Celtics draft Kentucky big man after second-round trade-down

After moving down the draft board Thursday night the Celtics made a pick aimed at bolstering their frontcourt depth Boston selected Kentucky big man Amari Williams with the th overall pick in the NBA Draft Williams was born and raised in England then played four seasons at Drexel before transferring to Kentucky last summer He s a strong big-bodied -footer with a -foot- wingspan and is considered an above-average passer for his size Williams also was an effective shot-blocker and rebounder in college averaging and per battle respectively over his five seasons Scouting reports ding him for his shaky play on the perimeter however both as a defender and as a shooter Williams was a solid finisher inside but was not an outside shooting threat attempting just total -pointers in college with a success rate and four in his lone season in the SEC His free-throw shooting also leaves much to be desired as he never made more than of his foul shots in any of his collegiate campaigns At Williams is a much older prospect than Boston s first-round pick -year-old Spanish wing Hugo Gonzalez th overall The odds of second-round picks becoming legitimate NBA contributors are slim but there could be opportunities for playing time in the Celtics new-look frontcourt The Celtics traded starting center Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta earlier in the week and backups Al Horford and Luke Kornet both are impending free agents though president of basketball operations Brad Stevens declared Wednesday that the club hopes to re-sign both The only Boston bigs in the present under contract for - are Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman neither of whom was a regular rotation contestant this season Yahoo Sports Kevin O Connor listed Queta as Williams No NBA competitor comp He was the rd-ranked prospect on O Connor s big board ESPN s Jonathan Givony ranked him th and The Athletic s Sam Vecenie viewed him as the th-best prospect in this class Boston received the arrangement it used to take Williams in a commerce with the Orlando Magic who also gave up the th pick and second-rounders in and to move up to No and select French wing Noah Penda