Josh Jackson going No. 1 overall to the Celtics is just a rumor, nothing more

There’s almost always one of these rumors in the week leading up to the NBA draft. The top draft pick, who we’ve been pretty certain is going first overall for months, is suddenly being questioned. Another player, who we like a lot but not that much, is rumored as a potential top pick instead.

For the 2017 draft, those players are Markelle Fultz — the consensus No. 1 pick — and Josh Jackson, a versatile hard-nosed wing who has mostly been projected to the 76ers at No. 3. According to ESPN’s Chad Ford, Jackson has emerged as ‘an intriguing option’ for the Celtics at No. 1.

The main reasoning is that Jackson is the type of player who Celtics general manager Danny Ainge likes in the draft. Here’s a quote from an anonymous GM in Ford’s story:

“I’ve picked Danny’s brain for years. Jackson is an Ainge player all the way. Tough, athletic, long, versatile, elite motor. If he’s keeping the pick, Jackson just to me, far and away, is the most Celtics-type player for them to draft. From all my conversations with them, I’m convinced they’ll take Jackson No. 1.”

Jackson hasn’t worked out for Boston yet, and there are currently no plans for him to do so.

The anonymous general manager is 100 percent right — Jackson is a prototypical Danny Ainge draft pick. There’s a lot to like about the 6’8 20-year-old from Kansas, especially his defensive versatility in an increasingly demanding NBA. He has an offensive presence, not a true point forward but possessing strong playmaking skills, and the only major question about his game is his jump shot. To be fair, that’s a big question, but there’s a good chance that Jackson is a solid, starter-caliber player for years even if it doesn’t develop beyond where it is right now.

Drafting Jackson would also avoid the awkwardness of drafting a point guard (Fultz) when you already have an incredible one in Isaiah Thomas.

But just being an “Ainge-like player” isn’t enough for Ainge to draft Jackson first overall — not when someone as talented as Fultz is staring him in the face. Fultz is a 6’5 dynamic guard with even fewer questions about his game than Jackson, and there’s a reason he has been the consensus top pick for nearly a year now.

It would be one thing for Ainge to gamble on the convention pick for a player whose skill set he prefers. It’s an entirely different thing to do that with the No. 1 overall pick and to do it when their pick last year, Jaylen Brown, is strikingly similar to Jackson.

The Fultz vs. Thomas decision is a tricky one, but it’s not one you can avoid. If Thomas has to be traded — here’s the case for the Celtics moving on from him — then those are the tough decisions you must make as a general manager.

It’s awfully telling that Jackson hasn’t even worked out for Boston, too. If Jackson or his agent truly felt like he had a chance to go No. 1, it would be hard to imagine them not jumping on that opportunity. Going No. 1 is a status symbol and Boston is a contending team, yet Jackson has avoided them completely. The two sides are “in dialogue,” but the lack of a workout reveals a lot.

I suppose it’s possible that Ainge has a nagging gut feeling that Jackson is his guy, not Fultz, and selects him in a moment of impulsiveness. Or something like that.

But this isn’t going to happen. I’ll say there’s a one out of 10 likelihood that Jackson goes first over Fultz. There’s just too much that doesn’t make sense.