 With
the 50th pick in the NBA draft the Boston Celtics select... Darius
Songaila. These were the words that deputy NBA commissioner Russ
Granik spoke when he went to the podium on Wednesday. Songaila is
apparently a decent offensive player, but considered somewhat of a
tweener in the NBA. Too slow to play SF and not athletic explosive
enough to be a true PF the question is whether Songaila will even
make the 2002-2003 edition of the Boston Celtics?
Everything I¡¯ve heard about Songaila has said that he¡¯s probably
too slow to really have a role in the NBA. But, the few times that I
have seen him play (usually in a lop-sided matchup like Wake
Forest-Duke) he has stood out because of his court awareness. On the
offensive end he really did stand out as a college player with a
midrange game, a rarity in the NCAA today. I really just liked him
because of the way he used foot movement and ball fakes to get that
extra foot needed to take a clear shot.
But, all that enthusiasm has to be tempered by a few facts. First,
Songaila is at least 23 years old. While he could compete physically
at the college level, most scouts say he¡¯ll be a step slow in the
pros. Second, Songaila does have a tendency to try to do too much.
In college he often would try and force up shots if Wake needed a
big basket, but simply didn¡¯t have the talent to get the really
tough scores. And finally, Songaila was considered a defensive
liability in the ACC playing against 6¡±6¡¯ PFs like Lonny Baxter.
I can picture him getting lit up as soon as he steps out and covers
Antonio McDyess or a Rasheed Wallace type of player.
The pick of Songaila did take me by surprise as I figured the
Celtics would look at a smaller player who might be able to add
offense coming off the bench. The team passed on a few player that
fell, including two big men: Lazaros Papadopoulos and Luis Scola.
Scola fell (and was eventually drafted by San Antonio) because he
was apparently shorter than the 6¡¯9¡± he was originally listed
as. Papadopoulos fell out of the draft completely after rising in
the week before the draft to the point where some were talking about
him going at the top of the second round.
Among the swing men the Celtics passed on were Mladen Sekularac, a
6¡¯8¡± guard out of Yugoslavia and Predrag Savovic, a 6¡¯6¡±
swingman who played at Hawaii. I thought both might be possibilities
as swingmen off the bench, because the Celtics have a couple of
defensive players at the position (think Eric Williams, Kedrick
Brown), they don¡¯t really have anyone who can come into a game and
stroke the three. While Sekularac later went to Dallas, Savovic went
undrafted.
 I
wouldn¡¯t be at all surprised if Chris Wallace is already on the
phone trying to see if he can get Savovic and possibly even
Papadopoulos into the Shaw¡¯s summer league for a tryout. Savovic
seems more likely to come in and win a roster spot with a shot to
play as soon as next year. He does have a sweet J and while he
isn¡¯t the quickest guy on defense, he has decent footwork and
won¡¯t be a complete liability. As of now the Rodney Rogers
situation is still up in the air, but we all know that the Celtics
need as many minimum salary player as possible. I say Savovic would
be a good start.
Dan Kahn is the webmaster and content supervisor for
celtics.realgm.com, he can be reached at daniel.kahn@tufts.edu
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