NBA Trade Rumor: Celtics shopping #3 pick aggressively

This isn’t a terribly surprising rumor, but with less than two weeks till the NBA Draft, it is a good kicking-off point for rumor season. Apparently the Celtics are shopping that #3 pick hard, looking for an "impact player."

A. Sherrod Blakely reports:

I’m hearing that number 3 pick overall is the one that they are really shopping, trying to be as aggressive as possible in trying to move that pick because they want to get a difference making impact player right now and they believe using that number 3 pick and maybe some other players and or picks might be the best way to make that happen.

Feel free to speculate on who they are targeting as an impact player.

Blakely goes on to state that if they keep the pick then "Jaylen Brown is their guy." So take that as a data point.

Another interesting data point is that the stats seem to indicate that this is a strong draft (or at least a deep one).

ESPN

Here's the interesting part for Celtics fans: This year's class delivered the highest average draft grade for the top 50 college prospects of any draft since the model began tracking in 2001. That's seemingly good news for a team armed with eight selections (or 13.3 percent of the entire 60-pick draft).

I’ve heard it said a few times now that this isn’t a top-heavy draft (not a ton of franchise guys up top), but there’s a lot of good, solid talent throughout the draft.

So perhaps the Celtics think they can move the #3 pick along with some other assets, pick up an impact player, and still find some good value deeper in the draft to help fill out the roster.