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Boston Celtics Pre-Draft Workouts Set to Begin

By C.J Maffris

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The rebuilding effort is no where close to being finished. Yes, the Boston Celtics had a surprising season that fans should be proud of. However, the front office cannot just hang their heads on that. The team needs to take every rebuilding step seriously to return to the NBA title picture.

So with that first step, the team is getting ready to host a lot of incoming rookie workout sessions. This isn’t the flashiest event(s) by far, but these workouts can give the Celtics a window they need to know who to draft.

The Celtics workouts will begin on Wednesday morning, and will continue for the rest of the week. CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely reported on how the Celtics plan to hold around 40-60 workouts during this process which does seem like a lot.

Considering how the team has two draft picks in the first round and two picks in the second round, the team needs to do it’s due diligence on incoming rookies. So there will be many interesting prospects that will fly into Boston to show off their stuff.

An interesting aspect to start this process is that both Bobby Portis (Arkansas) and Rakeem Christmas (Syracuse), will workout for the team on day one. Some earlier mock drafts had both these players wearing green and white in their future. It will be good for Ainge to be able to look at these two players to find out if they are worth a selection from him.

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Bobby Portis is especially intriguing since he was everything for Arkansas. Being able to add a player with a high-motor, who can score would certainly be a welcomed sight. Adding the main piece on a college roster does have its benefits and Portis would bring some intensity to Bosotn.

However, these are just six of the possible 60 rookies that are coming in. The team can’t fall in love with a single prospect until all of the workouts have been completed. Portis should be high on their boards, but other players might surprise them later on.

To me, this is exciting since we get to see which players the Celtics will want to workout. It can give a nice picture on who the Celtics are considering to choose. Besides the unrealistic desires (D’Angelo Russell or Stanley Johnson), there are other rookies that are just as intriguing to look into.

A few players that are close to where the Celtics draft that I like are R.J. Hunter, Sam Dekker, Trey Lyles, and Montrezl Harrell. Anyone of these players could turn into a player that everyone slept on. So it will be fun to see who will come in for a workout.

Workouts will be occurring throughout the next month or two. Having the amount of draft picks the team has can make other teams call Boston for possible deals. Other teams might want to jump in on the Celtics treasure-trove of picks and make a trade. However, it could be just as likely that no team wants to select where Boston is picking.

Ainge has to be ready on both fronts, where if he needs to choose a player he can feel confident or trade away the pick for an upgrade. So this first step is the very foundation of any offseason moves the team makes. The Celtics aren’t going to mess around even during a mundane step of returning to greatness.

C.J Maffris is a writer for Hardwoodhoudini.com. Feel free to follow C.J @SeaJayMaffris

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