Celtics Draft PC’s Brooks At #25 Then Trade Him To New Jersey
Friday, June 24, 2011
Marshon Brooks is a New Jersey Net. For about 3 minutes he was a Boston Celtic, but is now a New Jersey Net.
As disappointing as the 2010-2011 season was for the Providence College men’s basketball team, Brooks had a stellar senior season averaging 24.6 points per game.
Thursday night, Brooks was rewarded for that stellar showing by getting selected with the 25th overall pick in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Celtics. He was then promptly traded to the New Jersey Nets by Boston for the rights to JaJuan Johnson (who was selected 27th overall) a 6'-10" forward out of Purdue and a future second round pick.
The rap on Brooks is that he paid very little attention to defense at PC. Can you blame him? When the head coach places no emphasis on it, no one is going to play it. That is exactly what happened to the Friars on Keno Davis’ watch.
But Brooks deserves a lot of credit.
First, he excelled on a dismal team. While some players might succumb to the malaise that engulfed the program, Brooks rose above it.
Who will forget his 52-point performance at the Dunk against Notre Dame? How about the 43 he put on Georgetown at the Verizon Center?
Brooks also deserves a lot of credit for working hard to prepare for his individual workouts with NBA teams. It was there that he raised his stock from being a likely second round pick to a first-rounder.
Brooks’ size, skill and measurables were too tantalizing for the Celtics (actually the Nets) to pass on. And if they didn’t take him in the first round, another team likely would have.
Boston has been in search for depth at the 2-guard position behind Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Brooks could have given them that depth. However, the Celtics' more pressing need was for a big man and they are certainly hoping that Johnson may be ready to log a few minutes in the low post as early as this season.
Brooks was one of those “diamonds in the rough” recruited to PC by former head coach Tim Welsh and his staff, much like Ryan Gomes who, ironically enough, was also drafted by the Celtics.
It is those types of players that new head coach Ed Cooley and his staff must identify and land if this program is to compete in the middle of the pack or upper echelon of the Big East Conference.
But for now, we celebrate Marshon Brooks and his great accomplishment of earning a spot in the first round of the 2011 NBA Draft. He deserves our praise.
NOTES:
-It would have been a short trip up I-95 for Brooks. It's only about 50 miles from Providence College to the TD Garden. Instead he'll head to exit 16W off the Jersey Turnpike which is about 180 miles from PC.
-Boston still has a gaping hole at center with Jermaine O'Neal being the only big man under contract heading into next season.
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