Following the NBA draft, the president of Boston Celtics’ basketball operations told the media about their selection, the lack of movement on the draft night and other upcoming off-season decisions that will be in Boston’s future.
Celtics chose Alabama defender JD Davison’s 53rd overall. Stevens spoke of the choice, praising Davison’s explosiveness and playfulness.
“He’s a man we’ve seen all year. Very young, very explosive, that’s pretty obvious,” Stevens of Alabama said of the one-year guard. but he is a good competitor. “
Davison scored an average of 8.5 points, took 4.8 rebounds and delivered 4.3 assists, 46.3% off the field and 30.1% behind the three-point line.
Stevens mentioned that although the Celtics did not bring Davison into training, they had been watching him for a year. He said that because of this, they understand his strengths and weaknesses quite well.
“We spent a lot of time researching him personally this year … We saw a lot of games live,” Stevens said. “We know very well who he is and what he brings to the table and what he has to work on.”
Along with praising the 19-year-old man’s strong suits, Stevens brought out Davison’s youth.
“He had incredible games and he also had games where he looked like a freshman, but he always competed … We think he feels like he got the ball out of hand quickly,” Stevens said.
Davison made an average of 2.9 ball losses with Crimson Tide, which is one of his main weaknesses. He’s not quite a reliable ball handler yet, but he can develop that over time. In addition, Stevens admitted that the goal of the Boston project was to find a man in whom we could invest and to whom we could devote a lot of time.
Stevens also talked about pre-draft rumors that Boston could move at the end of the first round or the beginning of the second. He said the price charged for those choices was simply too high for Celtics to enter into serious trade negotiations.
“The price of moving over was too much for our location, be it the 20s or even the 30s or the low 40s, we got a list of the boys we were happy with and as the day went on we had a couple of men still on board, which to choose from, ”Stevens revealed.
Before the draft, rumors spread that the Celtics might be ready to break up to add players at the end of the first round, but it was finally decided against it.
When asked about the decision, Stevens replied that trading in valuable assets and using their TPE was not something they wanted to do now.
“We talked about the uprising, but leaving our team with key players or using TPEs and other assets was not something we wanted to do right now,” Stevens said.
Celtics has many TPEs available this summer, including $ 17.1 million (expires July 18), $ 6.7 million (expires January 19) and $ 5.9 million (expires February 10). See more here.
However, Stevens is not under any pressure to use them. He said that even if the $ 17.1 million TPE expires, Celtics are confident in its ability to use other smaller TPEs, all of which will only expire around next year’s trading period.
Stevens also hinted that Boston already has eyes on some players who could fit in their TPE, and while they may not have made any moves on the draw night, there is something to be done this summer.
“We’ve been talking about this for a while. We know who fits into this TPE and who may be available. It’s a matter of cost now,” Stevens said. “But things are just beginning.”
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