Some Insight into the Celtics Draft Strategy

There's a very good new basketball writer at the Courant, Desmond Conner. Today's column, Draft Or Trade, Celts Will Get Help is very interesting. In part;

They've held a couple of workouts for players who could help them right away.

Start with two-time national champion Joakim Noah of Florida and ACC rookie of the year Brandan Wright of North Carolina. The two big forwards worked out Monday morning at the team's practice facility.

Last week Noah's teammate, Corey Brewer, was there along with Florida State's Al Thornton, both talented wing types, though Thornton could play the power spot, too.

That was thought to be it in terms of who was coming in for personal workouts until Danny Ainge, the team's executive director of basketball operations, said Monday he is expecting to bring in Al Horford, another Florida big man, next week.

With the exception of Thornton, who played on some struggling teams, you're talking about guys who come from premier college programs and know how to win.

That's good, but there's more.

Some mock drafts have the Celtics taking Yi JianLian (pronounced YEE JE-ann LEE-ann), a mobile and athletic 7-foot, 240-pound player from China. He's intriguing to the Celtics. They were once believed to be enamored with him, but restrictions on his workouts - teams basically have to go where his workouts are to see him - could be an issue.

But a more fluid Yao Ming?

Over a two-day period last week after the predraft camp in Orlando, Fla., Ainge said teams, including the Celtics, saw about 35 players compete through four sessions each day, and he estimates that by the time the draft comes, he will have seen the top five players the team has ranked at each position. That includes Georgetown's Jeff Green, the Big East player of the year, whom Ainge is expected to go see as early as this week.

There's also a steamy trade rumor involving the Suns' Shawn Marion if the Celtics decide to give up the No.5 pick. The Matrix goes to Boston and Theo Ratliff and possibly Tony Allen or Delonte West to Phoenix? Wow. That would be a huge win-win for the Celtics. Imagine Marion with Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson. Marion is involved in other trade rumors - to Chicago or Minnesota - but getting Ainge to comment on a trade rumor is like trying to ask Osama Bin Laden for his cellphone number.

"I don't comment on trades," he said.