The Boston Celtics are showing the New Orleans Pelicans that an abundance of draft picks can lead to having too many cooks in the kitchen
Yes, I know the Boston Celtics won last night, but that doesn’t change what I’m about to say. The construction of the Boston Celtics is confounding and it’s a reason for the team’s serious turmoil during their playoff run. I think this is a warning for David Griffin and the New Orleans Pelicans that having too many draft picks is dangerous.
I’ll clarify what I’m saying now. The Boston Celtics did an excellent job kicking off their rebuild by making a mega-deal with the Brooklyn Nets for an abundance of draft picks. In separate deals, the team acquired first-round picks from the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, and Sacramento Kings as well.
Those picks were added to Boston’s own stable of selections to become one of the biggest collections of draft capital in NBA history. What Boston did with all of those picks is a misfire that deserves second-guessing.
The New Orleans Pelicans now have a similar collection of picks themselves after trading Anthony Davis, and they need to avoid repeating the Celtics’ mistakes or else they’ll risk having their team implode too.
How the New Orleans Pelicans learn from the Boston Celtics’ mismanagement of draft picks
I know this is the point where many of you want to yell at me because the Celtics did get Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum through the draft. After drafting a core that great, it’s hard to view the Celtics strategy as a failure, but look at the other draft picks the team held during that time.
I’m talking about the 2016 and 2019 draft specifically where Boston failed to properly manage their selections. In both of those drafts, the Boston Celtics had three first-round picks! After taking Jaylen Brown 3rd overall in 2016, they took two Euro-Stash players because they didn’t have enough roster spots for two more rookies.
In 2019, with three first-round picks, the team added Romeo Langford and Grant Williams while trading down to add two more players with second-round selections. In case you didn’t notice, Boston’s rookie class this year isn’t playing much and spent most of their time in the G-League.
What Danny Ainge did is a method the New Orleans Pelicans can’t follow. Ainge traded draft picks for more draft picks with the hope they’d also become high lottery picks and then refused to package his picks to trade for ready contributors. That strategy is leaving the Celtics stuck with too many players all trying to fill the same voids.
Using the first-round draft picks on players who’ll either wait multiple years overseas before coming to the NBA or toil away in the G-League is wasting picks.
Luckily I’ve recently covered that David Griffin has a history of trading first-round picks for proven players. I’m still concerned though, Griffin says he wants to build long-term sustainability, and after getting scorched on some draft deals in the past maybe he wants a different approach.
If I’m talking to Griffin though, I tell him to continue being aggressive and take risks trading to bring some big names into New Orleans. There’s nothing worse in basketball than having a muddy roster with no hierarchy and the Boston Celtics are heading right down that path.
If David Griffin wants to keep the New Orleans Pelicans as a contender his best bet might be picking his spots and trading some of the team’s draft capital because with a plentiful young core already on the roster there’s not a lot of room for more rookies.