Promoted FanPost

I'm looking back at the 2011 NBA Draft and I'm remembering about how the Celtics originally drafted Marshon Brooks but then immediately traded him to Jersey for JaJuan Johnson.

Now...it is very early to tell who the better player is and which would be better for the Celtics. With that said I still believe Marshon Brooks is the better player for this team.

Sure, JaJuan fills a big void at forward for the Celtics, but let's keep in mind that Doc never puts a player out on the court unless he thinks they are ready for the challenge...something JJJ wasn't this past season. Not to say that he won't be next season because there was the NBA lockout.

With the recent emergence of Avery Bradley you can tell me that Marshon Brooks would be an unnecessary player on the team.

Now our primary shooting guards that we had this year consists of: Ray Allen, Avery Bradley, and Mickael Pietrus. In all honesty, I would have rather had Marshon Brooks on the team than Pietrus. Pietrus does bring some better defense to the court but...let's look at the numbers:

Pietrus - PPG: 6.9 APG: .6 RPG: 3.1 MPG: 21.9 FG: .385% 3P: .335%

Brooks - PPG: 12.6 APG: 2.3 RPG: 3.6 MPG: 29.4 FG: .428% 3P: .313%

With the minor exception of 3 point percentage...Brooks has Pietrus beat in every aspect of the game. As for MPG, it is safe to say the team Brooks was on had an impact of his playing time. The Nets probably used him more than Boston would have. But, then again Brooks would be learning under THREE future HOF'ers. Who would you rather learn how to play your position under than Ray Allen?

There is always the "what if?" Let's say Boston, never traded Brooks to the Nets. So now we have Ray Allen, Avery Bradley and Marshon Brooks. (Pietrus wasn't with the team then.) It is safe to say that Pietrus probably would not have been signed to the Celtics...Now, Ray Allen gets his ankle injury. Who would step up to take his place? That is up for you to decide. If I had to pick, I would actually rotate who I give the majority of minutes to based on who they have to go up against. If it's against Dwyane Wade...I am going to give it to Avery Bradley for his defense. Then the opposite for Marshon against lesser SG's.

Back to comparing him to JJJ. You can tell me that JJJ is a bigger body to have on the team. That is true he is...he still needs to pack on more muscle and post-skills but he is a bigger body. But if we had Marshon Brooks this past season, we may have been looking at a different end to our 2012 campaign. We probably would have beaten the Heat. From there, it would have been difficult for the young Thunder to beat experienced veterans...as you see happened last night when they lost. They couldn't handle the moment.

We would have had more depth at SG in the playoffs if we had Marshon. Ray had broken ankle spurs, Avery Bradley went out with his shoulder injury. So we had an injured Ray Allen and Pietrus. Marshon would have been the younger, faster, more-athletic option for the Celtics. That's what they need to beat the Heat. Nothing against Pietrus but Marshon would have still been the better option.

It all comes down to this...

JJJ wasn't ready this season. Marshon was. If we had kept Marshon instead...things probably would have turned out better for the Celtics.

Thoughts?