The Boston Celtics could have as many as four first round draft picks in the 2019 NBA Draft. Here we’ll take a look at where those picks will be and which prospects could be available at those spots. We could all use a distraction from the regular season blues, couldn’t we? Whether the Boston Celtics make it to the NBA Finals or not, they could still have four first round picks to use to add to their roster or in a trade. First, let’s lay out the picks Boston owns and the protections attached to them as of January 15th. Round 1, No. 8 (From Memphis): Pick will convey if outside top-8 Round 1, No.14 (From Sacramento): Pick will convey if it is not No.1 overall Round 1, No. 20 (From LA Clippers): Pick will convey if outside top-14 Round 1, No. 22 (Celtics own pick) As of now, the Celtics would own three first round picks, with a good chance at four since the Grizzlies are tied for the eighth worst record with the Orlando Magic. Now we’ll look at some players available in the available slots.<doc-sep>NBC Sports’ Mike Gorman speculates that Jayson Tatum is out for the rest of the series Tatum was poked in the eye in the third quarter of Game 2 by Kevin Durant.<doc-sep>The Boston Celtics continue to meander through their season, exploring new and exciting ways to question reality. Just as soon as I’ve convinced myself the Celtics just aren’t that good of a team, they’ll rip off a massive win streak. Feeling good about the Celtics’ trajectory? That means it’s time for a game when everyone plays defense like they are a Red Wedding Stark. Game to game performance has taken on the the identity of a drunk ophthalmologist slurring “one or two?” and pivoting between the “suck” and “good” lenses. The problem of identifying the true persona of the Jekyll and Hyde Celtics even trickles down to the statistics, where good signs and bad signs remain gridlocked. Even after their latest rash of bad road losses to sub .500 teams, the Celtics remain 2nd in the NBA in net rating. That said, you pull out some of the Celtics big blowouts and it’s a jenga tower that comes undone. A thin front court might have muted some of the Celtics success, but all teams face injuries and the “Hospital Celtics” of last year did some of their heaviest winning when players went out. It’s a season where neither a first round exit or Finals appearance will surprise anyone. What is certain is that this is not the start to the season Celtics fans were looking for. Instead of ramming my head against the wall trying to differentiate what might happen game to game with the Celtics, I thought this might be an opportunity to take a step back and take a look at the big picture of the team moving forward, which will hopefully make me want to lobotomize myself less. Hopefully. Anthony Davis and Pick Timing Looming over the Celtics season is an escalating Anthony Davis situation, in which the Celtics, Lakers, and other teams with available asset capital will square off should the Pelicans produce another disappointing season. Dell Demps will likely be fired if the Pelicans shift into rebuilding mode again, so he has little incentive to move Davis, but ownership may force his hand if they see the writing on the wall. As has been well documented here, the Celtics can’t acquire The Brow this year due to a Rose Rule overlap between Irving and Davis. This means the earliest the Celtics could acquire him is after Irving signs a new deal following the lift of the moratorium on NBA business. A large portion of any assets the Celtics would primarily come from the vast amount of draft capital they have acquired in the coming draft. Namely, a top-1 protected pick from the Kings, a top-8 protected pick from the Grizzlies, and a lottery protected pick from the Clippers, in addition to the Celtics own pick. This means that the Celtics could very well be selecting four times in the first round of this year’s NBA draft. That’s not ideal if you are someone who thinks the Celtics need to make a move for Anthony Davis. Because the NBA draft happens before free agency, the Celtics are going to have hope that some of these picks end up rolling over to future years. Otherwise, the Celtics will be under a very tight window come Draft Night if they want to make a deal for Anthony Davis. Should all the picks convey this year, the Celtics will suddenly have nothing but their own picks in the asset chest. Draft picks have a sort of “new car” scenario, where the second the picks are used on an actual player, they lose a lot of their value. Unless the Celtics are talking to the Pelicans ahead of time and agreeing to terms on a deal that wouldn’t be finalized until after free agency, the Celtics will be forced to use their picks on whichever player they think is best instead of what the Pelicans want. Now that that’s not a bad thing at all in most situations, but strictly through the lens of acquiring Anthony Davis, it means that the Celtics will really only get one crack at trading for him when all of their assets are at peak value. The exception to this is the Grizzlies pick, which will roll over with lighter protections to next year should it fall into the top of the draft. The Kings and Clippers picks will be conveying in some way or another, with the Clippers pick possibly becoming two seconds and the Kings pick (in a worst case scenario of awful lottery luck) maybe becoming the Sixers pick. Depending on how the rest of the season plays out for the surprising Kings and Clippers, it’s very possible that the Memphis pick would be the crown jewel of an Anthony Davis trade that doesn’t include Jayson Tatum. While it’s still possible the Celtics could trade for Davis after the draft, it would meant that there was a miscalculation by the Pelicans, because they would be able to get more of exactly what they want from the Celtics by agreeing to the deal the night of the draft and having the Celtics select the players they want. One way or another, the Anthony Davis trade scenarios highlight one very important fact. The age of the Celtics draft pick cabinet being well stocked is about to come to a screeching halt. The Celtics will have all of their own picks besides maybe their second rounder this year, going forward, but you’d hope that the Celtics aren’t bad enough for those picks to be valuable. This means that there is going to be limited flexibility going forward compared to previous years. That’s notable because… If the Celtics Keep Their Draft Picks, the Roster Crunch Will Only Get Worse. Trade Out? Many Celtics fans have been frustrated by the lack of minutes for tantalizing rookie Robert Williams this year. Well, the Celtics may be heading towards a timeline where that is happening in three separate instances on a night to night basis next year.