2025 NBA Mock Draft: What would a trade up look like for Celtics?

2025 NBA Mock Draft: What would a trade up look like for Celtics? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

For the better part of Brad Stevens’ tenure as Boston Celtics president of basketball operations, draft picks have been a bit of an afterthought.

Stevens didn’t make a first-round pick in his first three years at the helm, preferring to utilize those assets to reshape the complementary pieces around the superstar tandem of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. That strategy delivered Boston to two NBA Finals appearances in three years, and helped the team raise Banner 18 in 2024.

But a new collective bargaining agreement is forcing teams to prioritize drafting and developing in order to piece together the complicated financial puzzle that comes with building around two big-ticket stars. Hitting on first-round picks has never felt more important for contending teams.

All of which has us pondering all of Boston’s potential pathways in the 2025 draft. Given the murky nature of the season ahead, might this be a good time for Stevens to flip the draft-day script and ponder shimmying up in the annual pick-a-palooza?

The case for Celtics trading up

The absence of Tatum as he rehabs from Achilles surgery could change Boston’s regular-season priorities. The development of younger talent should be a bigger emphasis than the past three seasons, when the Celtics were laser-focused on title pursuits.

In a quest to find low-cost talent to pair with whatever remains of this championship core, the Celtics could give beefed-up minutes to recent draftees like Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh, while also leaning heavily into any rookie they moved up to select.

Any expected growing pains are slightly offset by tempered expectations while Tatum is out, and the Celtics would embrace developing the players selected during the Stevens era.

The case against Celtics trading up

Much of what the Celtics do this summer will be steered by money.

The Celtics need to cut $20 million from next year’s payroll just to get off the punitive second apron, and they’d need to trim $20 million more to get below the luxury tax. Moving up in the draft slots a player at a higher annual salary.

What’s more, moving up would eliminate other swings of the bat, a risk given the crapshoot nature of picking outside the lottery.

How high can Celtics climb?

The Celtics currently own picks Nos. 28 and 32 in the 2025 NBA Draft. Unlike the NFL, there’s no widely-accepted NBA draft pick value chart, which makes it difficult to gauge just how high the Celtics might be able to climb if they packaged both their 2025 picks in hopes of shimmying up for a desired target.

Some old-school charts, like one created by ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, suggest Boston might be able to get into the low 20s. More recent attempts to establish draft value suggest Boston might only be able to climb a handful of spots.

For the purposes of this exercise, the Celtics are calling the Hawks, who are slotted at Nos. 13 and 22, with the goal of moving up six spots for a player who lingers on the board coming out of the lottery.

The Hawks slide back, content with what they got at 13 and now armed with additional swings of the bat.

Let’s get to the trade-centric mock:

1. Dallas Mavericks: Cooper Flagg, Duke

2. San Antonio Spurs: Dylan Harper, Rutgers

3. Philadelphia 76ers: VJ Edgecombe, Baylor

The Sixers wish this was the year they could move from No. 3 to No. 1, instead of 2017.

If we were Daryl Morey, we’d be moving the No. 3 pick this year for the best available veteran and crossing our fingers on Joel Embiid’s health next season. They’ll have another lottery pick next year if that doesn’t work out.