Teams eyeing Celtics draft-n-stash players

Everyone wants the Celtics trade assets but few have the kind of star that will demand the Nets picks. So smaller deals may require differet trade assets. The Celtics also have future picks from the Clippers and Griz as well as their own future picks. That isn’t the end of their stash though.

The Celtics own the draft rights to 3 players that they drafted this summer who haven’t played in the NBA (but are still developing). The Celtics could include any of them as sweeteners in a trade at the deadline. From the sounds of it, other teams are interested.

per Sean Deveney

“They did a nice job of getting guys they could develop, and if you know you can’t get the big picks they have this year or next year, the players they took last year, that is where you can get a lot of value,” one general manager told Sporting News.

One GM thought Ante Zizic would have been a top 10 pick this year if he had taken his name out of the draft last year (he ended up being the 23rd pick).

Guerschon Yabusele is seen as a tweener but that isn’t quite the dirty word it has been in the past.

“He is built sort of like Jae Crowder, he is big up top and is a physical player,” the international scout said. “But he has more offensive potential.”

Also named was Abdel Nader, the 58th pick last year, who’s putting up monster stat lines for the Maine Red Claws.

For the most part, draft picks become less valuable when they turn into actual players (because picks leave the choice of the prospect up to the acquiring team). But in some cases the players look better than the position that they were drafted in and become even more valuable.

Don’t be too surprised if one of these names is attached to a trade this month.