10 best draft choices by the Celtics since 1990

Paul Pierce ranks second in Celtics team history for career scoring. [Image Source: Flickr | Trent Gillespie]
Paul Pierce ranks second in Celtics team history for career scoring. [Image Source: Flickr | Trent Gillespie]

In 1998, the Celtics selected their franchise's second all-time leading scorer in Paul Pierce.

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The Boston Celtics are, of course, one of the most storied franchises in all of sports. The days of Bill Russell and Larry Bird brought the team many championships.

The team did have a 22-year dry spell, for titles, from 1986 until the Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen-led team of 2008 was able to take home the championship.

While the team hasn't necessarily drafted a lot of superstars over the past few decades, they did at least draft one who will surely be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Here are the Celtics' 10 best draft choices since 1990. As a subjective list, the order and the players on it could surely be debated.

In order to make the list, the player must have been actually drafted by the team (Rajon Rondo was actually selected by the Phoenix Suns before being shipped to the Celtics in a draft-day deal). Only impact to the Celtics was taken into account (players such as Joe Johnson and Chauncey Billups did much of their career work after leaving Boston). It's also not exactly a list of the top-10 players drafted by the Celtics since 1990, as where the player was drafted could influence where they ended up on the list (a 25th overall pick who had about as much impact as a seventh overall pick will end up higher on the list). The team's draft picks were taken from Basketball-Reference.

1

Paul Pierce - 1st round, 10th overall (1998)

In 15 seasons with Boston, Pierce was a 10-time All-Star, scored 24,021 points (second only behind John Havlicek in franchise history), and won the NBA Championship in 2008.

2

Antoine Walker - 1st round, 6th overall (1996)

In 552 career games with the Celtics, Walker was named to three-All Star teams while totaling 11,386 points, 4.782 rebounds, and 2,266 assists.

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