Would have preferred Vonleh and Harris to Smart and Young

[footey]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

[CoachBo]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

It's pretty clearly a backup plan for Rondo bolting from Boston at the end of the season, which he's going to do if this team rolls out a 20-62 or some such. The notion out of Causeway that Rondo and Smart can play together is laughably ridiculous. I'd love to game-plan a defense against a Boston five with those two in the backcourt.

A desperate plan that cost us an NBA-ready piece of immediate help in Julius Randle. I wonder, in fact, if Ainge has even vetted Marcus Smart. I suspect not.

[LooseCannon]

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

Assuming the Celtics keep Bradley like I want them to, I see Smart taking the minutes that went to Bayless and Pressey.  If Rondo and Bradley both averaged 30-33 minutes per game, there would still be room for Smart to play 20-30 mpg.

So, I ask you, can Smart be better defensively than Bayless and Pressey?  Can he be better offensively?

[Tr1boy]

Smart is a better pick. Safer also. Worse case you get a guy that can really defend, steal, post up and drive in for layups.

Vonleh could end up becoming another Udoh. Feel of game is just ok and isn't physically anything like a Drummond.  More like a Marresse Speights or Blatche

[LooseCannon]

A desperate plan that cost us an NBA-ready piece of immediate help in Julius Randle. I wonder, in fact, if Ainge has even vetted Marcus Smart. I suspect not.

That's a ridiculous suspicion.

[TeamGreen.dm]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

Would you be happy with Vonleh wanting to play at the 3? Because that's what he wants. He's a classic young playerwwho thinks he's already a star. Next question is how much higher do you have him on your board than Sully or KO. If we aRe rebuilding than why log jam at the 4?

Now IMO I think Smart is the 2nd best player in this draft behind Parker. He's THE best finisher of the top prospects AND gets to the line more often which as rookie will be his best attribute. To me the combination of Rondo and Smart is scarier for future opponents than Vonleh and Sully/KO

[Sketch5]

I don't think DA had an easy time with who to pick. I think it was Ebiid,Gordon,Smart for guys he thought would be at 6th.

Vonleh didn't get picked up by LA or SAC, both who could have used an athletic PF. Vonleh was rumored to have a bad attitude during work outs. And did poorly in the columbine interviews. I guys he was arguing that he could play SF and really wants to. Not sure if thats true, but that's not how you get jobs. Plus we have Two young PF's that need some playing time, and to make room for Vonleh would need all the time the could get to raise their value, and Vonleh would have to sit the bench. Teams also wouldn't give as much value to Sully or KO knowing DA needed to make room for them.

I think while Harris is more polished, his shooting wasn't as good as the years before and Youngs got better, and did really well in the tourney. They also said he killed it in the work outs before he got hurt and would have gone higher if he got to work out for more teams. He also has better length, which we know DA likes to take a shot on guys, while Harris may have been the safe bet, DA may have been picking this as a project and hoping he gets a Paul George type player out of it.

Smart is  aback up plan for Rondo. But I've also heard DA call Smart a SG a couple times. I think they are hoping he can be that next to Rondo. 

[hpantazo]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

give it until december and you will change your mind

[footey]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

Would you be happy with Vonleh wanting to play at the 3? Because that's what he wants. He's a classic young playerwwho thinks he's already a star. Next question is how much higher do you have him on your board than Sully or KO. If we aRe rebuilding than why log jam at the 4?

Now IMO I think Smart is the 2nd best player in this draft behind Parker. He's THE best finisher of the top prospects AND gets to the line more often which as rookie will be his best attribute. To me the combination of Rondo and Smart is scarier for future opponents than Vonleh and Sully/KO

My real point here is that I suspect that Gary Harris is going to be a far better NBA player than Young, and suspect we did not pick him at 17 because we picked Smart at 6. I'm not in love with Vonleh, but figure his size and skill set would be something we could develop for a position where we have a need (the 5).  We did not get that by drafting Smart.  I like Smart's competitiveness, and think he'll be an okay pro, though quite flawed as a shooter.

[obnoxiousmime]

I think it's pretty evident from the way the draft unfolded that most teams felt Vonleh did not match the hype, the very hype they probably created in the media themselves to pump up his value. During the workout period all we heard about what a great worker he was (the Disney World anecdote), his long wingspan and hand size, Bosh comparisons, how impressive he was in workouts, and even a quote about how he belonged in the conversation for the top 4 along with Embiid, Wiggins, and Parker. In retrospect I think most of the praise was just a smokescreen attempt and the top five picked was always going to be Parker, Embiid, Wiggins, Exum, and Gordon.

