Brad Stevens focusing on 'seven or eight' prospects at No. 3

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/05/2016_nba_draft_rumors_boston_c_1.html



2016 NBA Draft rumors: Boston Celtics' Brad Stevens focusing on 'seven or eight' prospects at No. 3




Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has a list of potential No. 3 draft picks to evaluate. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)


Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com



on May 20, 2016 at 1:00 PM, updated May 20, 2016 at 3:09 PM




Nine years ago, Rick Pitino reacted to the NBA Draft lottery results with a telephone call to ask what the (bleep) happened. Not surprisingly, Brad Stevens says he did not show so much emotion earlier this week.

Stevens knows the Boston Celtics are in superior position these days with plenty of cap space, more draft picks and better players. He understands the Celtics' most likely lottery position was fifth; moving up to third, as they did, was actually a positive result. Though the pick could have been better -- especially because most experts consider the top two prospects, Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram, the clear prizes of the draft -- the Boston head coach does not seem like the type of guy to dwell on a lack of Ping-Pong ball luck.

"I just watched (the lottery) with my kids and my wife," Stevens said Friday morning during an interview with WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Adam Kaufman. "We don't get too high or too low about those things. I guess the Ping-Pong balls come up how they come up, and you move on with the information you've got after. So I probably watched it a little bit closer than in the past just because Isaiah was up there.

That's right. Stevens said he did not watch the lottery closer this year because the Celtics owned a 15.6-percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, but because he wanted to see Isaiah Thomas represent the team on the draft lottery stage. If anybody else made such a claim, you'd want to scream "B.S." but because he's Brad Stevens he might be telling the truth.

During a 30-minute interview with Kaufman, Stevens discussed a wide variety of topics, mostly related to the draft. Feel free to listen to the whole interview here. Notably, the Celtics head coach said he will closely study seven or eight players his team could consider with the No. 3 overall pick.

"You can't control those things (like the lottery). I think the biggest thing is that there are good players in this draft. And I'm just starting to watch them more closely," Stevens said. "(Celtics president of basketball operations) Danny (Ainge has) given me a list of seven or eight guys to really look at. And then obviously we have so many other guys coming in at other pick opportunities, and we'll see everybody come through. It'll be probably hard for a true sleeper to get by us. So it's really a great opportunity with the number of picks we have, where we are with that (No. 3) pick in the draft. And there's so much yet to be determined."

The list of seven or eight potential No. 3 picks could include: Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown, Buddy Hield, Skal Labissiere, Deyonta Davis and/or Marquese Chriss. Ainge also likely wants Stevens to take a look at Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram just in case either of those players fall (or the Celtics somehow trade up, which seems improbable).

After studying all the prospects, Stevens will provide his input to Ainge -- who will consider the analysis, but make the final decision himself.

"I'm not ready to have a preference," Stevens told Kaufman. "I've got too much evaluation to do. A lot of it will be on film. Obviously some of it in person, some of it behind closed doors as far as interviews and conversations and everything else to get to know the prospects better. But no, I don't have one in my mind right now because the other thing we don't know, and the reality of it is you don't know what's going to happen with the first two picks. I think that there's generally every year there's always the assumption that we know what's going to happen. But I guess until draft night you never really truly know."

"I don't know (if Simmons or Ingram will slip out of the top two)," Stevens added. "That's for the other teams to decide. But I do think there are a lot of good players. So what I'll do, and what we'll do is -- again, Danny and his staff have worked really hard to sift through who they think might be the most likely candidates to be picked in the top ten, top eight, and those are the guys that I'll watch in no particular order. And then we'll rank them. We'll come to a consensus as a staff, but Danny will make the final call and we'll go from there with whoever is the best available at No. 3."

The Celtics could also trade the pick, of course, and any of their other seven selections in the draft.

"Whatever Danny and the front office decides, we'll have vetted out and communicated all of our options. But I really trust them," said Stevens. "My job is to coach whoever is here, and if that's means you're in enhancement mode with young players and helping them get them better, that's what it means. If that means your roster is full of veterans and people have figured out their niche in the league, and have smaller improvements to make but are established players, then that's what it is."



bob



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He understands the Celtics' most likely lottery position was fifth; moving up to third, as they did, was actually a positive result.

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but since the Nets had the third-worst record, wouldn't the most likely lottery position be third? Why would some lower team have a better shot at a higher position?

Interesting comments regarding adding more youth or established vets with....little upside.

Wow

Dboss

Outside wrote:

He understands the Celtics' most likely lottery position was fifth; moving up to third, as they did, was actually a positive result.

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but since the Nets had the third-worst record, wouldn't the most likely lottery position be third? Why would some lower team have a better shot at a higher position?

I wonder about this also. My cut and paste and/or link skills are nonexistent on my iPad but if you look on Wikipedia under NBA Draft Lottery there is a table that does show our highest chance is picking fifth out of six possible outcomes for us.

Perhaps one of our math whizs can explain it in semi simple terms? (Paging Mr. GYSO, please report to the service desk, Mr. GYSO to the service desk......)

Outside wrote:

He understands the Celtics' most likely lottery position was fifth; moving up to third, as they did, was actually a positive result.

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but since the Nets had the third-worst record, wouldn't the most likely lottery position be third? Why would some lower team have a better shot at a higher position?

The Patriots might be the favorites to win a superbowl in any given year with say a 25% chance. Perhaps no other team has a higher chance, but combined there's a 75% chance of SOMEBODY beating the Pats.

You have to combine the (low) odds of all the lower teams than the Celtics, which adds up to ... something

Getting input from all possibly eyes and angles in the organization certainly makes a stronger total program.

Just one of the reasons that the current Cs have been so much fun to follow in the last three years.