We'll call them the Boys from Buducnost. There are three of them in this year's NBA draft. Two of them could go in the first round, and one of them could come to Boston. All of them will be happy to leave their current situation. The three are 6-foot-11-inch forward Zarko Cabarkapa; 6-7 forward Aleksandar Pavlovic; and 7-4 center Slavko Vranes. Their team, Buducnost, in the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, is, to be blunt, a mess. You won't hear any of these three saying they hope they can stay where they are to hone their skills for another year.

''It was bad. Real bad. It's a tough situation, a tough team,'' said agent Marc Cornstein, who represents Vranes and Pavlovic. ''They had a crazy coach. They didn't get paid. Here you have a team with three potential first-round picks in the NBA and they didn't do well at all. That should tell you something.''

Buducnost was 16-6 in the Yugoslavian league, but in the Euroleague, where the competition is much tougher, it was 2-12. Cornstein said his two clients went without pay for several months, but they had no leverage. The team did pay for the apartment in which they lived.

''It's a corrupt and poorly run organization,'' Cornstein said. ''And I'm being diplomatic.''