Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins could be bound for the Boston Celtics this summer, which would thrill the team’s fans. Their prospective future boss doesn’t sound so pumped, though.
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said as long ago as last year’s draft night that he felt the 2014 NBA draft class was “top heavy.” Since then, his assessment of the group has gotten more and more critical. In a radio appearance on Friday, Ainge went so far as to say Parker, Wiggins and company are downright overrated.
“Yes, [it has been overrated] from the very beginning,” Ainge said on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “It’s just all hype. It’s a bunch of young kids out playing in AAU basketball and high school and making all sorts of assessments and then they watch them play on the real stages and they’re not quite as good.
“College is a big jump from high school and I think reality has hit. We see the potential in a lot of these guys, but they are certainly not LeBron [James] or [Kevin] Durant.”
It’s not much of an insult to tell a player he’s not James or Durant, the two best basketball players on the planet, but it’s a bit rough to call the incoming draft class overrated. The Celtics have two picks in the first round this year, so it stands to reason that they could have a couple of players from this “all hype” class on their roster next season.
