good article

[macdaddy]

Scouts views

By - SportingNews

An advance scout checks in on the improving Celtics:

People like to bash Antoine Walker, but he's had an immediate impact. From his first game back, it was clear that he's the leader of that team. He was calling huddles and yelling at players -- in a good way. Walker has a great effect on Paul Pierce, too, who clearly struggled being the face of the franchise. I believe the Celtics think they can re-sign Walker on the cheap and still have money to sign another franchise-type player this year or down the road. ...

If the '04 draft was redone today, the player who would make the biggest jump is the Celtics' Al Jefferson, the 15th pick. Do you think Robert Swift (12th) would be drafted ahead of him now? Or Rafael Araujo (ninth)? I've even heard some people say they'd take Jefferson before Dwight Howard, but I'm not buying that. Jefferson has shown more consistency than some of the other rookies, but one or two great games doesn't mean he's going to be a star. Howard, at least, has been playing all season and is averaging nearly a double double. ...

I do think Jefferson can coexist with Walker. They're different players. Jefferson is a low-post scorer. Antoine can play some small forward. ...

Delonte West is a good example of how people can get too excited about rookies. He was great in a game against Phoenix, but I've seen him on other nights when he couldn't even dribble the ball up the court.

[Nicholasp27]

yes, al would jump

but so would smoove, who was taken lower than al...

[CBAreject]

would we still snatch Chill at the 6, nickyp?

If everyone knew what we know now, if the same players were on the board, I'd probably have taken Smoove at the 6. I'm very happy with the way things worked out, though.

If I didn't take Smoove, I'd look at, in order:

Jefferson, Childress, Deng, Iguodala.

[Nicholasp27]

if everyone knew what they knew now, we wouldn't have been able to get both smoove and chill...we woulda gotten one of them and then whoever is currently the 17th best rookie thus far...i'm glad everyone didn't know what we know now...bk is better at picking talent than that