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Brad Stevens Discusses JD Davison Selection: 'All you have to do is turn on a couple of minutes of clips, and you can see the upside'
With the 53rd selection in this year's draft, the Celtics selected JD Davison, a six-foot-three guard from Alabama.
Davison is an explosive athlete, best known for his playmaking and consistently getting into the paint. However, he needs to make considerable strides as a shooter after converting only 30.1 percent of the 2.5 threes he attempted in his lone collegiate season. He also needs to cut down on turnovers after averaging three per game while with the Tide.
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President of basketball operations, Brad Stevens, said of Boston's focus at Thursday's draft, "tonight was about finding somebody that we could invest in; that we can put a lot of time into."
Regarding the Celtics' decision to select Davison, Stevens conveyed, "he’s a guy that we’ve seen all year long. Very young. Very explosive. That’s pretty obvious."
He later expressed, "all you have to do is turn on a couple of minutes of clips, and you can see the upside."
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And while Davison has plenty to work on, par for the course for someone transitioning to the highest level of basketball, especially as the 53rd of 58 selections, Stevens wanted to remind people the newest Celtic is "12 months removed from high school graduation. He's played one year of college basketball at a very high level."
Stevens added: "He has consistently competed, consistently carried himself well on the court, and again, the ability to get into the paint is a hard thing to do in this league."
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He also addressed Boston's decision to stand pat rather than moving up, potentially as high as late in the first round.
"The cost for moving up was just too much for where we are. Whether that was into the 20s or the 30s or even the low 40s."
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