Wallace explained the reason for taking the No. 11 choice in 2001 (Kedrick Brown) and not rolling the dice on this year (the Nuggets picked No. 5 last night) or next. He used the same reasoning he did last year before the draft.

"We were looking at a team that had 35 and 40 wins in the previous two years,'' Wallace said. "They were moving up. And they had three very capable scorers in (Antonio) McDyess, (Raef) LaFrentz and (Nick) Van Exel. And they were a hell of a home team - better than us at that point (29-12 to 20-21 in 2000-01). So the odds of them just imploding we didn't think were great. They'd have to have an injury, and that's what happened with McDyess.

"So not knowing he was going to be hurt, we figured they'd probably be at the back end of the lottery again and maybe better. And even if we were able to get the same player this year, he'd be a year further away from his developmental clock kicking in.''

Wallace also admitted to there being a bit of pressure on the club to make a move into the playoffs.

"We had just finished ninth basically in the Eastern Conference, and our regime did not have, as I call it, untimed testing,'' he said. "So it was a very difficult decision, but we needed to get moving and acquire as much talent as we could.

"But if we knew in advance that McDyess was going to go down and that they were going to trade LaFrentz and Van Exel at the deadline, then sure we would have waited. But we just didn't know that.''

Seniors outclassed

The NBA draft is clearly a young man's game. Just four college seniors were taken in the first round last June - Shane Battier (sixth, Memphis), Brendan Haywood (20th, Cleveland), Jeryl Sasser (22nd, Orlando) and Jamaal Tinsley (27th, Memphis). Another run on youngsters and foreigners occurred last night.

While Duke and Stanford, as expected, had two players each drafted in the first round last night (Blue Devils Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy went 2-3 and Curtis Borchardt and Casey Jacobsen of the Cardinal went 18 and 22), St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, had a pair of former teammates - Sam Clancy of USC and Steve Logan of Cincinnati - selected in Round 2.

Borchardt, by the way, isn't the first pro from his family. But is the first pro basketball player. Borchardt's dad, Jon, played nine seasons in the NFL as an offensive lineman with Buffalo and Seattle.

Slippin' and slidin'

There are many basketball followers who believe Caron Butler is the draft choice most prepared to play immediately at the NBA level. But the UConn star was passed over by nine teams before Miami selected him with the 10th pick. Consider Butler this year's biggest slider.

Paul Pierce knows the feeling, perhaps better than any other star-quality player in the league. Four years ago, the Celtics star was one of the draft's most polished all-around talents. An All-America at Kansas, he was considered a lock to be taken within the first five picks. Yet Pierce saw nine players selected before the Celtics finally gave him the nod.

"It's an agonizing feeling,'' said Pierce, asked recently to recall his draft-night experiences slipping down the ladder. "You know better than anyone you're sliding because you're hearing those names called out one by one, loud and clear, and you're still out there looking for somebody to rescue you.

"I feel for the guys who go through it every year, because I've been there and it's definitely nerve-wracking.''

For Pierce, there's a silver lining to his memories of an anxiety-filled 1998 draft night. "I wasn't going to let it get me down, or alter my confidence in my abilities to play at this level,'' he said. "I looked at it as nine other teams drafting on (positional) need, and tried not to take it personally. But I admit at times I did use it as an incentive.''

Pierce could be heard on the court often during his rookie year spouting off names of players picked before him.

Four on floor

Although the Celtics have yet to announce their roster for next month's Shaw's Summer League, Wallace said the team would include four players currently overseas - Demos Dekutis (AEK Athens, Greece), Jaka Lakovic (Slovenia), Milan Gorovic (Spain) and Martin Muursepp (Russia). . . .

Since 1957, when the NBA began listing draft picks chronologically, the 50th pick has produced few recognizable names. Among those who made their marks were Steve Kerr (1988) Geoff Huston (1979) and Larry Kenon (1973). Locally, the 50th pick produced Celtics draft choice and ex-Merrimack star Dana Skinner (1979), UConn's Corny Thompson (1982) and Tony Hansen (1977).