Celtics get 3rd pick in 2016 NBA Draft Lottery, Buddy Hield, trade both in play

Boston has the third pick in the NBA Draft. Now, will it keep it?

By James Herbert

May 17, 2016 at 9:18 pm ET • 1 min read

The NBA Draft Lottery is over, and the lottery balls gave the Boston Celtics the No. 3 pick on Tuesday. This is the result of their trade with the Brooklyn Nets in July 2013.

Back then, the Celtics traded Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry and D.J. White to the Nets for Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph, MarShon Brooks, Keith Bogans, three first-round picks and a pick swap. Since then, the Nets have totally collapsed and Boston general manager Danny Ainge has rebuilt his roster into a playoff team under the best young coach in the NBA, Brad Stevens.

Now, on top of the Celtics' returning talent and possible free-agent additions, Stevens will have a top-three pick to develop ... or will he? Ainge is known as an opportunistic executive, and he will undoubtedly explore the trade market. He already said publicly that he almost moved the pick for a star player at February's trade deadline.

For most teams, landing the third pick in this draft would be an unfortunate position to be in -- there appears to be a consensus that Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram will be off the board by then, and there's no clear-cut No. 3 choice. Buddy Hield out of Oklahoma will get some attention at this spot, though the Celtics already have a backcourt logjam -- would Ainge really take another guard with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, R.J. Hunter and James Young on the roster?

The most logical pick choice is Dragan Bender, the 7-foot-1 Croatian forward who has drawn not-completely-fair comparisons to Kristaps Porzingis. Ainge, though, brought up the possibility of trading the pick about 45 seconds into his post-lottery media availability, per CelticsHub's Brian Robb.

Whichever way the Celtics go, this is gravy. They do not need a transformative player, just another promising one to grow with their core. It's now on Ainge to figure out who that will be, or if there is more value in using the pick in a trade.