You can land a good player at eight or you can land a good player at eighteen. I think history has shown that the draft is nowhere near as exact a science as those rooting for ping pong balls would like it to be.
If you go back and look at every draft from the last 30 years, this is true in the letter but not in implication, at least the implication I got from what you said.
True: You can land a player at pick 8 or pick 18
False: you have about as good a chance of landing a good player at 8 as you do at 18
There is actually a pretty big discrepancy between the odds of landing a good play at 8 compared with landing a good player at 18. That's a tangential argument, Id be pretty annoyed if we suffered through a rebuilding year and only got an 8th overall, but it's a commonly made, 'well player x was picked at 18, and that just proves there is still talent at 18', because while it's true, it doesn't acknowledge there is a much better chance of getting a dud there as well. The counterpoint to this is 'Kwame Brown was a first overall, how did that turn out?', and it's no less of a false equivalency.
I mean people always bring up Rondo and Big Al. Technically Rondo wasn't even our draft pick... they were giving picks away for free that year. We bought Rondo after the Suns drafted him.
Pretty sure Boston has never drafted a superstar with a pick 15 and above. They have drafted superstars in the Top 8, though.
You look over our list of guys taken 15 and over and you'll see names like Lucas Nogueira, Sullinger, Fab Melo, Marshon Brooks, Avery Bradley, JR Giddens, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Tony Allen, Troy Bell, Dahntay Jones, Joe Forte, Acie Earl. Sure there's some good players and good role players there, but lots of garbage too.
Boston's picks in the top 8 since 1970:
Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Len Bias, Antoine Walker, Chauncey Billups, Ron Mercer, Randy Foye, Jeff Green
Sure there's some duds in there too, but I like our track record. Hah.