The 2016 NBA Draft is a mere two months off and some teams are already pondering their decision.
The Boston Celtics is one of only two teams involved in the lottery that is still battling in the playoffs (the other being Toronto). Barring other teams getting lucky in the lottery, the Celtics will pick third.
That does not sound so bad, except this draft is quite thin on game-changers and it seems certain that there are actually just two of them. It's almost impossible that teams in the top two pass on Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram. The only question is who gets to be no.1.
The no.3 spot is a puzzle, though, and if the Celtics get a shot, the range of players is very diverse. Names like Dragan Bender, Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown and Kris Dunn have been in the mix.
There is no clear consensus but most of the pundits believe that a talent like Dragan Bender would be hard to pass up. A legit seven-footer with three point range, he would fit right in today's NBA and Kristaps Porzingis really helped boost that image.
The mock draft in Sporting News from Sean Deveney had the Celtics taking Hield at no.3. Deveney said that Hield had the talent level of a top 3 pick but the only knock is that he is 22 years old. But the Celtics would overlook that because most of the other prospects have bigger flaws.
Deveney has low regard for Bender, taking all the other aforementioned candidates over him and placing him at 7th overall.
In another scenario, the Celtics Blog had their mock draft from Kevin O'Connor and he also had the Celtics picking Hield. His sharp shooting is something the Celtics lacked, as shown in their current playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks where they are down 2-0.
The only caveat on Connor's scenario is that he assumed Bender would be off the board already. He's not sold that Hield should be taken over the Croatian.
If other teams than the Celtics pick third, most of them would take Bender because they are not under too much pressure to take players who will deliver early. If Philadelphia gets booted third, they may consider Hield because of Colangelo's urgency to compete and the fact that they are stacked with big men already (Dario Saric is set to play next season, adding to the logjam). The Sixers could use what Hield brings to the table.