The Boston Celtics came into the 2020-21 season with a tremendous amount of hope and potential and, at one point, were even considered a top-5 threat to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy by year’s end.
Unfortunately, through 52 games played the shamrocks have tremendously underperformed, standing pat in the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed with a mere .500 record of 26-26.
With the astronomical improvements (in terms of talent and simple production) from the likes of the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Milwaukee Bucks, the Cs virtually have no chance to contend for an NBA Championship this season, let alone legitimately vie for the conference crown come playoff time.
Though perhaps there are some ways in which this team can find a way to turn things around, many fans and media figures are simply more so under the belief that this season is simply a wash/ destined for a first-round exit and, in turn, should begin strengthening the strategy in which they’ll follow during this upcoming draft.
The Boston Celtics will have a few quality draft options in the first-round
Recently, Bleacher Report followed this draft-focused narrative and put out a piece discussing 3 NBA Draft prospects that could be quality targets for the Boston Celtics to consider taking in the first round.
With this piece, it got our creative juices flowing and sparked a desire for us to push out a new game we like to call “Draft or Pass.”
For those of you familiar with us at HH (we love you all), you may already be aware of our two series entitled“Pass or Pursue” and “Agree or Disagree.”
Today, however, we do a different variation of these game with “Draft of Pass”, where we discuss some of B/R’s proposed draft targets from there article and state whether we believe it makes sense or not for the Cs to pursue them.
So, without further adieu, let’s get started:
Boston Celtics draft target No. 1) Sharife Cooper, PG, Auburn
First up on the list we have Auburn’s one-and-done floor general, Sharife Cooper.
Coming into the draft fresh off an SEC All-Freshman Team selection, the point guard finished the 2020-21 campaign as one of only seven players nationally over the last 25 years to average 20 points and eight assists per game (list includes the likes of two current NBA studs in Ja Morant and Trae Young).
Proving to have the high-end passing chops to be a legitimate setup artist, Cooper’s skill set could come in handy right off the bat for many NBA teams, and B/R writer, Zach Buckley, believes the Boston Celtics fall into said category:
"He’s a dizzying dribbler with the burst to break down defenders and the vision to spot open teammates. His scoring potential is trickier to gauge. For the glass-half full crowd, he averaged 20.2 points per game as a teenage freshman. For the glass-empty pessimists, he piled up those points at an alarmingly inefficient rate (39.1 percent from the field, 22.8 percent from three). Saying that, he makes things happen off the bounce, and that skill set is hard to find among Boston’s supporting cast."
While there’s no doubt that he has the pass-first mentality that many Cs fans would love to see within the rotation at the one, the three biggest problems we have with Cooper’s fit in Boston are his aforementioned lowly shooting splits, high ridiculously-high turnover rate (4.2 a game), and his underwhelming size of 6-1, 180 pounds, which would easily make him a huge liability on defense at the next level.
It may be upsetting to hear for my co-expert Andrew Hughes, who also covers the Auburn Tigers for FanSided, but for a championship-aspiring team like the Celtics, perhaps selecting Sharife Cooper is not in their best interest.