The Boston Celtics are extensively diagnosed as one of the most profitable franchises in NBA records with 17 NBA championships, the most in NBA history, as their largest piece of evidence. While it takes a extraordinary and beyond-intelligent enterprise to obtain such matters in the NBA, errors have been made along the way, whether thru the draft or through alternate over time. No NBA crew is ideal and the Boston Celtics are no exception.
The Worst Draft Mistakes In Boston Celtics History
1958 NBA Draft
Boston Celtics Selected: Bennie Swain, eighth Overall Pick
Better Available Pick: Hal Greer (14th Overall Pick)
Heading into the 1958-59 season, it used to be pretty clear that the Boston Celtics were all set at the shield role with Bob Cousy and Sam Jones making up their backcourt. For this reason, they decided to go with 6’8’’ power forward Bennie Swain out of Texas Southern. Unfortunately for Boston, Swain would play just one season in the NBA before calling it quits, averaging 4.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Hey, at least he ended it on a excessive notice as the Celtics commenced their streak of eight straight NBA titles that same season.
Although their backcourt used to be already solidified with Cousy and Jones, one cannot assist however surprise what could have been had the Celtics chosen guard Hal Greer who dropped to 14th to the Syracuse Nationals. Greer went on to have a Hall of Famer career with the organization, incomes 10 All-Star selections, seven All-NBA Team selections, and an NBA championship in 1967. If Boston had determined to go with Cousy and Greer in their backcourt while sliding Jones to small forward, the Celtics dynasty could have lasted lots longer than it did.
1975 NBA Draft
Boston Celtics Selected: Tom Boswell, seventeenth Overall Pick
Better Available Pick: Gus Williams (20th Overall Pick)
It would be nearly two a long time earlier than the Celtics swung and overlooked terribly in the NBA Draft. With their first-round resolution in 1975, the Celtics decided on 6’9’’ energy ahead Tom Boswell from the University of South Carolina. Boswell struggled to crack the Celtics rotation for the duration of his rookie season, taking part in in just 35 games for less than 8 minutes per recreation as the team went on to win the 1976 NBA title. Boswell would play two more seasons in Boston averaging 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
Boswell would go on to play 97 games in Denver and 61 games in Utah before determining to go foreign places to play in Italy in 1981. He did return to the Jazz briefly in 1983-84 for 38 video games and averaged simply 1.9 factors per game.
Just three selections after Boswell went to the Celtics, future NBA champion and All-Star Gus Williams was once drafted with the aid of the Golden State Warriors. Williams would be first rate with the Warriors however is universal for his days with the Seattle SuperSonics where he used to be a two-time All-Star and an NBA champion in 1979. In six seasons with the SuperSonics, Williams averaged 20.3 points, 6.0 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. His addition to the Celtics of the Eighties would have delivered even more firepower to their competition with the Lakers throughout the decade.
1976 NBA Draft
Boston Celtics Selected: Norm Cook, 16th Overall Pick
Better Available Pick: Alex English (23rd Overall Pick)
Even after winning the NBA championship in 1976, the Boston Celtics had the chance to add elite offensive gamers as soon as again in that summer’s draft. With their sixteenth ordinary selection, the Celtics decided on Norm Cook, a small ahead from the University of Kansas. Cook would go on to play a whole of 27 games in the NBA between 1977 and 1978 with the Celtics and Nuggets, averaging 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds per game. He hung up his shoes for right following the 1978 season.
Just a few picks down the board, Alex English was taken via the Milwaukee Bucks with their twenty third pick. However, even Milwaukee did not see the full achievable of English and traded him just two seasons into his career. It would no longer be till he arrived with the Denver Nuggets in 1980 that he would evolve into one of the game’s most dangerous scorers. From 1982 thru 1989, English poured in eight straight 2,000-point seasons with a scoring title and eight All-Star appearances to go along with them.
While he never used to be capable to capture an NBA championship, English made the Nuggets one of the most unsafe offensive teams in NBA history as he averaged 25.9 factors per game on 50.9% capturing in 11 whole seasons with the franchise.
1989 NBA Draft
Boston Celtics Selected: Michael Smith, thirteenth Overall Pick
Better Available Pick: Tim Hardaway Sr. (14th Overall Pick)
It would be any other decade earlier than the Celtics made their next costly draft mistake. In 1989, following having to watch their rival win any other NBA championship, the Celtics determined to go big as soon as more with power forward Michael Smith from BYU at 13th in the NBA Draft. It turns out that Smith would be a mid-first-round bust, playing just 112 video games in two seasons with Boston, averaging 4.9 points per game in simply nine minutes of action.
After he was finished in Boston, Smith would go on to play overseas in Italy and Spain before returning for 29 video games with the Clippers for the duration of the 1994-95 season.
Just one resolution after Smith was once taken, the Golden State Warriors took factor protect Tim Hardaway with their 14th universal pick. Now, the Celtics already had Dennis Johnson, who was once 35 at the time, and three backup factor guards. Unfortunately, they overlooked an chance to help groom Hardaway for the future at factor guard, a position they would warfare to fill at some point of the rest of the 1990s. Hardaway would emerge as a Hall of Famer with five All-Star alternatives and five All-NBA Team choices in 14 seasons with the Warriors, Heat, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Pacers.
