Celtics Draft Night | Round 2 Recap

Celtics Draft Night | Round 2 Recap

making every big play for the Cs [Music] today get what a play byard watch him die for the ball right here look at this hustle KN welcome in another episode of first to the floor Ben valis here thank you for joining us hope you’re doing well day two of the NBA draft the second round has concluded and our guy Brad Stevens made another pick no multitude of trades no bellich checking just played it straight up youd love to see it here to talk all about it with us is Wayne spoony spoony how you going man you know Ben uh the U US men’s national soccer team just lost to Panama about three minutes before we jumped on so that sucked yeah well we were down to 10 men in the 18th minute so we almost pulled out a draw we did not very bad but as you know the world’s number one purveyor of Anton Watson always been a huge longtime fan of Anton Watson I definitely didn’t find out who he was at approximately 6:30 p.m. this evening uh but so yeah man I’m looking forward to it two two draft picks been two it’s beautiful two future Hall of Famers or at least Summer League Hall of Famers very much looking forward to evaluating these two picks in person in a few weeks time in Las Vegas but look let’s just get to today’s pick at pick number 54 the Celtics select Anton Watson if you’re watching on YouTube here we’ve got some highlights running as we talk over this pick is a 23-year-old forward bigman from Gonzaga 68 225 I know we were just talking before we went live here spoony about trying to find the true height of anon Watson here given did I just call him Anon Walker a second ago if I did I apologize um Anon Watson currently listed at 6’8 but uh he looks so much bigger in these highlights that we’re seeing here spoony he shot 41.2% from three last year on 14.5 points per game seven boards and 2.6 assists per game but his college career three-point average is just 30% so the shooting is a is a recent development uh spoony what are your sort of overall thoughts on Anon Watson here yeah so he’s he they’re playing Purdue in these highlights and I’m trying to like catch him next to Zach Edy who’s like legitimately 7 foot4 and he does not look that much smaller than Zach so like I do not believe that 6’8 I wonder if it was when he was a freshman or a sophomore and he’s grown a little bit because he does not look just two in taller than uh Baylor I’m blanking on his name what is it Shan thank you um he he looks huge out there man and I it seems like he’s got a pretty interesting selection of skills he looks like he’s a good screen Setter from what I’ve watched which is a which is just really important to do it’s such an underrated skill um my my concern with him is one yeah is the shooting reel but it seems his catch and shoot shot looks just fine and that’s all he needs to be able to do we don’t need him taking pull-ups uh and and two is he one of those guys who’s like a c at everything like he’s just like he’s good at everything in college but which means he’s not good at anything in the NBA if that makes sense like he’s a jack of all trades master of none and he’s just not good enough at any one thing to really carve out a role in the NBA yeah interesting whereas shyan like clearly he has at least one Elite NBA skill set with his shooting there so interesting to see what happens here with Anton wats like the fact of the matter is he probably won’t see the floor for the Boston Celtics like primary team at all this year he’s an older play though so it’s interesting to to draft someone with that sort of short-term road map to to play them predominantly in Maine all year but he’s going to be 24 in October so developmentally at least from a physical standpoint you have to imagine the ceiling is is close to being reached there but Brad Stevens said in his post-draft presser tonight uh what did he say Brad Steven said he thinks he believes in uh Anon Watson’s shooting even more than Watson does quote I want him to come in here with the mindset of Let it Fly like he’s never let it fly before which is just an awesome green light which I don’t know if that will Cascade down to Joe moua’s coaching staff but um still you love to hear it from from Brad Stevens um I’ve copy pasted the S Vini uh evaluation of of anon Watson here he goes on to say Anon Watson is one of my sneaky favorites in this draft class and I have a two-way grade on him I think he can defend within an NBA scheme right away and has potential to add a lot of value on that end of the court if his offense improves enough to keep him on the floor he’s switchable and long plus has great strength and good hip flexibility to stay on balance in his space his help defense is sharp and he is a good scramble Defender offensively I don’t love his skill package even if he maintains his ability to cut and finish around the rim shooting is the key for here says San Vini there are some signs of Watson becoming a capable