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**Premier** · 06-26-2005, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Ainge in position: Mulls options with 18th pick

By Steve Bulpett
Saturday, June 25, 2005 - Updated: 10:09 AM EST

Danny Ainge seemed perfectly happy yesterday to sit back and take what the NBA draft gives him at No. 18 Tuesday night.

But he's not satisfied.

The Celtics director of basketball operations confirmed he has made contact with the teams holding the top four positions in the dispersal (Milwaukee, Atlanta, Portland and New Orleans) hoping to land one of the four players he believes tops the field: Utah center Andrew Bogut, North Carolina forward Marvin Williams, and point guards Chris Paul of Wake Forest and Deron Williams of Illinois.

"Exploring,'' is the way Ainge characterized the calls. ``Probably not going to happen.''

Failing to move up would not be a disappointment, Ainge said.

"I am confident if we stay with the 18th pick that we will come away with a good player,'' he said.

Considering he was able to net Delonte West and Tony Allen at Nos. 24 and 25, respectively, and Justin Reed at No. 40 last June, Ainge hopes he'll be looking at decent prospects with the Celts' two second-round choices (50 and 53 overall) in this year's draft.
"I think the draft is very deep,'' he said. ``I sat down with a pad of paper a few days ago after talking to the agents. I realized that there are so many players in this draft, so I started to write down the players that I thought for sure would be drafted. When I got to 59 names, I realized I still had 50 left when there are only 60 players who are going to be drafted. Then that day I had five agents of European players that assured me that their guys were not going to be there when we picked at 18, and those were players I did not even have on my list yet. There are going to be 45 to 50 players that are going to be disappointed. Some good players are not going to get drafted.''

Despite the Celtics' youth, Ainge's feeling for now is to keep the first-round choice and absorb the guaranteed contract that comes with it.

"The thought process from me right now is to use the pick or to trade up by packaging the pick with someone to move up higher, which I don't really want to do unless I can get really high in the draft,'' he said. ``And the next idea would be to trade down for a future pick. I think the draft is deep enough that there is not much separation from the middle to the latter part in the draft. Those are my options.''

Judging by what could be available at No. 18, Ainge believes there ``might be five'' players he could take there who would be able to contribute on the court next season.
"There's a player that you might be able to get with the 30th pick in the draft that can help your team,'' he said, ``that if we pick him, he can play a role on our team. So, I think it's a little deeper than that.''

**whiterhino** · 06-26-2005, 03:18 PM

I don't see how he'd get that high unless it involved Paul Pierce but I LOVE Deron Williams unfortunately, I think the Hornets who are choosing 4th love him too.

aquaitious · 06-26-2005, 04:55 PM

The most interesting thing in that article, to me, is that Danny will probably get 4-7 more rookies for our Summer League team.

He thinks there will be 40-50 "good players" that will be disapointed. Hopefully we'll be able to steal one or two of those good ones.

**#1AntoineWalkerFan** · 06-26-2005, 08:53 PM

no chance of us gettin into the top 4...cant blame danny for trying tho

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