Welcome to the second installment of 30 Teams, 30 Years,
30 Drafts featuring the Boston Celtics. We take you through each of the teams’ draft picks from 1978-2008 and evaluate how they fared. In these 30 years, the Sixers drafted plenty of Hall of Famers including Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. The Celtics have one of, if not the most storied history of any NBA franchise. They were known for building through the draft, starting with the Bird era and including guys like Chauncey Billups and Antoine Walker, until the recent Big 3 era when they added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen via trade. Their score shows how successful they were, averaging over a full point more per pick than the Philadelphia 76ers.
Total Score: 3.885
Let us know in the comments below who you think their best and worst draft picks were.
To see how the score was calculated, check out the intro post here.
[table id=100 /]
1 - Drafted ahead of Reggie Theus
2 - I wanted to go out on a limb here and project multiple AS games if he didn’t die early, but the NBA was just too deep at the time of his death to go there.
3 - Fun Facts: Had the nickname of “Big Bird” and appeared in the original NBA Jam on the Milwaukee Bucks
4 - Fun Fact: Half of one of the most underrated nicknames of all time. “The Shaw-Shaq Redemption” for any Shaw-Shaq ally oops.
5 – Was drafted over Tim Hardaway and was drafted over Dana Baros, but could not justify subtracting for that as an “All Star”
6 - Fun Fact: attended Georgia Institute of Technology
7 - Greatest. Name. Ever.
8 - Fun Fact: From wikipedia “He now coaches for the Austin Wildcats 7th grade Silver 1 team on their quest for repeat state title.” So he’s got that going for him.
9 - Going to project he gets to 400 games.
10 - I want to give him credit for a top 5 NBA MVP appearance, but that may be too much of a leap with how talented the league is. Instead I will split the difference between that and where he currently is (3x All Star) and give him credit for a 2nd team All NBA appearance.
11 - Going to assume he gets to 100 NBA Starts
12 - Will not give negative points for less than 100 since he can return from overseas.
13 - Came over in 2010-11 season, too early to project or give a grade.