shooter as he made 41% on limited attempts this year but it’s hard to buy into his jumper becoming a consistent NBA weapon given that he turns 24 this year and has always been a low volume attempter he goes on to say and to finish up the evaluation here if he can improve his shooting to the point where he consistently hits Corner 3es his defense may be valuable enough to stick in the NBA that will take some time for his jumper to come around still I’d be willing to bet a two-way deal on expedite that process because if it does Watson has some value in the NBA he look yeah he looks comfortable to me offensively just from like a ball handling uh handoff game type of stuff where you can use him in a lot of different ways pick and pop pick and roll um and so one one thing I noticed in the stats that I think is really encouraging he had a career high usage rate this year and a career low turnover percentage which is like when those two things start splitting away that’s just really encouraging like you’re getting more of the ball and you’re turning it over less and he has been absurdly efficient basically his entire career since he started playing regular minutes in a sophomore season 620 true shooting percentage this year was 627 last year had a little dip uh and then it was 650 in his sophomore season so he’s a great Rim finisher apparently and I wonder if sort of the lack of vertical ath like I don’t he doesn’t seem like a bad vertical athlete to me but I don’t know if he’s like NBA plus type vertical athlete so if The Rim finishing comes down a little bit it’s going to make that jumper even more important so that really appears to be the major thing for Watson yeah absolutely and I like what you said about how he he might be uh grade-wise a c in all sort of uh skill sets or skill points um and you know that’s not necessarily a good in terms he’s not coming into the league with an elite NBA skill but do you do you try and see if he can hit on one of those if he’s okay at absolutely everything can he be really good at one or two of those things like is that the thing that you’re sort of looking for in your evaluation of this player throughout summer league and uh and certainly throughout the upcoming season he’s going to have a lot of playing time I think in Maine uh to see if he can exhibit any of those skill sets but it was described as KC in his draft primer as an old Al Horford which I think means like today’s Horford skill set in a much younger body which is an interesting take but uh speaks to the heart of Celtics fans everywhere do you see any of old Al Horford in his game here with like the two minutes of highlights that we’ve seen yeah so I did I did do some some dedicated research before we got on so there was like a 50-minute YouTube video online and I watched maybe you know 15 20 minutes of it so obviously I’m an expert on his game uh I I think it’s sort of the flip side of offensively if you’re kind of a master of none that can be a bad thing but defensively that’s kind of a good like if you’re just average at everything defensively in a 6’8 6’9 body with a s foot wingspan that’s a that comes out as a plus Defender if you just like have no defensive weaknesses yeah maybe you’re not Jaylen Brown locking people down with the handle or you know Tatum breaking things up off ball like crazy but if you’re just like a good solid NBA Defender good solid Health Defender and can hit the glass um that’s a good thing it’s the offensively where you get concerned about like well what the hell is he going to do out there um so I I think the defensive floor being like hey this guy’s probably not going to suck on that end and might be like incredibly good makes him a really good bet especially again it really just keeps coming back to the the shooting being real and I think Eric Weiss in the chat here said uh his role had a lot to do with his shot profile and yeah he only took 1.5 threes a game this year um and yeah Gonzaga used him it looked like as a kind of a weak side dunker spot dude or setting the pick setting the screen on the pick and roll and getting downhill or running dribble handoffs and getting downhill as the rle man with the occasional pop so I mean I it’s encouraging his shot looks solid to me like he’s nice and square it looks really clean yeah yeah absolutely good form so um look it’s the 54th pick right like the fact that you can imagine this guy has an NBA role I think is a good thing I can see him hoisting the lario B at the end of the year or whatever the summer league equivalent of that trophy is um yeah Jake Eisenberg was talking about in the Celtics blog playback stream today live during the draft and I think yesterday on the round one recap with our mate Eric Weiss about how Brad’s like foundation for a player that he’d like to draft is shooting with size and you can look at that with Sam Hower um certainly with bayor shyan the name I just lost the name in my mind as well there for a second spony