With all the excitement around the potential to trade for an All Star or to go in the opposite direction and trade Pierce, I've completely neglected the draft itself. First of all, you don't know how odd that is for me. I've been a draftnik for years. I love the process and the anticipation. I devour draft websites and I track the comments of Chad Ford like the markets do with Greenspan. And to cap it all off, the draft is always on or around my birthday (June 28). So why am I so disinterested in a draft that we have the highest pick in 10 years?
Well, first of all there was the lottery disappointment. After hoping against hope that the pick would be one of those guys (I can't even write their names anymore, I did it so often this year) that I have little love for these guys. Next is the glaring flaws of each of the other top picks. Horford isn't polished, Wright isn't motivated enough, Yi is a complete mystery, and the wings are all just wings. None of them really excite me because none of them seems to be the missing piece on a playoff team. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong. Horford could be an absolute beast. Wright could be the next Bosh. Yi could be the next international sensation. What do I know? Besides, for the most part, I trust Danny to pick us a winner. I can't help but hold out hope that we'll find some team that is in love with the pick and get them to give us an All Star in exchange but I have to admit that hope is waning by the minute.
Still, we are most likely not going to see any major deals until draft night itself, so other than following the rumors as the pop up, there's not much else to do other than cover the draft as it stands now. Perhaps the most likely thing to happen is the Celtics keep the pick and use it on the best prospect available. So for the next couple of weeks I'm going to try and highlight each of the top 9 or 10 prospects (you know, other than those guys). I'll also take a few days to look at the 2nd round pick.
I'll rely heavily on Rookiepedia and other sites and give my impressions of each player and how they might fit into the Celtics plans.
Another Resource: By the way, the Duke put together a wonderful Mock Draft Mashup spreadsheet. Check it out.