Beginning with a group close to 60, the Boston Celtics have since narrowed their draft night options down to about 10 players.
This according to Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge.
Currently set to stand pat with the 27th overall selection at the 2018 NBA Draft on June 21 in Brooklyn, the Celtics continued to hold pre-draft workouts in Waltham this week. A workout that included polarizing Duke talent Grayson Allen.
In the spotlight for the wrong reasons with numerous tripping incidents, and a self-admitted irritant, Allen is one of the most emotional players in this year’s draft. He’s fiery, passionate, and Allen himself says those attributes aren’t going anywhere.
“At the end of the day, I’m not getting rid of that because teams want a competitive and emotional guy out there,” Allen acknowledged. “You just have to control it, but they want a guy who brings fire.”
That, in addition to what he bring offensively (Allen averaged 14.1 points per game and shot 43.0 from the field in his college career), makes for one interesting mix should be hanging around at No. 27.
“Great shooter obviously,” Ainge said when asked about the 22-year-old Allen. “Good athlete. Competitor. Won a lot of games, scored a lot of big baskets, good player. Classic shooting guard.
“We have to find players that can play and help us. Having guys on rookie contracts and lower contracts that can contribute is invaluable because we have some high-money guys on our team now and we have free agents coming up every year — this year, next year, the year after. You never know how that’s going to go, so we have to continually have new talent in the pipeline.”
In addition to Allen, the Celtics also worked out Billy Preston (who left Kansas and played a year of pro with BC Igokea of Bosnia), Oklahoma State’s Jeffrey Carroll, Louisville’s Deng Adel, TCU’s Kenrich Williams, and Allonzo Trier of Arizona.
