Picked apart
Heat’s biggest edge over the Celtics? It begins with the draft
You could easily say what separates the Miami Heat from the Celtics is the draft. Two major players for the Heat are mid-first-round picks over the past three years, a draft area where some teams discover gems and in the Celtics’ case, busts.
Heat guard Tyler Herro was taken 13th overall in last year’s draft, the same Herro who dropped 37 points on the Celtics in Game 4. Meanwhile, center Bam Adebayo, who has dominated anyone the Celtics have placed in front of him, was the 14th overall pick in 2017.
It’s easy to say the Heat scored big with these picks. Picking players late in the lottery and beyond is a difficult endeavor. The Jazz were able to pluck Donovan Mitchell a pick before Adebayo. The Bulls took Creighton freshman Justin Patton two picks after Adebayo, and he has played in just nine NBA games with four organizations.
While picking mid-round and later is an inexact science, it can determine the fate of an organization. What has frustrated the Celtics even more about Herro’s success is they would have drafted him had he fallen to them at 14.
The Celtics ended up drafting Indiana’s Romeo Langford. Langford entered the league needing wrist surgery, which has started an unfortunate string of injuries that followed him all the way to the bubble. He tore a ligament in the same wrist in a meaningless game against the Wizards and then strained his adductor in Game 2 of the Miami series.
The surgery to repair the wrist ligament could sideline Langford into next season, meaning the Celtics will have to wait months or even a year before making any determination on him. Meanwhile, Herro has turned into a staple in the Miami lineup.
But if you want to ask why the Celtics’ bench is so thin and weak, some of the blame has to be placed on several failed draft picks in the past few years in those mid-first round and later areas. While it’s far too early to call Langford a disappointment, he’s light years behind Herro in terms of impact.
In last year’s draft they also passed on a solid defensive player in Matisse Thybulle, whom they took at No. 20 and quickly traded to the 76ers for Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, who has barely played his rookie season.
The Celtics, however, faltered in the draft before last year.
Boston was able to nab a slipping Robert Williams at No. 27 in the 2018 draft, and while he has played more during the playoffs and shown potential, his future with the Celtics is uncertain. The organization is still unsure whether Williams can become a reliable starter, a solid backup, or just a situational player.
The draft mistakes the Celtics are
paying for begin in 2016, when they took Jaylen Brown third overall. That worked out well, but the Celtics had two more first-round picks and five second-rounders in that draft. They took Frenchman Guerschon Yabusele with the 16th overall pick, and that was an abject failure.
It’s difficult to see why the Celtics viewed Yabusele as a prospect. Yabusele never developed into the stretch-4 or stretch-3 the Celtics envisioned and he was released after three seasons. No NBA team picked up Yabusele and he returned to play in France.
It was a wasted pick. While the 2016 draft was a minefield for several teams — Marquese Chriss, Thon Maker, Georgios Papagiannis, Wade Baldwin, Henry Ellenson, and Malachi Richardson all went mid-round — it hurt the Celtics to miss so badly on a first-round pick who couldn’t even develop into a rotation player.
It’s unfair to single out the Celtics for these draft misses, but Pascal Siakam was taken four picks after Zizic, and Malcolm Brogdon fell to the second round. In 2015, the Celtics nabbed Louisville guard Terry Rozier with the first first-round pick but missed with their next two picks — R.J. Hunter (28th overall) and Jordan Mickey (33).