Stewart: This Is A Bad Deal For Celtics
By James Stewart, 98.5 The Sports Hub
BOSTON (CBS) -- I hated this trade Saturday night and I hate this trade even more on Monday*.
The Celtics had the No. 1 pick, and Markelle Fultz, by most account, is the clear No. 1 pick. And the Celtics punted.
That's a loss.
THAT'S A LOSS!
(Twitter voice) Well Jimmy, they already have too many guards. (End twitter voice)
Neat, they have a ton of guards, and Fultz projects to be better than all of them. But hey, let's punt!
I remember Celtics fans booing the night they drafted Terry Rozier and R.J. Hunter because they had too many guards.
The trade at the moment is Celtics No. 1 for Philly's No. 3 this year and the 2018 Los Angeles Lakers pick if it's Nos. 2-5, and if not, the Celtics will get the 2019 Sacramento pick unprotected.
THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!
Maybe my expectations were set too high but I look at 1993, Chris Webber for Penny Hardaway, Todd Fuller, Vince Carter and Mike Miller.
That's four first-round picks for No. 1.
I hear Celtics fans gush about trading away Joe Barry Carroll for two Hall of Fame players. In 1993, I'll take the Orlando team with Shaq and Webber in the frontcourt.
Here's the good and bad history of the No. 1 overall pick since 1993:
The good:
Webber, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Kenyon Martin, Yao Ming, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, John Wall, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns
The bad:
Glenn Robinson, Joe Smith, Michael Olowokandi, Elton Brand, Kwame Brown, Andrew Bogut, Andrea Bargnani, Greg Oden, Anthony Bennett
It's too early to tell on Ben Simmons.
That's 14 good, nine bad , one too early to tell.
More good than bad there but nah, it's OK, we really didn't want the No. 1 overall pick.
There was a time Saturday night when Twitter thought the Celtics had eight first-round draft picks and it looked like:
2017 PHI 1st
2018 BOS 1st
2018 LAL 1st
2018 BKN 1st
2019 BOS 1st
2019 LAC 1st
2019 SAC 1st
2019 MEM 1st
Yup, people thought that and I said, "This still isn't enough for Davis."
BECAUSE IT'S NOT!
Davis is 24 years old, and having just acquired DeMarcus Cousins, the Pelicans are going to deal away Anthony Davis after 17 games of those two playing together?
NOPE. SORRY, CELTICS FANS.
Also, it's worth mentioning, that Fultz, Simmons, Dario Saric and Joel Embiid on paper look REALLY good. We'll see if they can learn how to win together.
For Ainge to pass on Fultz and put him in the same division says he doesn't think very highly of him.
We'll see.
This is a GM-defining move here.
If there was any doubt that Danny Ainge has a job for life, this just confirmed it. No rush, take your time, it's OK that you have the No. 1 pick in the draft, you can kick that away too because the Kings in 2019 are going to be really bad.
Are the Celtics ever going to get a real, franchise-changing player or are they just going to get really nice role players? Of the list above, those are all impact players. Nope, don't want those type of players here. We can get value. We can move down and trade this potential horse and get a pony at three and hope that we can get a horse in a future draft.
A draft for which you've only won the lottery once.
ONCE!
Can we review Danny Ainge the first-round drafter?
The good:
Kendrick Perkins, Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Tony Allen, Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo**, Marcus Smart
**Rondo was drafted at 21, Kyle Lowry was drafted at 24
The Bad:
Marcus Banks, Gerald Green, J.R Giddens, JaJuan Johnson***, Fab Melo, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk****, James Young*****, R.J. Hunter
*** Jimmy Butler went 30, Isaiah Thomas went 60
**** Danny traded from 16 to 13 to get Olynyk, Giannis Antetokounmpo went 15th
***** Danny drafted Young at 17, Rodney Hood went 23rd
Incomplete:
Jaylen Brown, Guerschon Yabusele, Ante Zizic, Terry Rozier
I don't count them drafting Jeff Green in 2007 because they were drafting Green to trade for Ray Allen.
That's seven good, nine bad, four incomplete.
I can't wait for the championship parade in 2029. Should be a blast. Two championships for Ainge in 26 years. YAY!
*I reserve the right to change my mind if the Celtics get a real player on Thursday.
James Stewart is the executive producer of the Felger and Massarotti Show, which airs 2-6 p.m. on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Find him on Twitter @IAmJamesStewart.