<doc-sep>The Boston Celtics own the Memphis Grizzlies first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft but, as it’s been well-documented, the pick — like two of their other potential first-round picks in the upcoming draft — has protections; it’s top-8 protected in 2019, top-6 in 2020 and it will become unprotected in 2021. The Celtics acquired the Grizzlies first round pick back in 2014 in a three-team deal that included the New Orleans Pelicans. The Grizzlies wanted, and acquired Jeff Green from the Celtics. centered around forward Jeff Green, who was considered to be one of the more dynamic frontcourt players in the league and who had just entered his athletic prime at 27-years-old. However, Green would only play portions of two seasons with Memphis (a total of 88 regular season games) after a horrendous 11-game stretch in the 2015 NBA Playoffs before being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Green now plays for the Washington Wizards, after a forgettable stint with the Orlando Magic and a NBA Finals appearance with the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. Nowadays, the Grizzlies — who have been trying to get over the hump and transform from a good, solid team to one of the great teams for number of years — are led by two star players in point guard Mike Conley Jr. and Marc center Gasol who are both over 30-years-old while the team seems to have reached it’s peak. As a result, the future of the team remains uncertain in the years to come. Interesting enough, ESPN’s Zach Lowe believes that — though Memphis needs at least one more game-changing talent — the Grizzlies are keen on delivering their first-round pick to Boston as soon as possible (heard on The Bill Simmons Podcast). “It’ll depend on how they do in the next month,” Lowe said. “They would rather get this obligation over with and give the Celtics the 10th pick in this draft then roll it over when the protections get even lighter and maybe Gasol leaves, maybe Conley is a year older.” “Memphis, according to everyone I’ve talked to, would rather just get it over with now unless they spiral so badly. ” “Unless they spiral so badly that it becomes, “oh we have a chance at a top whatever pick.” I mean they’d have to spiral a little bit more than they are currently. But I think they wanna get it over with now and just give Boston the pick. I mean look, they’re 19-24; they’re 14th in the West already. They’re not gonna get to 14th in the west, they’re there. Their next four games are absolutely brutal. It’s like Milwaukee, Boston, Toronto [and] Pelicans who are surging now that they’re healthy and playing with some urgency. If you’re 19 and 28, it’s over. You’re done. You’re not gonna make the playoffs in the west.” If this happens to be the case, the Celtics will — as expected — have another lottery pick in a deep draft. When they last had a lottery pick from another team, they capitalized and drafted sophomore forward Jayson Tatum who has quickly risen to become a star in this league. With another deep draft, the Celtics are once again in prime position to acquire another potential star this offseason. The pick could also turn into a trade asset if Boston wants to acquire a star, like Pelicans superstar center Anthony Davis, in a trade. The Celtics will have endless possibilities on what they want to do with the pick.<doc-sep>
Danny Ainge over the weekend downplayed the Celtics’ need to make a trade, pointing out how much he liked Boston’s roster despite the team’s inconsistency this season. That said, Ainge has been known to be aggressive, and the Celtics president of basketball operations made it clear Boston still will do its due diligence leading up to the Feb. 7 NBA trade deadline. The Celtics have no shortage of assets — from talented young players to a bevy of draft picks — so they theoretically could go in a number of different directions in the coming weeks. They ultimately might decide to stay the course, though, and do their heavy lifting this summer. The Celtics could have as many as four first-round draft picks in 2019, with two having the potential to be lottery selections. But league sources recently told Sporting News’ Sean Deveney that none of Boston?s picks are expected to be available at the deadline. Here are the first-round draft picks the Celtics could end up with in 2019: — Their own draft pick — Sacramento Kings’ pick (unless it’s the No. 1 pick, in which case it goes to the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston receives Philly’s pick) — Memphis Grizzlies’ pick (top-eight protected in 2019, top-six protected in 2020, unprotected in 2021) — Los Angeles Clippers’ pick (top-14 protected in 2019 and in 2020 — if not conveyed by 2020, then Boston receives second-rounder in 2022) Keeping the picks now would allow Boston to be more aggressive this offseason, when New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis might be among the players available on the trade market. The Celtics, of course, have long been linked to Davis, a five-time All-Star who’s established himself as one of the NBA’s best players since being selected No. 1 overall in 2012. Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports