Even the return of Marcus Smart couldn’t guarantee a Boston Celtics victory over a Kevin Durant-less Brooklyn Nets on Thursday. Old friend Kyrie Irving helped the Nets snap the Celtics’ encouraging winning streak at four games as Brooklyn defeated them 121-109. The Celtics fell to 19-18, still stuck far behind the 23-14 Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings. Boston remains in an uneasy position: do they attempt to make a major trade before the deadline or stand pat? Current circumstances might be making it easier for them to make a decision, although it may not be one that fans like.
The good news for Boston might also happen to be the bad news. The good thing is that th NBA feels just wide open enough that it’s hard to see them falling out of the mix in the East. The bad news is that this means there aren't a lot of sellers out there, which means competition among teams over potential trade targets will be fierce. That's not an ideal situation for the Celtics, who have a historically large $28.5 million trade exception they acquired from the Charlotte Hornets during the Gordon Hayward sign-and-trade that they are looking to cash in.
Now, the Celtics are certainly exploring options—rumors have them looking to acquire the Detroit Pistons’ Jerami Grant or the Orlando Magic’s Nikola Vucevic. CelticsWire’s Justin Quinn even offers up a hypothetical scenario where they could reunite with old friend Al Horford, currently with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The problem with pulling the trigger on any of these players is that their teams will be looking for something in return. The Celtics no longer have the treasure trove of assets they had in the aftermath of the Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett deal with the Nets, after all. The trade exception by itself will only do so much.
Think about it: what would other teams be looking for from the Celtics? Are future first-rounders enough, and would the Celtics be willing to sacrifice them for a win-now move? The Celtics have been shopping Kemba Walker around for the last few months, but considering that he’s in year two of a four-year, $141 million contract and just coming off a serious injury, his value has cratered. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are hot commodities, but there are essentially no situations where the Celtics are going to give him up. Marcus Smart has a rather affordable contract, but we’ve just seen how badly Boston needs him to solidify their team defense. The emergence of Robert Williams might mean that big man Daniel Theis could be the center of a trade package, but certainly not one which would bring the team back very much.
This is why that Danny Ainge has been going out of his way to prepare the fanbase for the more likely scenario that the team will use that TPE this offseason. Earlier this week he went on the Sports Hub program “Toucher and Rich” to reiterate that the team was likely not to use it before this season’s trading deadline. He defended this course of action with the solid point that it wouldn’t make sense to use it on a rental player with a lukewarm free-agent market looming in the team's immediate future.
This would make it the sixth straight deadline without Ainge making a major move, something that will almost certainly result in a fan backlash. The truth is that there is no reason for the Celtics to make a marginal move in a season where they can’t be seen as favorites to make the NBA Finals. Over time, Ainge has developed a reputation of being hesitant to pull off a major deal but this time around he has every reason to hesitate.
"make" - Google News
March 14, 2021 at 08:29PM
https://ift.tt/38G7XES
The Boston Celtics Shouldn’t Make A Major Trade Deadline Move - Forbes
"make" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WG7dIG
https://ift.tt/2z10xgv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The Boston Celtics Shouldn’t Make A Major Trade Deadline Move - Forbes"
Post a Comment