![Paul Pierce ranks second in Celtics team history for career scoring. [Image Source: Flickr | Trent Gillespie]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2019/5/30/660x290/b_502x220x82/paul-pierce-ranks-second-in-celtics-team-history-in-career-scoring-image-source-flickr-trent-gillespie_2271985.jpg "Paul Pierce ranks second in Celtics team history for career scoring. [Image Source: Flickr | Trent Gillespie]")
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.
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.
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.
Jayson Tatum - 1st round, 3rd overall (2017)
In his first two seasons in the NBA, Tatum has averaged 14.8 points (17.4 in the postseason) while connecting on 40 percent of his three-point tries. SB Nation recently looked at the steady rise he made in his sophomore professional season.
Avery Bradley - 1st round, 19th overall (2010)
A two-time All-Defensive member with Boston (one Second Team, one First Team), Bradley saw his scoring average in almost all of his seven seasons with the Celtics including a career-best 16.3 in the 2016-17 season.
Dee Brown - 1st round, 19th overall (1990)
The winner of the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest, Brown averaged double figures in scoring five straight seasons from 1991-92 until 1995-96.
Rick Fox - 1st round, 24th overall (1991)
Spending his first six seasons with Boston, Fox's two best seasons with the team came in 1995-96 and 1996-97 when he combined to average 14.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.8 steals.
Marcus Smart - 1st round, 6th overall (2014)
An All-Defensive First Team member this season, Smart also had career-best shooting numbers from the field (42.2 percent) and three-point territory (36.4 percent) in 2018-19.
Jaylen Brown - 1st round, 3rd overall (2016)
In the last two seasons (his second and third in the league), Brown has poster per game averages of 13.8 points and 4.6 rebounds.
Jeff Green - 1st round, 5th overall (2007)
Green was actually traded on the day he was drafted but came back to the Celtics in 2011. In the 2013-14 season with Boston, he averaged a career-best 16.9 points.
Tony Allen - 1st round, 25th overall (2004)
A member of the 2008 championship team, Allen played six seasons (336 games) with the Celtics and provided ruggedness especially on the defensive end while mostly coming off the bench.