I'm also a little worried about Young. His ceiling doesn't seem so high because he has no skills beyond shooting. He's not a great athlete, is clueless on D, not a great driver, dribbler, or passer. His positives seem to just be that he MIGHT become a more consistent shooter, is prototypically sized, and he's young (Draftexpress lists "young" as one of his "strengths"!). The whole youth thing would make more sense to me if he were a great athlete who just hasn't learned the game yet. Also I haven't heard anything about him being a hard worker or fierce competitor which always gives you a little more confidence in how much a young player will improve.

[mmmmm]

I think it is pretty clear that Marcus Smart was simply a 'Best Player Available' pick and it's no more complicated than that.

From Wyc, Danny and Austin's comments post-draft, they made it clear that they were trying hard to trade up.

From the twitter storm that erupted from the moment Gordon was selected by Orlando, it is clear that they then were trying to trade down.

They knew that if they stayed put, that either Marcus Smart or Randle would be the 'best player available' at #6 and they clearly wanted to trade out of that situation.

Unfortunately, they couldn't get a deal to go down and so they had to use the pick.

As the draft unfolded, clearly the Celtics felt that Smart (and possibly Randle) were a clear notch above the other players in talent - even though neither is a great fit for our roster.

Given a choice of the two, Smart is a slightly 'not as bad' fit for our roster than Randle, so it's pretty easy to give him the nod if you feel they are equal.

The reason I say that they were clearly a notch above others is that Stauskas, who would have been a much better fit for need, went at #8, yet they weren't willing to reach for him.

And Vonleh dropped so far, it's clear that GMs didn't value him as highly as pre-draft bloggers and analysts.

So, like him or not, Smart was kind of the no-brainer pick, once it was clear they could not trade out of the pick.

But the fact that they tried so hard to trade out of the pick makes it clear that Danny & Co. understand that Smart is not at all an ideal 'fit'.

Oh well.   If nothing else, he IS a pretty talented kid.  There is only so much you can control and this is where we are.  Time to move forward and hopefully Danny can make lemonade out of the lemons that is our imbalanced roster.

[apc]

People here need to give DA some credit.
I am sure he watched hours of every single possible pick.
He have a staff of basketball professional who analyze talent for a living.
He has a successful college coach that knows something.

just give them credit.

[jambr380]

...And did poorly in the columbine interviews...

Columbine interviews? I guess that horrific incident really did remain ingrained in our culture.

As for Harris vs. Young, I think the OP has a point. My guess is that Ainge would have taken Embiid or Gordon and then definitely went on to take Harris over Young. Young at least has the ability to step in at sf (in the future). Two undersized sgs would have made it a disaster for rotations.

[Future Celtics Owner]

Full disclosure:  I dreamed Embiid sliding, or at least grabbing Gordon.  When that didn't happen, made sense to me to take Vonleh at 6.  Yes, we have two other power forwards, but you could make the case for Vonleh, given his length and size, being 4/5, playing the 5, especially vs smaller lineups.  Also is somewhat of a rim protector.

Drafting Smart, I just don't see where we improved in our rotations much.  Is he any better defensively than Bradley? No. Is he better offensively than Bradley or Rondo? No. 

More importantly, I feel picking Smart at 6 forced us to pass on Harris.  Ainge said as much after the draft, saying they did not want another undersized guard. Jeez, you mean because you just drafted one in Smart?  Gary Harris is a much better two way player than James Young.  I feel Young is really going to struggle defensively. He has a pretty outside shot, but that's about it on the offensive end.  Really can't drive, goes left all the time, so easy to defend.  Gary Harris could have stepped in to start on the first day, would have been a much better back court mate with Rondo than Smart, he can really shoot the ball.

I wonder if the front office would have taken Smart at 6 had they known that Harris would be available at 17?

Drafting Smart was not to play him at sg. I think we will be trading Rondo and in that situation it makes sense. I love Vonleh and still hope we can make a trade with CHA to get him(dream). But Smart is going to be a great pg in my opinion, I just can't prove it yet bc he has not played in the NBA yet.

[TheTruthFot18]

The fact that he slipped past Lakers and Kings picks said something. That and he was picked by the Hornets who have had less than amazing draft choices given the spots they had so he could have slipped further.

I did also hear the attitude issue, but unlike Smart, it didn't translate to a winning mentality and a real drive.