Celtic’s Make A Splash At The Draft

In the weeks prior to the draft most Celtic’s fans were debating on wether the Celtic’s would take Yi Jianlian out of China, one of the Florida kids, Brandon Wright, or if they would trade the pick for a guy like Kevin Garnett or Jermaine O’neal. I don’t think I heard the name Ray Allen mentioned once, but come draft day the Celtic’s acquired Ray Allen and the rights to the #35 overall pick from the Seattle Supersonics in return for Delonte West, Wally Sczerbiak and the #5 pick which turned out to be Jeff Green. Acquiring Ray Allen should keep Paul Pierce happy, at least for the time being. And Celtic’s fans should be happy that they now have an allstar duo to watch. I’m 50/50 on this trade, I don’t hate it but I don’t exactly love it either. We are able to dump Wally’s contract and his bum knees but it’s not exactly like Ray Allen is totally healthy as he’s coming off of double ankle surgery. However there really wasn’t much Danny Ainge could do. Paul Pierce through his agent made it pretty clear that if a talented veteran wasn’t brought in to Boston that Pierce would demand a trade, and Ainge’s main reason for making this trade, and I quote him on this, was to “maximize Paul Pierce’s career”. Another positive from this deal is that we were able to keep Pierce happy without giving up Gerald Green, Al Jefferson or Rajon Rondo, meaning we still have our best young talent wether that means we keep them and continue to let them develop or use them as trade bait to bring in another impact veteran and committ 100% to winning now.

In the second round the Celtic’s selected Gabe Pruitt and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. I’m a big fan of the Gabe Pruitt pick espescially now since Delonte West is gone. Pruitt reminds me alot of Delonte actually, except I see alot more upside with Pruitt. Gabe Pruitt is an excellent shooter who has some experience playing PG, and although I wouldn’t consider him a natural PG, he has experience at the position which is something Delonte didn’t have when he was drafted. Now the Glen Davis pick kind of worries me, but that late in the second round I guess we can afford to take risks. In college Davis showed that he’s capable of being an excellent inside presence, but he also showed that he’s incapable of staying in shape. He had constant struggles trying to keep off weight and during the draft Steven A Smith compared him to Oprah saying “He’s a weight looser, he looses weight but can’t keep it off” still there’s alot of upside with both our second round picks.

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