You forgot Joe Johnson….oh wait….well maybe Chauncey Bil….hmmm no

Tony Allen

I’ll always remember Kedrick for an awesome block he had on Tim Duncan, as well as….

…no, I guess that’s about it.

That 2001 draft was painful. I was excited when we selected Joe Johnson. Thought that Richard Jefferson OR Troy Murphy was coming next. If only we would have selected Tony Parker instead of Joe Forte. Lost opportunity with terrible picks and then we proceed to give away Joe Johnson to Phoenix when we probably could have given them Brown.

Billed as the next Jerome Kersey, Brown didn’t do much.

… the 11th pick? Ugh.

Rick Pitino, who else? This is probably the easiest.

This goes back a long time, but the biggest draft mistake in Celtics history, and Red Auerbach’s biggest personal drafting mistake, came in 1964. The Celtics had the last pick in the first round of the draft. They were looking for a big man to support Russell – two choices were available: Mel Counts, an obviously uncoordinated 7’ from Oregon, and Willis Reed. The Celtics picked Counts, and in the very next pick, the first pick of the second round, the Knicks drafted Reed. Counts averaged about 5 or 6 points per game his rookie year and played just two seasons for the Celtics. Reed average almsot 20 per game, with 15 rebounds, his rookie year, and went onto a Hall of Fame career in New York. The differences in talent between Reed and Counts were obvious at the time, and I have never heard an even remotely plausible explanation. At the time, there was speculation that Counts was selected because he was white, but Auerbach was completely color blind when it came to talent, and I, for one, do not believe this for a second. However, the difference between the two players gave rise to the racism interpretation. Whatever the reason, it stands out as the greatest single drafting mistake in Celtics history.

What a waste of a pick.

Michael Smith who chose 11 because it looked good on him.

One thing to keep in mind about Montross – we turned him and a first round pick into two more first round picks. Net, we sent Montross and Samaki Walker to the Mavs and got Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer in return. Even though I’m not a huge ‘Toine fan, doesn’t this keep him from being a total bust?

Montross’ numbers during his two years with the Cs, while pedestrian, were better than Mark Blount’s over his first two – and Montross wasn’t a bad influence.

You still have to say Montross was a bigger bust because of his draft position, but… is it reaching too far back to choose Rick Robey? Chosen 3rd overall(!) He was a serviceable backup center for Boston from 1978-1983. Although then again, dammit, we turned him and two second round picks into Dennis Johnson and Greg Kite.

This stuff is complicated!

Acie Earl – chosen 19th overall the year before Montross – so terrible that the Cs tried picking a center again the following year. A center who shot 40% for his career!

Michael Smith 13th overall, 1989. Pew. Has to be worse even than Moiso. Waived. Nobody would even give us a second-rounder for him.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/draft.html

He was horrible. I remember watching him in garbage time in a game in 1990 or 1991, and his man went right around him on the baseline, and Smith basically just turned around with a disgusted look on his face and watched the guy make a layup. It might have been in 1990 in the playoffs against the Knicks.

I do remember that he was a good shooter though, and I heard that during HORSE games his specialty was banking it in off the shot clock, so when I was in high school I always tried to do that.

Smith was easy to hate in particular because the C’s had a high draft pick the year Bird had bone spurs and barely played, and they passed on Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp.

Mercer is at the very top of my list. Its about the differential between talent and outcome. There are players on the list who were worse and certainly one slick haired coach but mercer, arghh. Great shot. Great athleticism and no heart no dagger instinct. He would constantly shoot floating off balance jumpers when it seemed he could easily spend just a bit more effort to get set. That really drove me nuts. He is the anti ray allen. The anti reggie miller. Hated that guy without qualification.

that mercer definitely shouldnt be on the list… he was a phenom with the celtics… he was a bust on other teams.

Also, glad for kendrick, depression especially in relation to athleticism is a serious thing. Hope he plays well, gets some satisfaction makes a little money and sees the world

Secondly this would be a great offseason excercise for jeff to use his connections with other team blogs to get their busts lists. Oh tractor, its not your fault you were picked over pierce. But how do those fans feel about it. Hawks and clippers fans must have stories to tell

And again damn pitino. Billups, johnson and pierce could easily have made some real noise.

And what about the anti busts, for us and others, willis reed somebody mentioned, for us, rondo, jefferson, perk, etc.

Ben Pepper I think he is still signed with the Celtics. LOL j/k Pitino picked him in the second round a 7’3 Australian Center that never even played

Semir, the Turkish wonder!. Haven’t heard anything about him in a while, but the last was he , on good days, was average in the EuroLeague. (Course, he WAS a 2nd round pick).

to call anyone drafted after say 15 a bust because of the successful rate of those players in the league. So I would take Forte off the bust list since he wasn’t drafted terribly high and I would definately have Ron Mercer in there since he was drafted so high.

So I would have

PG Banks
SG Mercer
SF Michael Smith
PF Jerome Moiso
C Eric Montross
6th man Kedrick Brown

I think Mercer was the 3rd highest draft pick in the last 20 years so I have to put him in there. You can’t screw up when you draft that high.

oh.