with bayor shyan who’s like 66 180 pounds like definitely not a small player by any any means and now here with um Anton Watson at the very least is’s a big enough guy who hopefully can be taught to defend and and definitely seems to be from his draft profile has a good mindset as far as like his onc court awareness and he can shoot as well so you start from that Brad Brad Stevens like favorite player foundation and you look developmentally to build up from there so you love to see a bit of consistency coming out of the draft after years of like are we going to draft anyone at all are we going to trade all the picks like what’s happening we don’t really have any like sample size to to formulate an opinion on on Brad Stevens as a player drafter and now we’re starting to develop enough sample size where we can start to see a pattern here which I think is pretty cool do you have any thoughts on bayor shyan I know we got the full breakdown from Jake and Eric Weiss yesterday and if you haven’t heard that podcast it’s up on our YouTube channel as well as Apple podcast Spotify everywhere go and listen to that cuz that’s a really depth analysis of that Pi but spon you’re you’re a bit of a college guy any thoughts on on the shyan pick I have a big 12 guy and uh kraton’s in the Big East so I and I just forgot his name so I don’t want to act like I’m an expert although I crash coursed him today I looked into him a ton real quick one thing we don’t talk about with Danny’s drafting he took Romeo Langford and uh Aaron n Smith and back-to-back drafts both of those dudes had serious injuries the year before they were drafted like that’s a Wild Man move n Smith only played like 15 games and Langford was like had a broken wrist that he was playing with I never really thought about that but what a insane thing to do just like yeah these guys were hurt as let’s draft them uh but anyway that’s totally unrelated shyon I I think like you know I don’t really have a ton to add that Eric and Jake didn’t cover and yeah I was an excellent podcast that they had last night it just seems to me like I said it on the stream it’s it’s kind of a boring pick which is totally fine when you’re the defending champs you want boring players who can slot into a pretty clear NBA role um and like shyan I think is kind of a sturdy dude like you know he’s not built like a linebacker or anything but he just seems tough he’s got like the football player background um his shot is good it’s good it’s grsh but it’s not like Sam Hower I’m at 43% % for my career uh in college like he shot 38% this year and 36% the year before he takes some absolute dog shots I was saying to Jake on The Stream earlier today on the playback like he is the dude where it’s like there’s 4 seconds on the shot clock and he’s begging for the ball so he can take the most ridiculous shot possible it’s like oh good I got it I’m 30 feet out I can’t wait to let this thing fly so I think that’s definitely got um something to do with it his shot is is kind of little little wonky looking I I don’t know how to describe it but it’s almost like he like really flicks it at the end or something um which is a little strange but it’s you know it goes in it’s repeatable I don’t think there’s anything particularly ugly about it and just like Lefty Strokes can be a little weird for some reason it’s like my mind can’t comprehend the wrong hand shooting the ball or something but um yeah and he just he just you know dribble pass shoot guy uh decent size uh and you know I wouldn’t be shocked if he isn’t an NBA player though like from the defensive standpoint like maybe he just can’t stay in front of anybody and then at that point it’s like okay well your shooting’s never going to make up for that in our system so I don’t know Ben what are your thoughts about him yeah know you pretty much nailed it it it’s sort of the things aside from the shooting that stand out to me the the many evaluations that he’s just like this heady player and you can look at his successful High School quarterbacking career as like an extension of that but the fact that he’s like a solid rebounder for his side a great as and just a great for theame these are of the traits that you know aside from like a really obvious Elite skill set that are compatible with any any um system any franchise but particularly Joe moua who’s so mindset focused and so mindset driven and has spent the last two seasons absolutely drilling uh those qualities into his team uh from what we read about shyan here he’s very compatible in the mindset sense as well with some of those additional intangible qualities as well so I’m to see him either of these players actually before I get to this question just to address a comment in the chat Anon Watson not Anon Walker last year when we traded for Drew holiday I think I called him Drew bledo about 20 times before I finally got used to it I’m going through a a similar adjustment period I am an idiot so I do apologize for that