Late on Tuesday night, we finally got a Celtics rumor that didn’t revolve around Giannis Antetokounmpo. At least, not definitely. Jake Fischer reported on Marc Stein’s Substack that the Celtics have “been increasingly interested in trying to move up the draft board.”
It’s interesting for a variety of reasons. Brad Stevens has never moved up in the draft, but he has had great success picking late in the first and in the second round. Maybe the front office is leaning into its track record of success and wants to move up for a chance at a prospect they really like.
Pundits have been raving about this draft for years, and while I wouldn’t expect the Cs to suddenly move to the top and land a stud like Brockton’s own, AJ Dybantsa, there are plenty of promising options who should be available in the teens and late 20s.
And that seems like a pretty realistic landing spot for the Celtics here. Partly due to the great recent drafting, Boston has a deep roster full of young players. With picks 27 and 40 this year, maybe they want to consolidate and package the late first and early second to move up as many spots as possible and add only one player to the roster.
Celtics intentions are anything but clear
It’s also possible they could be shopping one of those young players, or more likely, Sam Hauser, along with #27. There should be plenty of teams who want to take on a sharpshooter like Hauser on a reasonable contract and would move down a few spots in the draft to do so.
The Celtics may be looking to move off of Hauser’s contract anyway, and maybe they think this is the best value proposition to do so. Or who knows? Maybe Brad is thinking even bigger, and the Celtics want to move future draft capital and really take a swing. All we know is that they are looking to move up. That could mean 27 to 21, or it could mean jumping into the top-10. It’s the Celtics, so we don’t really know.
And then, there’s still the Giannis piece. In the same Fischer blog, he reported that they are planning on having as many as three first-round picks next week. This all might be a bid by the Celtics to boost their draft capital to sweeten their Giannis offer. Perhaps Brad offered 27 and Hauser as part of the deal, and the Bucks told them to turn it into a better pick. We don’t know.
And for now, anyone who claims to know is just guessing. Luckily, we should at least get some modicum of clarity in short order as the NBA Draft begins Tuesday night. We’ll have our answers to any possible pick-trade questions, and, lord willing, if the Bucks were telling the truth, we’ll have our Giannis answer as well.
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