The Boston Celtics entered the 2025 NBA Draft armed with the 28th and 32nd picks. Brad Stevens added rookie Hugo Gonzalez with his late first-round selection. However, he chose to flip the 32nd pick to the Orlando Magic in return for the 46th and 57th selections of the night. Noah Penda wound up landing with the Orlando Magic courtesy of that deal with Boston, while two-way rookies Amari Williams and Max Shulga were picked by the Celtics. However, looking back, the Celtics may have missed an ideal opportunity to add a long-term piece to their center rotation. According to Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley, the Celtics’ decision not to draft Ryan Kalkbrenner with the 32nd pick is likely the front office’s biggest offseason regret. “The Celtics held the No. 32 pick, but wound up flipping it for two later seconds and two future seconds,” Buckley wrote. “That’s good value in a vacuum, but they still could have strengthened their interior rotation by keeping that selection and spending it on Ryan Kalkbrenner, who went 34th overall. Granted, it will take more time to fully evaluate that decision, but all early indications are that the Creighton product could have handled significant minutes right away.” Kalkbrenner has hit the ground running for the Charlotte Hornets, who selected him with the 34th overall pick. He has started all 14 of his games so far and is averaging 9.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. The Creighton product is shooting an efficient 81.1% from the field. Story continues below advertisement After losing Al Horford and Luke Kornet to free agency and also trading away Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks, Kalkbrenner could easily have cemented himself as an essential part of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation. Without Kalkbrenner to lean on, Neemias Queta and Luka Garza have been anchoring the middle of the floor for the Celtics. And while it’s clear the Celtics still need to find a long-term solution to their center position, Stevens’ decision to turn one second-round pick into two was still good value. The NBA draft isn’t an exact science, and, as a retooling team, getting multiple bites of the apple was likely the right call. Still, there’s no denying that Kalkbrenner would have immediately improved Boston’s big-man rotation to begin the season. Story continues below advertisement