2019 NBA Draft: Top 3 players for Boston Celtics to select with 22nd pick

With four picks in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics have plenty of choices to make. Here are three players they could possibly target with their second selection, the 20th pick.

Kyrie Irving was coming back from a tandem of knee surgeries that removed foreign bodies (i.e., equipment from past surgeries) in order to reduce irritation and thus get him back to a healthy state. Gordon Hayward, who saw his introductory season in Boston cut short after five minutes due to a gruesome leg injury in the 2017-18 season opener, was set to come back and re-join the team. The group of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier were coming off of a Conference Finals run that saw the young Celtics push LeBron James’s Cavaliers to seven games.

So many things were seemingly going well for the Boston Celtics prior to the 2018-19 season, with fans, media, and oddsmakers alike pegging them as favorites to not only win the East, but do so in dominant, 60-plus-win fashion. With a core of Irving, Brown, Hayward, Tatum, and Al Horford, as well as a bench featuring Rozier, Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris, and Aron Baynes, what could possibly go wrong?

Everything, really.

Locker room toxicity, volatile mood wings, turbulent offensive stretches, nagging injuries, inconsistent role allocations and clashing personalities all contributed to a failure of a season, one defined by missed opportunities and blown expectations.

Instead of running roughshod over the East, the Celtics failed to even crack the 50-win mark, coming in at 49 and fourth in the conference. Instead of making it to the Conference Finals, they bowed out in five games to the vaunted Milwaukee Bucks in the semifinals with Irving and Hayward playing worse than George Hill and Pat Connaughton. And instead of building a contender that would lead the East for years to come, it looks like all things may be coming to an end this summer.

Easing the Celtics’ worries is their collection of impressive draft capital, as they own their own first and second round picks (20, 51) as well as picks from the Kings (14) and Clippers (22). Yet, as valuable and enticing as draft selections may be, it does present them with an added layer of uncertainty to the franchise’s offseason plans.

What makes Boston’s predicament so dubious and troublesome is the uncertainty clouding the roster heading into the offseason. A roster full of underachievers is set to change drastically, whether by the intentions of the front office or by the intentions of the players heading into free agency.

Enigmatic star point guard Kyrie Irving and his bluntly-spoken backup, Terry Rozier, are both heading into free agency this summer, with several members of the media and rival front offices believing that both guards could be walking in a matter of weeks, which could give the Celtics the task of finding a new lead guard via the 2019 NBA Draft. Veteran big man Al Horford has a hefty player option that he could turn down if he so chooses and thus enter free agency, but it’s widely expected that he’ll either opt-in or re-sign to a longer, cheaper deal to remain with the franchise for the next few years. Granted, surprises take place regularly in the NBA, so his potential departure should be considered and planned for accordingly. Other valuable role players, such as spot-starters Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes, can both enter free agency this summer. Baynes is likely to pick up his player option, but Morris’s future in Boston is in doubt based on the past season’s tumultuous nature.

Additionally, the Celtics are firmly in the mix for Anthony Davis’s services, so there’s uncertainty whether these four draft picks would be used as actual additions to Boston’s roster or an addition to their collection of assets that could be tossed into a blockbuster trade for the Pelicans star.

Because of this, Danny Ainge and Mike Zarren will have to be awfully careful and calculated on draft night (if no trade has occurred yet), selecting prospects that could potentially serve them well as roster pieces while also possessing league-wide value as trade chips.

With the third of four selections and their final first rounder of the draft, Boston should continue its plan to accrue players with current and future value. Opting for an overseas prospect who could be stashed for a year or two is a realistic option with the last of the Celtics’ first-round picks, and players such as Luka Samanic, Yovel Zoosman, and Deividas Sirvydis are all solid options here. For the sake of this piece, though, we’ll be looking at three well-known collegiate players instead, ones who could feasibly play minutes as rookies and/or hold some market value in potential future trade discussions.

Here’s a look at three possible options for the Boston Celtics with the 22nd pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.