When the Boston Celtics used a portion of their limited interview slots at the NBA Draft Combine to speak with projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and likely top-10 selection Tre Johnson, it immediately raised eyebrows. Could Boston be plotting a bold move to trade up in the draft?
Not so fast.
While Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor initially reported the combine interviews, he also cautioned fans and analysts not to read too deeply into the move.
And on Monday, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens confirmed that the team’s decision to meet with top-tier prospects was strategic, but not indicative of any major plans to move up in the draft order.
“We can rank who we want to talk to and the people we know we can’t get in to work out is how we decide who we want to talk to at the combine,” Stevens said during his end-of-season media session, as relayed by Boston.com’s Khari A. Thompson. “Otherwise, we may never get to talk to them again.”
In other words, the Celtics are making efficient use of their limited access to high-end prospects, knowing full well that once the combine ends, players projected to go in the top 10 or top five likely won’t come in for private workouts with a team holding late first-round picks.
“The only people that will come in and work out for us are the people in our range, or maybe they’re at the bottom end of our range or whatever the case may be,” Stevens added.
Boston currently holds the 28th and 32nd overall selections in the 2025 NBA Draft – positions that put them well out of range for Flagg or Johnson without a major trade. Stevens acknowledged that the possibility of draft night “fireworks” is slim, though he didn’t entirely close the door.
“Will there be fireworks on draft night? I can’t imagine,” Stevens said. “But again, who knows? I wouldn’t guess with us, no.”
As O’Connor previously pointed out, NBA teams are allowed a limited number of formal interviews during the combine.
It made sense for the Celtics to use those slots on elite prospects they may never get another chance to speak with, rather than on players who are more realistically within their draft range and likely to come to Boston for individual workouts in the coming weeks.
So while the meetings with Flagg and Johnson certainly sparked intrigue, Stevens clarified they were about due diligence, not daring draft-day plans.
Draft Notes: Celtics, Flagg, NBA Comparables, McGlockton https://t.co/SB0SGXNwvQ pic.twitter.com/hxHa6aVCqI
— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) May 20, 2025
