GIDDENS

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics decided to forget the future and try to improve immediately in last night’s NBA Draft.

The Celtics used their first-round pick, No. 30 overall, to select New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens. Giddens is a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder who was the co-player of the year in the Mountain West Conference. He was only the fifth college senior picked in the first round last night.

Giddens averaged 16.3 points and shot better than 51 percent from the field as a senior for the Lobos. He’s an extremely athletic player who turned the Celtics on with his defense more than his scoring skills.

“We think he has a chance to fight for minutes right away because of his defense,” said Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers.

Right after the Celtics’ championship parade, Rivers said he received four films of draft prospects from basketball operations chief Danny Ainge. One was of Giddens. Giddens visited the Celtics for a final workout with the coaching staff on Wednesday and Rivers came away impressed.

“It looks like what turns him on is he doesn’t like losing very much,” said Rivers. “I look at that as an asset more than a problem.”

Giddens comes to the NBA with some personal baggage. A McDonald’s All-American out of Oklahoma City, Okla., Giddens enrolled at Kansas out of high school. He averaged 10.7 points in two years but was asked to leave KU by coach Bill Self in 2005 after his part in a bar fight. Giddens pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor battery charge, and was ordered to one-year probation and a two-day anger-management class after being stabbed in the leg as a result of the fight. He required 30 stitches to close the wound.

Rivers said Ainge completed plenty of background checks on Giddens before drafting him.

“He’s had some run-ins with people, but Steve Alford, who coached him for the last year, thought he was terrific,” said Rivers. “He was one of the favorite guys he’s coached in his career. That’s good enough for us.”

Rivers says he’s confident that Giddens won’t be a problem in Boston.

“He may have been young and immature at times, but he’s grown up,” said Rivers. “Everyone gave him a good review. Back then he was young and immature. Not a bad kid is what we kept hearing.”

This draft was a very different one for the Celtics than in previous years when they always seemed to be holding a lottery pick.

“It’s different because we have no control over the draft,” said Rivers. “Unfortunately, over the last few years, we’ve had a lot of say-so over the draft. This year, you just sit and wait. You literally have no control. I was laughing telling Danny, he said about the same thing. Last year I bet I got calls from every coach (asking), ‘What are you guys going to do with the pick?’ I’ve had zero calls today. My cell phone literally has not rung from another NBA coach, and that’s unusual. No one wants the 30th pick.”

Ainge entered last night with another “first-round pick” already on his roster in Gabe Pruitt. The guard left the University of Southern California a year early and spent his rookie year largely playing in the NBDL. The Celtics see Pruitt as a point guard, although he is clearly a work in progress. Whether he’ll be ready to back up Rajon Rondo in 2008-09 is unclear.

“Gabe was a tough one because we really didn’t work with him as much as we would have liked to because of the guys we had. This is a very important summer for Gabe,” said Rivers.

If Pruitt and Giddens can step in and help, the Celtics may not have to chase many of their veteran free agents — forward James Posey, forward-center P.J. Brown, center Scot Pollard and guards Eddie House, Sam Cassell and Tony Allen.

Rivers made no bones about the team’s free agent plans. He said he’d like to see as many of the players return as possible but conceded that “I doubt that happens. What happens with championship teams, everybody wants your players. But I would be very happy with that.”

Posey is clearly the top priority. Posey will reportedly opt out of his deal with the Celtics that was slated to pay him $3.5 million next year and shop himself on the open market. Boston is likely to offer him their mid-level exception under the salary cap, or about $5.7 million a year. Posey is a dogged defender but at 31 years old, it’s hard to imagine he could entertain offers for much more than that figure.

About the possibility of Brown returning, he said, “We just don’t know. I talked to him right after the season. He doesn’t know. I would say there’s a great chance he’s going to retire as a champion but I told him he could do that again. We’ll see,” said Rivers. “Posey we want, and we’re going to do everything we can to get him back. The problem is, so do other teams. That’s going to be tough,” said Rivers.

kmcnamar@projo.com