{"id":746751,"date":"2026-05-29T04:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/746751\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:00:17","slug":"celtics-predicted-to-add-stretch-five-who-could-challenge-for-starting-center-spot-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/746751\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Predicted To Add Stretch Five Who Could Challenge For Starting Center Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtics Predicted To Add Stretch Five Who Could Challenge For Starting Center Spot<\/a> originally appeared on NESN<\/a>. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 2026 NBA Draft is quickly approaching at the end of June. With the deadline for players to withdraw from the draft and return to school now passed, it\u2019s time to explore potential picks the Boston Celtics<\/a> could make with the 27th selection.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Sean Deveney from Heavy Sports unveiled his latest mock<\/a> draft, predicting that the Celtics will select North Carolina center Henri Veesaar<\/a> with the 27th pick.<\/p>\n

“Does Veesaar play enough defense for the Celtics? That would be the question here,” Deveney wrote. “He was a highlight on a North Carolina team that disappointed, averaging 17.1 points and 8.7 rebounds after transferring from Arizona.<\/p>\n

“He can be the much-needed lob threat, and also flashed stretch-5 capability by making 42.6% of the 94 3-pointers he tried last season. Whether he can hold his own defensively is the big question. The Celtics might need to go big with this pick, with few options available on the free-agent market or on the current roster.”<\/p>\n

If the Celtics decide to draft Veesaar, he could become the starting center within the next couple of seasons if he continues to develop. The team needs to strengthen its frontcourt, and Veesaar might be the player Boston is looking for.<\/p>\n

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Typically, the 27th pick in the NBA Draft doesn’t produce a star player, but this year’s draft could be one of the deepest we’ve seen in years. The Celtics might land a top-15 talent at that spot, and hopefully that player is Veesaar.<\/p>\n

More NBA: Celtics Trade Idea Sends Jaylen Brown To Spurs In Swap For Promising Young Playmakers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtics Predicted To Add Stretch Five Who Could Challenge For Starting Center Spot originally appeared on NESN. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,1985,6,38940],"class_list":["post-746751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-henri-veesaar","tag-nba","tag-sean-deveney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116655870646427389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}