Boston Celtics: Pass or pursue on 3 prospects linked to Cs
Maybe the NBA Draft will be the outlet the Boston Celtics will use to improve the team’s roster going forward.
Following an ugly 117-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Cs are now on the ropes in a 2020-21 season that continues to slip away from them. Losing three of their last four games and proving the NBA’s best are above their weight class in losses to the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz, Boston needs to turn this around quickly.
That’s the hope, at least. There’s no guarantee that the team will make the necessary moves to adjust to the increasingly competitive Eastern Conference. With the Brooklyn Nets’ mega-star trio looking insurmountable, the Milwaukee Bucks improving further with the addition of P.J. Tucker, and the Philadelphia 76ers adding Ben Simmons, Boston was always going to face a tough second-round road back to the conference finals.
Now that the Miami Heat are playing like the team we all thought they were…the second round of the NBA Playoffs isn’t even guaranteed any more.
Quite frankly, this season has been trying for fans of the Boston Celtics, but the silver lining is that the team owns control of their first-round selections in all future drafts.
In 2021, the team figures to add a pick in the late teens/early 20s. That’s of course assuming the team doesn’t miss the postseason by way of not qualifying through the play-in tournament.
Going with the assumption that the team won’t be missing the postseason for the first time in eight years, Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley listed three prospects the team should watch during March Madness.
Today, Hardwood Houdini plays pass or pursue on the trio:
Boston Celtics draft target #1: Ayo Dosunmu, PG/SG, Illinois
Ayo Dosunmu is one of several headliners on the Midwest region’s #1 seed of the NCAA March Madness tournament, and Big Ten Championship-winning Illinois Fighting Illini, and if the Boston Celtics get the chance to acquire him, they should.
As a six-foot-six combo guard, Dosunmu has the capability of drawing contact at the rim, but his 38.7% 3-point shooting is the true draw of his game.
A drawback of his is his propensity to turn the ball over, but his scoring potential is too obvious to allow that to be a dealbreaker. The Boston Celtics can take the ball out of his hands because of the presence of Kemba Walker and Payton Pritchard, though, making the pros outweigh the cons significantly.