With Jayson Tatum back on the court, the Boston Celtics have their full attention on making a deep postseason run. But at some point, the offseason will approach, and the C’s will need to turn their attention to their roster and find new ways to build it up, with the 2026 NBA Draft being viewed as a great avenue to help accomplish that goal.
Depending on how Boston’s season unfolds, it will likely be picking towards the back of the first round once again. Even with that in mind, reports have suggested that teams around the league are worried about the Celtics somehow landing Duke Blue Devils star forward Cameron Boozer, largely because of how good a fit he’d be on their team.
“A funny conversation that repeatedly comes up among scouts is that they don’t want Boozer to go to one of the best teams in the league,” Sam Vecenie of The Athletic reported. “They would be terrified if he ended up on, say, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics or San Antonio Spurs, because they know those teams would understand how to get the most out of his game.”
In his first year with Duke, Boozer has starred, as he’s averaging 22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game while shooting 56.3% from the field. Unsurprisingly, he’s expected to be one of the first players off the board in the upcoming draft, so the chances that the Celtics actually land him are relatively low.
Still, the 2026 draft class is loaded, and if Boston wanted to make an aggressive move up the draft board, it could do so. Even if that were to happen, though, it sounds like teams are intent on preventing him from finding his way to the C’s, so the front office may want to find other prospects to target once the draft rolls around.
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