The Boston Celtics have the No. 28 and No. 32 picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Duke Blue Devils basketball star Cooper Flagg will be way off the board by the time the Cs are selecting, but that’s not why the front office conducted interviews with the surefire No. 1 overall pick at the scouting combine.
As Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens notes, he may not get many chances to speak to Flagg before it’s considered tampering.
So he took advantage of the chance he got last week, even if a trade for the No. 1 overall pick from the Dallas Mavericks is likely off the table.
“The people we know we can't get in to work out are the people we talk to at the combine, or else we might never talk to them,” Stevens said, per the Boston Herald’s Zack Cox.
“I would guess that (Boston trading up for a very high pick) probably is not on the table.”
For the rest of Flagg’s career, he’ll be linked to Boston.
The homecoming angle is a potential goldmine, and Flagg becoming the next great after Jayson Tatum’s time at the top was potentially cut short by a tragic injury is the kind of amazing the NBA used to celebrate happening.
Good on Stevens for making the initial introduction.
It’s unclear how long he’ll be in charge, but Banner 18 should buy him plenty of time at the top of the organization as he figures out who to trade among Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, Sam Hauser, and others to sneak underneath the second tax apron.
If Stevens lasts beyond the length of Flagg’s rookie contract and extension, that introduction may be remembered a decade down the road.