The Celtics’ low season plans have far higher scope than Thursday night time’s NBA draft, particularly after deciding the value was too excessive to maneuver up from the 53rd decide.
But after a professed want for extra playmaking, even within the type of a undertaking, the Celtics opted for JD Davison, a 6-foot-3 freshman level guard from Alabama recognized for his capability to get into the paint.
The Celtics clearly aren’t in a rush with the 19-year-old.
“First of all, it’s June, he’s 12 months removed from high school graduation, right?” Brad Stevens stated after making the decide. “So he’s performed one yr of school basketball at a really excessive degree on workforce, and with guys that had been there who had been good playmakers in their very own proper.
“He had some incredible games, and he had some games where he looked like a freshman,” stated the Celtics president of basketball operations. “So he has consistently competed, consistently carried himself well on the court, and the ability to get into the paint is a hard thing to be able to do in this league. So whether in transition, off a ball screen, off an action to be able to get into the paint, you learn as time goes on what the right reads are around you to make the right plays. Some of that comes with experience, but we do think he has a good feel as far as getting the ball out of his hands quickly and finding the right people, especially on spot-ups. He’s very unselfish in that regard. But there are things he has to improve, as any 19-year-old would be. But we’re looking forward to helping him do that. That’s our task.”
Davison got here off the bench for many of his one season at Alabama, averaging 8.5 factors, 4.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists after passing up presents from applications like Kansas, Michigan and LSU to remain nearer to house. He displayed expertise for attending to the basket – as evidenced by 45% capturing – although his 3-point capturing (30.1%) wants work.
He’ll be a part of the Celtics’ summer season league workforce in Las Vegas, additionally with European “stash” prospects Yam Madar and Juhann Begarin on the roster. Like these two, Davison may have loads of time to develop in a program with a a lot larger image to develop later this summer season.
“I think we’re in a position roster-wise where we got to evaluate the back-end of our roster and decide on the guys who are here, decide on who we can add via trade or via free agency,” stated Stevens. “But we’re ready roster-wise the place we will give attention to the event of a younger participant, too. I believe that’s essential. We traded the final couple of first-round picks. We like the fellows which might be enjoying abroad, each Yam and Juhann are guys which might be constantly getting higher and we expect extremely of.
“And then JD, all you have to do is turn on a couple minutes of clips and you can see the upside,” he stated. “So now it’s about making it so that he gets accustomed to the NBA game. He’s not going to have, barring anything crazy here, he’s not going to have a ton of pressure to come in and impact us right away or move the needle for us right away. He’ll be able to compete for minutes just like anybody else. At the same time, he can grow, develop, focus his attention on improving. I think that’s really an important place to be for a young player. We got a really good team. He’ll be able to put some heat on us with his speed on both ends of the floor that I’m looking forward to.”
Though Stevens was enthusiastic about enhancing his draft place, the value was prohibitive.
“The costs for moving up was just too, too much for where we are,” he stated. “And whether that was into the 20s or even the 30s or even the low 40s, for us, it was OK, we’ve got a good list of guys that we’re comfortable with and as the draft continued, and it became obvious that you know, we had two or three guys still on our board there in the last couple of pics to choose from, you know, felt pretty good about it. Tonight was about finding somebody that we could invest in, that we could put a lot of time into, that we could help grow and their young career, and hopefully help JD (reach) that spot, get better and really start their career off on the right foot with an investment from a staff and an organization for the long term. So we weren’t looking for anybody, necessarily, that was going to come in and change the game for our team at 53. And so we talked about moving up, but parting with significant players on our team or parting with draft assets that you can use with these TPEs with the trade deadline and those types of things didn’t make much sense.”
Though Stevens’ largest commerce exception – a $17.1 million slot from final summer season’s Evan Fournier sign-and-trade to New York – expires on July 18, he has a plan.
“We’ve been having these talks for a while now. We’ve known who fits into our trade exception and who we might be able to target around the league and have discussions about,” stated Stevens. “It really comes down to cost. If the costs are appropriate, you continue discussions and if they are not, you table it for now and maybe return to those later. At the end of the day, trade exceptions are a tool but it’s not our only avenue. I think we’ve got the ability to do some small things in free agency with the taxpayer midlevel and the ability to add minimums. If that thing vanquishes because we don’t find the right deal, we still have two other TPEs to use towards the trade deadline. That was one of the things about tonight, we wanted to make sure we were smart about all of our future assets and not shifting our team without very, very obvious moves that would help us. Those things didn’t present themselves so we will stay at it to see if we can find some things to help improve us.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com