtics to add someone such as two-way Xavier wing Colby Jones, versatile Iowa forward Kris Murray or Ohio State scoring guard Brice Sensabaugh.
Boston, of course, could aim even higher, but the trade cost would increase. Still, the Celtics might regard a prospect highly enough to give up both the pick and a current rotation regular.
Trade Target: Terance Mann
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The Celtics could target any number of areas on the trade market. Adding a backup big makes sense with Al Horford's age and Robert Williams III's injury history. Targeting shooting makes sense for just about every modern team. Boston could also look for wing depth.
Ideally, though, the Celtics would land someone who can fill multiple holes. That's what could lead them to Terance Mann.
He isn't the most obvious fit, since they're already deep at guard, but he doesn't have to exclusively play there. In fact, he's primarily played the 3 in two of his four NBA seasons and has seen action at every position but the 5, per Basketball Reference.
His defense and hustle would endear him to the fans (and the coaching staff), but he could be just as helpful on offense as a complementary creator, shooter, attacker and ball-mover. For a team that sometimes appeared as if it couldn't shift out of neutral, Mann would also be invaluable as an energizer.
