Boston Celtics: 3 players you forgot played for the C’s in the 2000’s & 2010’s

Joe Johnson, SG (2001-02 Season)

First up on our list we have a player who actually started his career playing for the Boston Celtics. Selected 10th overall in the 2001 NBA Draft Joe Johnson was seen as a nice scoring piece to be slotted into a rotation consisting of both Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, giving the team the potential opportunity to create matchup nightmares for opposing defenses.

Through 48 games and 33 starts the, then, 20 year old recorded averages of 6.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and just under a steal per game on 44 percent shooting from the field in 21 minutes a night.

The shooting guard struggled to make a lasting impact for the C’s during his first season — as, frankly, many rookies do — and was shipped off on February 20th, 2002, for Tony Delk and Rodney Rodgers.

Johnson, as we all now know, would later go on to become a 7x All-Star, 2x All-NBA honoree and, during his prime, became one of the most prolific scorers in the league.

With career averages of 16 points, four rebounds and 3.9 assists per game on 45 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent shooting from deep it’s hard not to imagine what could have been had the C’s held onto the wing beyond just 48 games, thus making this one of the worst trades the NBA wound up seeing in the early 2000’s.