Anon Watson thank you Lucas in the chat um are either of these players better than Jordan Walsh is currently in your opinion uh so man Walsh she’s really raw but he has sort of like a an electric athleticism that I think can be kind of gamechanging in a way that neither of these guys have I I would say I think shyman is probably like if you’re like okay we need somebody to play 10 minutes for two weeks I think the nod is going to shyan right now I wonder if that’s different by the end of the season but um you know Antoine Walker he was a great power forward I can’t believe we drafted him again uh but no I don’t I don’t I I don’t know with Watson man uh I like he’s he’s 24 and Walsh she’s 20 right like I don’t think it’s a crime to say you know Watson’s like a better basketball player than walshy is right this second and but Walsh has the potential to blow past both of them um which is why I think we love him and why he’s so tantalizing um and I think it’ll happen quick like he’ll just figure it out the shot will just start going in and it’ll be like oh now that guard and now I can like you know drive a close out wow this makes the game so much easier um and but W’s pretty erratic defensively right now like he’s a little all over the place yeah yeah the irony of how how lost he gets on defense given like his his defensive um how how um his defensive skill set was highlight before being drafted and how lost he gets at least in the team schematic defensive standpoint like you know one-on-one he’s an excellently effective Defender I think you can see that admittedly in garbage time but certainly playing in Maine as well but but yeah welshire gets completely lost from like a team rotational defense standpoint despite um you know his defensive prow so it’s going to be interesting to see how like a year I don’t know like studying abroad if you will like studying under the tutelage of a championship NBA team will affect his sort of onc Court mindset and placement and things like that and whether that gives him a one up on these guys who haven’t played an NBA game yet but you would have certainly imagined the maturity uh and just the sort of added length of of their careers with these two guys drafted in the last 24 hours for the Seas is going to be an advantage to them against W yeah yeah these dudes are like Jason Tatum’s age you know what I mean like they’re a year younger than Jason Tatum so DJ Daniel in the chat love Walsh but he’ll never play a meaningful minute for the Celtics that’s the exact same stuff people were saying when we drafted pton Pritchard I remember the Reddit being like Oh Maine got its new starting point guard like what is Danny thinking this is the worst draft pick of all time like you you just can’t make declarations like that and I I get it man like you we like to go out on a limb it’s draft time so respected I’m not like trying to go at you or anything I’m just saying I I don’t think you can count that out like he’s clearly got physical tools and he’s clearly got kind of an interesting skill set so I I was wondering like your thoughts on the approach because last year I think we were all expecting Brad to go like junior senior upper classman who’s ready to play and he went the complete opposite I think watch like the second or third youngest guy um or you like do you un like I guess it’s just strange to me that now he’s like completely flipped it and now he’s going for for like two fifth year seniors it’s kind of weird right yeah we’re so hamstrung by the CBA and being up against that that second apron that there’s just like nothing we can do from a player acquisition standpoint and so then you’re like okay we we may need to lean into the deeper portions of our roster at some point throughout the course of this season if we get to that point when we do have to cross that bridge do we want upper classman more mature aged players who have some sort of head on their shoulders and some idea how to to play like fundamentally game of basketball or do we want that 18 19y old walshy style upside swing and the answer is is clearly the former you want someone who’s maybe theoretically at least somewhat more reliable which is where I guess the shyan types of picks come into play I think that if we are having to lean I mean I know that if we are having to lean on those guys too heavily at some points throughout the regular season we’ve probably got bigger problems to worry about I do Wonder with KP like he’s going to be out five or six months now after that surgery apparently um do we see I don’t know at least a trial run of Watson at some point early in the regular season um depending on how we end up building out our big man depth but yeah to answer your question I think the approach is very much more like unfortunately we may need to rely on these guys at some point so let’s make sure they’re all grown up and kind of know what they’re all about yeah and and I think contractually as well right like if