Young talent

[Celtics4ever]

We high nice young talent but a lot of it is flawed, that is what you get when you pick out of the top three.   It also does not mean these guys can become real nice players or over come their flaws.  Let's hope so.

[D.o.s.]

Our young guys are decent players, and a few of them AB, Sully, Smart, KO might be good bench players on a contending squad or maybe a borderline started in a good team.  But I don't really see any of our young players as future all-stars.  They are for the most part smart, hard working players that you love to root for.  I just don't think we have any future all nba / all stars in our crop of youngsters.  I would love for some of them to prove me wrong.  It would be awesome.

Actually, only one of our young players is Smart.

[Evantime34]

I'm really excited about watching Smart and Olynyk. I am skeptical about Sullinger after seeing the weight he gained. I think Young will be good but not until the end of his rookie contract

[celticmania]

We  have some good young players but none are spectacular talents. None of them have big time potential. Maybe we getting a franchise talent this upcoming year. Mudiay has superstar potential but we just took a pg and have Rondo. Jahlil Okafor is solid but flawed (bad athleticism). Towns seems like Bargnani. But there are other interesting players like Kelly Oubre and Mario Hezonja. We'll see how these guys play throughout this upcoming college basketball season.

[kg is king]

Hate to be a downer but I just don't see the potential in any of young players. I do believe Avery has already peaked. Can he improve his shooting? Absolutely. But his ceiling is still a 3 and D type of guy and that's what some people are labeling him now.

Sullinger is too limited physically to be a good defensive player and while his low post game is decent he'll be no more than a starter level player on a bad team.

Olynk still looks awkward to me. Like Sully, he's destined to be a rotation player.

Young is just too raw right now. I'll need to see how he stacks up again NBA competition before I pass judgement.

Smart is a bit of a wild card. While I love his motor and his passion, I am not a big fan of the put your head down and ram to the hoop type of player. If that's your style, then you better be able to jump out of the gym ala young Lebron James. He must develop some type of shot in order for him to have a place in this league.

Zeller...well if he couldn't crack 30 minutes playing on a rebuilding Cavs team without Varejao, I am not too confident on his abilities.

Once again sorry to be a downer but I just don't see the potential in most of our players.

[aporel#18]

Young's talent, yes. His raw potential, plus his play in the NCAA tournament are signs of star potential.

Smart, on the other hand... I can see him becoming a very good player, but this is a guard-loaded NBA these days, a top 10 guard isn't considered a Star.

[Beat LA]

I like how a bunch of people are so sure we didn't get a diamond in the rough in the last few drafts.

Now I'm not saying we have a Lebron or a Durrant in the mix. But did anyone think when Love got picked that 6 years later that teams would be chasing him as much as they have been and that  a team would trade a #1 defensive wing with tons of potential for him?

Now I know some people aren't that high on Love, but if we got some one that ends up with that kind of talent I think we've got some thing there, and some thing that could draw a more elite player.

We also haven't see Young play, and what the hype was about during work outs. The kid and I mean kid at 18 played better in the tourney than the two top picks. And he didn't shy away from the moments, and likes to play in that environment. It says a lot for his mentality, now he just needs to put the work in.

TP.  That is the exact reason why I wanted him.  If he's more than willing to take the big shot in pressure-packed NCAA tournament games, that means, imho, that he can do the same in the NBA.  That doesn't mean that he'll be Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, or Paul Pierce in crunch time, of course, but it certainly plays to the eye test.  I can't wait to see him play.

[Beat LA]

Young's talent, yes. His raw potential, plus his play in the NCAA tournament are signs of star potential.

Smart, on the other hand... I can see him becoming a very good player, but this is a guard-loaded NBA these days, a top 10 guard isn't considered a Star.

You don't think he can be a combination of Westbrook and Stephenson?

[Beat LA]

Cautiously optimistic.

+1

I don't think most of our guys have all star potential, but I think they have a chance to be good, solid pros. Given where they were selected in the draft, that's about all you can reasonably hope for.

Since when does their draft position have anything to do with their potential?  There are loads of guys who slipped to the late 1st and 2nd rounds, respectively, who have turned into all stars.  Look at Lance Stephenson.  No, he didn't make the all star team last year, although he probably should have, but he's one of the best young players in the game, and he was taken at number 40 in the 2010 NBA draft.

[SHAQATTACK]

Cautiously optimistic.

That's about all we hope for at this point ....+1

[mmmmm]

Cautiously optimistic.

+1

I don't think most of our guys have all star potential, but I think they have a chance to be good, solid pros. Given where they were selected in the draft, that's about all you can reasonably hope for.

