It’s well documented that the Boston Celtics have not had the best track record over the past few years in regard to their draft selections.
Yes, of course, General Manager, Danny Ainge, has proven capable of succeeding with his picks in the early lottery — his top examples including Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in back-to-back years — but seemingly outside of the top-3, his decisions have been suspect at best.
The 2020 NBA Draft was the C’s third time in the last five years where they found themselves in possession of three total first-round picks, and the fourth time in such a span where they held the rights to a lottery selection.
At 14th overall, the Boston Celtics opted to take Vanderbilt standout wing, Aaron Nesmith who, during his final season at the collegiate level, posted stellar per-game averages of 23 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent shooting from deep.
To date, as Cs fan all know, this level of production has yet to be fully seen, as the 21-year-old has had an up and down season, specifically in the scoring department, averaging 4.7 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent shooting from deep.
While he has shown flashes throughout his rookie campaign, especially during the late portion of April and into the early stages of May where he averaged 12 points and 5.3 rebounds on 64 percent shooting from the floor and 58 percent shooting from deep through six games, a question on every fan’s mind is, if the Boston Celtics had a chance at a do-over on draft night, would they change their decision on the player they ultimately picked?
In the past, we’ve gone about and discussed a few players we believe the Cs may regret passing on at No. 14. Recently, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report took it a step further and wrote up a full-blown 2020 NBA Re-Draft where he had Beantown taking current OKC Thunder forward, Aleksej Pokusevski.
Citing his specific skill set and flashes throughout his rookie campaign, Wasserman believes that the youngest player in the league showed enough throughout his first season that, if there were a re-do of the night, he would be deserving of moving up into a lottery selection:
"Given his age, lack of experience and the Thunder’s roster, Pokusevski’s inefficiency was expected. It should be ignored based on the flashes of ball-handling, creation, passing and shooting that hint at wild potential for a 7-footer."
Though possessing the size of, and being listed as a big, the man referred to as Poku has showcased guard-like qualities with his distribution and ball-handling skills, and even earned run at the point during the last stretch of the season where he posted per-game averages of 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on 46 percent shooting from both the floor and from deep during the final week of action.
Overall on the year, however, the 19-year-old posted per-game stats of 8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and just shy of a block.
Though, of course, what’s done is done from the 2020 NBA Draft, and we at HH are actually growing quite fond of Nesmith’s potential, it’s always fun to look back on events that have transpired and think about the “what could have beens.”