How Brad Stevens and Celtics are approaching the NBA Draft

How Brad Stevens and Celtics are approaching the NBA Draft originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

Brad Stevens is back in business after celebrating the Boston Celtics’ 18th championship.

The C’s president of basketball operations will resume office duties Wednesday night at the 2024 NBA Draft. Boston enters the event with the 30th and 54th overall picks.

Stevens has yet to be selected in the first round during his tenure as Boston’s general manager. However, it appears that there is a high chance that the trend will come to an end.

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“As far as choices go, if the right person is available at age 30, then we’ll take them,” Stevens said during his Tuesday press conference. “If we have some people that we think are still the right people, we’ll see what our options are and what kind of flexibility we have.

“I expect to pick a few choices. Whether they are in the squad or bidirectional, and investing in young players. also.”

As Stevens also noted during his press conference, the second apron makes it difficult for the Celtics to make trades. Second-apron teams cannot send money in a trade, aggregate contracts in a trade, receive back more money received than money sent in a trade, or use trade exceptions from prior years, according to the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement .

If the Celtics use their draft picks, whoever is selected will have a hard time making the roster. Boston is ready to return with virtually its entire championship roster. Oshae Brissett, Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman are the only C players currently set to test free agency.

The 2024 draft will be released on Wednesday at 8 pm ET.

You can watch Stevens’ full press conference below or on YouTube: