Sport
Why Celtics are Favourite To Win 2024 NBA Draft tittle
The Celtics are just hours away from their championship celebration after beating the Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The partying continued deep into the night as the C’s finally got back to the mountaintop by winning their 18th championship.
But the NBA schedule is relentless. While the Celtics organization will be busy celebrating this week, including the championship parade Friday, those in the front office are already locked into their next steps. That includes the NBA Draft next week, which will be a two-day event for the first time. The first round is set for June 26 while the second round will be the next day from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
According to NBA insider Adam Zagoria, the Celtics already hosted several prospects for workouts last weekend. The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach also reported a sleepless front office hosted more players. Expect more names to start trickling out the days leading up to the draft as the C’s have some decisions to make soon. They currently hold the No. 30 and No. 54 overall picks in the draft. The C’s will naturally pick in the latter stages of the draft considering their success from this past season.
Interestingly, if the Celtics don’t make any deals, this will be the first time Boston president Brad Stevens will make a first-round pick in his tenure. Over the past three drafts, he’s elected to trade away those picks in order to bolster the roster, bringing in guys like Al Horford and Derrick White. That’s been an intentional decision as the Celtics are in win-now mode. They also only have so much playing time to go around for young players who are still developing behind the scenes.
Notably, in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, it introduced a new rule in the second-round pick exception. It allows teams to sign their second-round picks without dipping into cap space or using mid-level exception. The Celtics signed rookie Jordan Walsh to such a contract last season as last year’s 38th overall pick spent a bulk of the season training up in the G League.