Since when does their draft position have anything to do with their potential?  There are loads of guys who slipped to the late 1st and 2nd rounds, respectively, who have turned into all stars.  Look at Lance Stephenson.  No, he didn't make the all star team last year, although he probably should have, but he's one of the best young players in the game, and he was taken at number 40 in the 2010 NBA draft.

Answer:  Since the draft was first invented.

Potential isn't the _only_ factor that goes into where a player is drafted, but it is probably the biggest factor.   Obviously, gauging a player's potential going into the draft isn't an exact science.   So you get exceptions.   But overall, most players end up with careers that correlate with where they were picked.

The key to success with the draft aspect of team building is to extract more value out of your allotted draft slots relative to how much value other teams are extracting out of theirs.

Danny hasn't always managed to do this, but for the most part he has stayed ahead on this -- most of his drafted players that he's kept would rank above their actual pick if you did a redraft of their class.   And most of the ones where that would not be true, he has managed to unload via trade for other players.   Yes, he's missed on some that he couldn't unload for better value.  It happens.

Right now, on our current roster, based on most metrics, Sully, Olynyk & Bradley would all rank much higher than the slots where they were drafted, relative to their draft classes.   Rondo obviously crushes that scale.   'Way too soon to know about Smart or Young.

That's not saying that all or any of our young draft picks are necessarily going to be 'stars'.   But that means the Celtics have managed to extract much more value out of the draft than the average team, relative to where they picked.

[colincb]

I'm pretty optimistic. Those who are here have outperformed their draft slots and have room to grow. Olynyk in particular is very raw, but he's got an unusual offensive skill set for a 7-footer.

I suspect Smart will be a very good player based on what I saw at OSL. Filled the stat sheet despite shooting like crap, but fixing a bad shot selection is easy compared to fixing a bad shot. He'll eventually be one of the top defensive guards in the league. Has the will to take over games too. Hopefully his offensive skill allows him to do so in the future.  Best rookie I've seen the Cs get since RR in the way I see his game translating to the NBA.

Young? Haven't seen enough myself, but he was thought to be a very good pick at 17 by the pundits.

[Beat LA]

Cautiously optimistic.

+1

I don't think most of our guys have all star potential, but I think they have a chance to be good, solid pros. Given where they were selected in the draft, that's about all you can reasonably hope for.

Since when does their draft position have anything to do with their potential?  There are loads of guys who slipped to the late 1st and 2nd rounds, respectively, who have turned into all stars.  Look at Lance Stephenson.  No, he didn't make the all star team last year, although he probably should have, but he's one of the best young players in the game, and he was taken at number 40 in the 2010 NBA draft.

Answer:  Since the draft was first invented.

Potential isn't the _only_ factor that goes into where a player is drafted, but it is probably the biggest factor.   Obviously, gauging a player's potential going into the draft isn't an exact science.   So you get exceptions.   But overall, most players end up with careers that correlate with where they were picked.

The key to success with the draft aspect of team building is to extract more value out of your allotted draft slots relative to how much value other teams are extracting out of theirs.

Danny hasn't always managed to do this, but for the most part he has stayed ahead on this -- most of his drafted players that he's kept would rank above their actual pick if you did a redraft of their class.   And most of the ones where that would not be true, he has managed to unload via trade for other players.   Yes, he's missed on some that he couldn't unload for better value.  It happens.

Right now, on our current roster, based on most metrics, Sully, Olynyk & Bradley would all rank much higher than the slots where they were drafted, relative to their draft classes.   Rondo obviously crushes that scale.   'Way too soon to know about Smart or Young.

That's not saying that all or any of our young draft picks are necessarily going to be 'stars'.   But that means the Celtics have managed to extract much more value out of the draft than the average team, relative to where they picked.

I was mainly referring to the players who are not consensus top 3-5 picks in any given draft.  Obviously, those "blue chip, can't miss" prospects will always be there at the top, but even they end up being busts, too, so you can't say that every number 1 overall pick has lived up to their potential - that's absurd.  Look at Evan Turner, Derrick Favors, Wesley Johnson, and Ekpe Udoh from 2010.  None of those guys have come close to what they were projected to be, as players, with Turner being the closest to actually living up to his potential, and he's still far off from those expectations. 

[D.o.s.]

Which isn't really what mm^10 is saying at all.

Guys like Stephenson slipped because of character issues -- and there are guys like Arenas and Manu who simply blew everyone else out of the water and surprised everyone. That's why they're called surprises, because they're uncommon (i.e. surprising), but common enough for us to have a word for it in the common vernacular.

[Chris22]

Is anyone else enthused about the collection of young talent we're building?  Zeller and Turner were low risk and low cost moves that could pay off big.  Olynyk looks like a keeper and I like our draft picks.

I am.