WALTHAM, Mass. — Austin Ainge gave reporters a peek behind the draft-workout curtain Tuesday.
His message was simple: Take everything he or any other team executive says over these next few weeks with a massive grain of salt.
“When you guys ask me questions about the guys, I say, like, one positive sentence about everybody,” the Celtics’ director of player personnel said after the team’s latest round of workouts. “Really, what else can I do? If I say anything negative, their agents will be mad at me, and if I say get too glowing, then you guys will, you know …”
So, where do teams look for truthful reviews of prospects’ workouts with other clubs?
“We ask the players,” Ainge said. “Obviously, the teams won’t tell us, so we ask, ‘Hey, where’d you work out last? Who was there? How’d they look?’ So we ask them. They’re allowed to tell the truth.”
But often times, they don’t, either.
“Sometimes, yeah, you’ve got to take that into consideration, right?” Ainge said. “They’re not going to say the guy they’re competing against is great.”
With all that said, let’s take a leap into some notes from Tuesday’s session:
— The ACC will be well-represented on draft night, as the conference produced a particularly strong batch of guards this season.
Two of them — Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan and Louisville’s Terry Rozier — were in attendance Tuesday, and both said having played against such strong college competition will help them in their transitions to the NBA.
“It helps a lot,” Hanlan said. “I’m seeing a lot of familiar faces throughout the Chicago combine, being matched up with (Notre Dame’s) Jerian Grant, Terry, a few other guys — a lot of guys from the ACC this year. Definitely playing in a conference with so many elite guards is definitely something I’m used to, and it translates good to these workouts.”
—Â Between Hanlan’s Canadian roots (he was raised outside of Ottawa) and his time at BC, he’s built a strong connection with the other major winter sport: hockey.
“I know a lot of NHL players, actually, coming from Canada and Boston College,” said Hanlan, who called ex-Eagle and current New York Rangers forward Kevin Hayes one of his best friends. “It’s a great school for hockey, and they have a lot of players that are already drafted. I had a few guys playing in the playoffs right now, so it’s definitely exciting.”
Hanlan was the ACC’s leading scorer this season, but he doubts he’d be able to replicate that kind of production with a puck.
“I’m not a big hockey player,” he said. “I can skate really well, but I don’t know about the scoring stuff.”
— Twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison played together at Kentucky, but with both declaring for the NBA draft, there’s a strong chance they could suit up for different teams this season. Andrew, who was present at Tuesday’s workout, said he and his brother would embrace the chance to shine on their own.
“It’s going to be fun, to be honest with you,” he said. “We’re both looking forward to showing the world what we can do without each other, and we’ll be all right as individuals.”
Andrew is the much more highly touted of the two. At No. 37 on DraftExpress’ Top 100 Prospects list, he’s ranked 41 spots ahead of Aaron, who’s likely to go undrafted.
“It’s funny, because he feels like he’s better than all those guys,” Andrew Harrison said. “So, it doesn’t really matter. He just wants to work out against them, and he’s enjoying the process, too.”
— James Young, a former college teammate of the Harrisons, struggled to crack the rotation during his rookie season with the Celtics. Head coach Brad Stevens hopes the 19-year-old will assert himself in summer league.
“The summer league will be a big thing for him,” Stevens said. “And certainly for Marcus (Smart), too, but I think for James to gain a lot of momentum heading into next year, I think the 20 days that we’re together from practice to the last game are important.”
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@celtics
