Boston Celtics: 3 drafted players who had great careers elsewhere

The Boston Celtics have rostered their fair share of All-Time talent throughout their illustrious 74 year existence. However, there have been a few of these players they gave up on far too soon.

As things currently stand, the Boston Celtics roster one of the most menacing starting fives the league has to offer. With a lineup consisting of Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis, the C’s are rolling out two All-Stars (Walker & Tatum), one former All-Star (Hayward) and an arguable All-Star snub from this year’s festivities (Brown).

Of the 17 players that have taken the court throughout the 2019-20 season, 12 of them were drafted by the team while two (Javonte Green and Tacko Fall) were signed as undrafted free agents.

Since the 2013 trade that saw Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett head to Brooklyn, the Celtics have found themselves racking up an obscene amount of draft capital. Since the deal, Boston has held the rights to 13 different first round picks, three of which will be featured in this upcoming draft.

To say President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge has turned all, or even a majority, of these picks into long lasting contributors would simply be a lie. However, he did wind up nabbing their franchise cornerstone in 2017 (Tatum) and key core piece in 2016 (Brown), so it also cannot be said that the organization has failed to capitalize on these selections as well.

Drafting quality talent is nothing new for the franchise, as they’ve managed to grab all timers such as John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce throughout the years. While these three aforementioned names spent their best years with the Celtics, there are many other players selected by the organization that wound up being very successful throughout their careers as well… just not while in Boston.

With this in mind, here are three players drafted by the Celtics who wound up having good, to even great careers elsewhere.