4 players Boston Celtics must draft at No. 35 in the 2023 NBA Draft

Boston Celtics draft: Kobe Brown, Missouri

Last year the Boston Celtics added Trevion Williams to their Summer League roster but didn’t sign him to the Maine Celtics. If Boston drafts Kobe Brown, this selection will make up for letting Williams go. Brown could end up being better than Williams.

The rugged Brown is 6-6.5 without shoes and is blessed with an almost 7-1 wingspan. Like Jackson-Davis, Brown has excellent floor vision and keeps his eyes up court to find sprinting teammates for easy buckets.

On offense, Brown can bully defenders in the post and has a soft touch around the rim. And last season he shot a ridiculous 45.5 percent on three pointers, though there are reasons to be skeptical about that.

Statistically Aaron Nesmith was the best 3-point shooter coming out of the 2020 draft after connecting on .522 of his attempts. He didn’t come close to being that good of a shooter with the Celtics. While Brown has a larger sample size, he career high before the 2022-23 season was .253. It’s reasonable to question whether Brown really did improve dramatically or if last season was an outlier.

There are also concerns about Brown defensively. At 250 pounds, he’s more than strong enough to get physical with big men and has the reach to contest shots at the rim. But he will struggle with smaller players on the perimeter. Many analysts believe Brown should shed some pounds for the NBA. That’s understandable, though it shouldn’t be so much it compromises his ability to defend power forwards and centers.

There’s a very real possibility that the Boston Celtics could lose Grant Williams via free agency. But don’t think of Brown as G-Will’s replacement. If Danillo Gallinari remains with the Celtics, he likely assumes those minutes as a floor-spacing big. But Brown, a senior, can carve a role filling other aspects of Grant’s game.