The Boston Celtics have won a record 18 NBA championships, the most successful franchise in the league’s history, and in fact they are the reigning NBA champions, winning banner 18 just last season. But the Celtics’ long-term success has not been an accident. Those titles, won over an eight-decade span, were built on the back of a long series of stunning and incredibly skillful trades and other personnel moves.
Those moves started in 1956 when the team’s coach and general manager Red Auerbach, believing that the St. Louis Hawks â then the southernmost team in the NBA â would be reluctant to draft an African-American player, traded Ed Macauley, who became an NBA Hall of Famer, and Cliff Hagan, who was also later inducted into the Hall, for Bill Russell.
Russell became the foundation of the Celtics dynasty, winning 11 championships in his 13-year career.
How Celtics Got Bird, McHale, Tatum Etc.
In 1978, Auerbach and the Celtics shrewdly used the sixth overall pick to take a small forward from Indiana State who due to a loophole in what were then the NBA’s rules on draft eligibility, became available in the draft even though he fully intended to play another year in college. That forward was named Larry Bird, and a year later he joined the Celtics rather than re-enter the draft, going on to win three more titles for Boston.
In 1980, Auerbach traded the No. 1 and No. 13 picks to the Golden State Warriors for a lightly-regarded center named Robert Parish and the No. 3 draft pick that year. The Warriors used the No. 1 pick to take Joe Barry Carroll while the Celtics used the third pick to take Minnesota power forward Kevin McHale. Parish, Bird and McHale formed a “Big Three” that made the Celtics of the 1980s three-time champions.
In 2013, Danny Ainge was Celtics president. He traded two beloved, but aging, Celtics superstars, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett (plus a couple of lesser players) to the Brooklyn Nets for a raft of draft picks that included the selections in 2016 and 2017 that became California small forward Jaylen Brown and Duke power forward Jayson Tatum â the core of the team that brought the Celtics their 18th title.
The list of savvy Celtics acquisitions continues, and now longtime NBA expert and media personality Bill Simmons â founder of The Ringer â has predicted another Celtics coup. The Celtics, Simmons predicted in a podcast earlier this week, will work out a clever way to bring 18-year-old Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, the consensus favorite to become the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick in 2025 â to Boston.
Prediction: Next Celtics Coup Will be Signing Cooper Flagg
But the Celtics are one of the best teams in the NBA once again, and are generally considered favorites to win the title again. So how do they get Flagg?
There’s a catch, according to Simmons. The No. 1 pick will likely go to the Utah Jazz or Washington Wizards, who are co-favorites to win the NBA draft lottery. The Celtics will not be landing the Duke superstar â who also just happens to be a native of Newport, Maine, meaning the the Celtics are his “home” team â in the draft.
Instead, they will have to wait until his rookie contract expires, when Flagg is 24 â and it will be his mother, Kelly â herself a former college women’s basketball standout â who encourages him to sign with the Celtics. At least, that’s what Simmons says.
“I’m counting on Kelly Flagg, who’s a massive, gigantic Celtics fan,” Simmons said on the Ringer podcast. “Celtics are a team that she loves, very very much. We have never seen somebody come into the NBA Draft and just play out their rookie contract… Five years just plays with whoever drafts him. Jumps right to the Celtics by age 24. We’re waiting for him; we’re gonna have the cap space ready; we got a new owner. Come home, come home, Cooper.”
If the Celtics do manage to land Flagg after his first five years in the NBA, they will be acquiring him with his best years ahead of him â statistically speaking. According to an empirical analysis at Bryant University, the peak performance years for NBA players come between the ages of 27 and 31.
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