these guys are good you know if it it’s going to take waly another two or three years but if he’s good in the last year of his rookie deal it’s like well now we can’t afford them right whereas these guys it’s like okay maybe their rookie Year’s not great but they’re probably either going to be good their second year or never going to be good um so you get essentially their prime years on a rookie scale contract and then you know it’s like okay well we’re not going to give you that big second contract but thanks for three years of good role player play at you know $3 million a year yeah whereas walie it’s like if he comes good it’s almost like we have he’s just going to be really expensive like we have to pay more money to get his prime years than we would with these guys so I think that I think the mixed approach makes a lot of sense like yeah I I wonder if Brad’s just like I’ve got my board like age is a factor but you know I’m balancing all these other things Jordan Walsh was the top of my board at that pick um and you know it was shyman this year at 30 and it was Anton Watson at 54 and that’s like I’m just following my board but cuz I don’t think he cares out fit cuz like he’s just drafting Wings maybe this is three Wings in a row yeah who can all shoot well wal she not really but well his shots coming along in main there at least it’s definitely improved throughout the season but yeah in the NBA he he can’t really throw anything in the ocean um but you know time will tell to see how that develops is it fair to say that walhi still has the highest ceiling with with admittedly the little that we know about all all two of these recent acquisitions is fair to say well she still has the highest upside yeah I think so just from like you know sealing a lot of is just like how athletic are you and then can you put can you build skills on top of that athleticism um obviously there’s more to it like some guys just see and feel the game better than other dudes and that’s not totally a teachable skill um but I think just like wal she’s pure athleticism and he is like what’s his wingspan like 71 72 yeah Anton Watson’s like two inches taller than him an inch and a half taller than him and it’s seven foot wingspan so like wal she probably has the same standing reach so he’s just a freak athletically man and that’s and he shown the ability to see the court like to read the game to make correct decisions like we were kind of meing but he made the right play when he’s out there playing with like SP Muk and you know Pritchard putting up 10 shots in five minutes but he’s while she’s like I’ll drive this clothes out then I’ll kick it next you know or like quick swing let me set this screen and it’s like that’s the you want to see from him late in games and I think he understands how to play basketball which is great with that combo of athleticism it’s just like game’s just a little too fast for him right now you know yeah I fully agree and I all of that said I hope that he like puts his head down and tries to like get his a little bit in summer league I know it’s that’s a selfish desire of mine as a fan cuz we want him ideally to play the right way uh quote unquote but I want to see him get his this summer league I can’t wait to see that in person uh couple of closing points very quickly shter show tonight but look whatever your opinion is on the Brony James thing like the supposed netism whether or not developmentally well I mean w made some good points that like the league is kind of rifled nepotism and this is just an instance of that happening on a very public stage which I thought was a Fair Point um but I also think it’s like pretty cool like the first ever father son Duo to be in the league at the same time regardless of the circumstances and they are kind of shady and the whole um Rich Paul telling teams not to draft bronny James if they do he’ll go play in Australia meanwhile as an Australian resident I’m like please let’s see that happen i’ would love for Brony James to come down here and play some hoop in the NBL um but just curious to hear your thoughts spoon it’s kind of a silly situation especially like in our world we’ve just won the title we’ve drafted all these guys who will probably barely see the court if at all this whole season we’re focused on Banner 19 meanwhile there’s all this kind of going on with the Lakers just curious to hear your thoughts meanwhile the Lakers are a clown show dude this is ridiculous like like just let him hit free agency and sign him on a two-way like you’re blow I get it’s the 55th pick it probably doesn’t matter but it’s just indicative of the fact that LeBron completely controls that entire organization and he’s probably going to be an owner once he retires of it yeah it it’s ridiculous like I get that nepotism runs rampant and I’m pretty sure Jaylen brunson’s dad got a job with the Knicks right before he signed there so like yeah it happens we’ve never seen it happen in the draft