Most of the attention paid to the Boston Celtics at the moment is on how president of basketball operations Brad Stevens will orchestrate trades to trim the team’s payroll below the second apron.
But there’s still an NBA draft for Stevens and the Celtics to be ready for at the end of this month.
The Celtics own the No. 28 and No. 32 picks in this year’s draft and they might be eyeing an All-SEC guard with one of those selections.
The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach reported that the Celtics hosted Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier for a workout Wednesday. Lanier is viewed as one of the premier shooters in the draft class after knocking down 40.2% of his 3-point attempts in his college career.
The 6-foot-5, 207-pound Lanier spent the first four seasons in college playing for North Florida in the Atlantic Sun Conference and he had no problem playing up to the competition level with Tennessee last season. Lanier averaged 18 points to go along with 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists while shooting 39.5% from deep in his only season with the Volunteers. His tremendous production earned him SEC Newcomer of the Year honors.
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Lanier’s perhaps best performance with Tennessee came in a road win over Texas A&M when he poured in a season-high 30 points and hit 8-of-13 shots from beyond the arc.
Draft experts predict Lanier as a second-round pick and it feels like he has a skillset that the Celtics would covet.
