SBNation performed their annual NBA Blogger Mock Draft, which you’ll see in full right here.
Full disclaimer up entrance: I’m not a giant draft man and I ignored the draft course of this yr greater than ever as a result of a) the Celtics had been engaged on successful a title, b) they’d simply the thirtieth decide, and c) the draft is taken into account weak anyway. Additionally, my mock draft historical past isn’t precisely stellar. In 2016 I mock traded #3 and another stuff for Gordon Hayward. (They picked Dragan Bender over Jaylen Brown by the way in which)
With all that stated, I do know my limitations and I do know when to lean on the exhausting work of people who find themselves smarter than me which have spent a variety of time on this topic.
When my decide got here up, I checked out which gamers had been out there, consulted the CB workers, and checked out the most effective gamers out there in line with most mock drafts and massive boards. My choice was Duke huge man Kyle Filipowski.
Folks like Ricky O’Donnell, who occurs to have Kyle Filipowski ranked sixteenth on his huge board. Getting a man ranked that top at quantity 30 looks like good worth to me. Right here’s what Ricky stated about Kyle:
Filipowski isn’t the largest or most explosive heart, however he has a case as essentially the most expert huge within the class offensively. The Duke sophomore is a pick-and-pop risk who can even act as a passing hub within the halfcourt. He made 34.8 % of his threes on 112 makes an attempt this season, and completed with a formidable 18.4 % help price. His protection is probably going going to be an issue as a result of he’s not very lengthy (6’10.50’ wingspan) and he can’t actually soar, however his playmaking and shot-making is efficacious in a league all the time in search of stretch bigs.
That appears like a pleasant bench choice to provide us one other stretch huge that would eat up some minutes at heart. The protection is a priority, in fact, however he’d even be surrounded by plus defenders and maybe he might be coached as much as at the very least maintain up in a drop protection for stretches.
After all the opposite apparent choice can be to commerce this decide for future concerns. Until the workforce is absolutely proud of their choice and thinks they will contribute pretty rapidly and for years to return, they may really feel higher about getting off of a multi-year assured wage.
Then there’s the draft-n-stash method. That enables the workforce to take a flyer on somebody with out having to pay them (but). It didn’t work out nice for Guerschon Yabusele and others, however you by no means know.
Nonetheless, if the Celtics preserve the decide, they may do worse than Filipowski. Not less than that’s what I collect. However what do I do know?
