By Cody Lachance
The NBA is truly a superstar league, have no doubts about that.
LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and so on; the league is dominated by players who are not only basketball stars, but worldwide celebrities as well.
The Boston Celtics currently find themselves with no active player who is close to being considered a superstar. The team’s lone player who might be in this category is point guard Rajon Rondo, who is still healing from a torn ACL without a clear return date set.
The Celtics have been starting players who are nowhere near a superstar level, including Gerald Wallace, Courtney Lee and Jeff Green. This combination of players will not bring banner No. 18 to Boston anytime soon.
The NBA Draft is one of the only ways that a bad NBA team can improve their franchise in dramatic fashion. This year’s upcoming draft is already being described as one of the deepest, most talented drafts in recent history. Star freshmen like Kansas University forward Andrew Wiggins, Duke University forward Jabari Parker and Kentucky University forward Julius Randle are three of the top players looking to make immediate impacts on the NBA teams that draft them next summer.
The draft lottery determines the order of the draft, with teams with the most losses receiving the higher number of chances to get the top overall pick. The question for the Celtics is whether or not they set their team up in a position to have a bad record this year in order to give them a better shot at grabbing a top draft pick.
The concept of tanking in any sport in an attempt to grab a franchise cornerstone in the upcoming draft — evidenced recently by the battle for quarterback Andrew Luck in the NFL that became known as the “Suck for Luck” campaign three seasons ago — is a controversial one.
I believe this is the way Boston needs to go.
The Celtics can try to piece together deals to trade off some players and get more draft choices that could help add depth to their future team, hopefully centered around one of the top studs in NCAA basketball right now.
Although Rondo has been rumored in multiple trade deals, I believe that he can be a key piece in having this team become a dominant squad moving forward. If the Celtics can keep Rondo from coming back much before the end of the year, they could find themselves in a position to get a top pick while holding onto their All-Star point guard.
The NBA is one of the easiest leagues to go from a totally abysmal team to a potential championship contender. By snagging a premier, once-in-a-generation type player in the draft, the Celtics could find themselves become a contender for many years to come.
The Celtics should put themselves in a position to lose by trading away their decent players for draft picks or players who have potential but need extensive coaching and playing time. If the Celtics can find themselves a way to get a top pick, banner 18 might not be too far away from coming to the TD Bank Garden.