before have we I mean did D Pi his son actually can’t remember CU I was D leaving the coach of the Clippers when they picked Luke or uh Mike I can’t or Golden State oh I think you went to Golden State he might have been he might have picked his son now that I think about it and look hey anytime you’re following Mike dun leevy Senor that’s not a good sign he’s not exactly the beacon of well-run organization so I just it’s just so classic LA and I knew it once we didn’t take him I was like oh they’re absolutely drafting him and I guess it’s a cool story if it if it were any other father I would be all for it and think it’s awesome but it’s LeBron so yeah I can’t help but hate it good luck to the kid good luck to Bron because like there’s a lot of under yeah and he’s under this massive cloud of uh mostly formulated by his old man and I just hope that he can find a you know a Groove for himself and carat a role for himself and be successful in his own right um because just as a human being you kind of want that uh for for anyone but another interesting point to wrap up the show here and to wrap up the second round of the draft Jonathan gavone had this on on ESPN I guess on Kyle filipowski quote NBA teams are talking about the fact that they had question marks about his girlfriend being so much older than him why was he estranged from his family because of this whole situation and apparently he doesn’t talk to his parents or his brother it’s a very odd situation there was talk about uh being taken hostage by Mormons and of course and he’s very appropriately drafted by Danny a into the Utah Jazz there Philip psky is a guy that I allowed myself to get very high on in the 24 hours leading up to the draft skill setwise I think there was no question that he would have been a really good fit for the Celtics and really any other NBA team and then we hear this story come out a little bit we’re bringing this up cuz it’s like it’s a bit of a dry show we don’t have a lot of content to run with today but it is interesting and unique that this sort of story line would emerge right as that the players drafted so I don’t know if you don’t have any thoughts on this spoon I I would completely forgive you but just curious to hear your take yeah at the risk of getting cancelled uh cuz I feel like I’m towing a line here but isn’t it strange like assuming you know his brother I saw some tweets from his brother saying like he was groomed by this woman like isn’t it kind of weird to like hold that against like he’s the victim you know and we’re like holding that against him in the NBA draft like that’s kind of not his fault if he was like brain as a child like what are we doing here NBA that’s pretty that’s pretty freaking harsh I think so uh I don’t know man that this just bizarre it’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before in the NBA draft Yeah so we’ll be keeping an eye on that because it’s a it’s a unique uh set of circumstances if nothing else and the Tatum tweet yesterday being like a lot of teams are going to regret passing on this guy I think just adds a a little bit of a Celtic flavor to it all but um yeah again like best wishes to the kid himself I that he finds a way to overcome that cuz that’s uh that’s pretty nasty but look we’re going to leave it there on that quick Ben we make fun of the Lakers one more time okay yes go ahead somebody might have been W tweeted it was like the second they drafted dton connect JJ reck started drawing pin down actions for him it’s oh the coach was coaching his player that he drafted action yeah it’s like the most simple action in basketball history it’s like what are we talking about here this is what’s news in LA right now it’s ridiculous sorry I just had to get that out no no I’m glad you brought that up it is it is ridiculous maybe he’s just recording future b roll for the next mind the game podcast when he’s fired halfway halfway through the year we’ll see but look we’ll leave it there that that’s going to do it for this one thank you so much for joining us we will be back early next week where there’ll be plenty to discuss there are a number of Trades around the league today as it stands we don’t know if canavis cwell Pope will be back with the Nuggets next year for example christas porzingis had his surgery we’ve got summer league to preview it simply does not stop around the league and especially here on the first of the floor YouTube channel so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any of these upcoming podcasts Wayne spoony love your work man until next time go selts I love the Celtics [Music]

The Boston Celtics drafted Anton Watson of Gonzaga with the 54th pick. Join us for a quick evaluation and video highlights of the Celtics’ latest acquisition. Plus, circling back on the Baylor Scheierman pick, and discussing whether any of these newly drafted players will actually play for the Celtics this year.

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