Are the Celtics’ Assets Overrated?

The Celtics have a lot of assets to offer, but how valuable are they?

We continuously hear about the Boston Celtics and all the assets they can offer in a blockbuster trade this summer. That if there is a team who can land a star player via trade this off-season, it’s the Boston Celtics. With eight draft picks in the upcoming draft and abundance of good players with team-friendly contracts, the Celtics are in better shape than most teams to make a splash in the next couple of months.

Even though Boston has a lot of pieces they can add in a trade, are we overvaluing what they have to offer?

To start off, eight draft picks sounds like a godly amount of draft picks. And it is. Although, teams, other than the New York Knicks who are on the outside looking in to the draft this year, aren’t jumping for joy at the sound of a second round pick. And that’s where five of the eight draft choices land.

A second round pick is near useless. A team might find a decent bench player for a couple of seasons but most second round picks don’t pan out to anything more. Even with that being true, the Celtics still own three first round picks – tied for the most in the NBA this year.

Usually the draft picks the Celtics own would have half the league on the phone, however, not with this year’s class. It’s a deep class with a lot of potentially good role players, but it’s hard to sell that there are multiple stars available outside the top-two.

For established teams looking to add the missing piece, this is a great draft, but not so much for rebuilding teams. Teams at the bottom are trying to find a franchise player, not just another role player because chances are they have a roster full of them and that’s why they’re not able to get over the hump.

In most years, the third pick would draw a lot of interest, however, this year it’s seen as the first team who missed out on the Ben Simmons/Brandon Ingram lottery. It doesn’t have as much value as it would in other years so teams are less willing to trade their star player for it.

It’s far from useless but why would a team want to trade their star player when the return may just be another NBA starter. Obviously there’s no way to tell how a player’s career will turn out, however, there seems to be more risk involved at the top of the draft than in recent years.

Also, the Celtics other picks in the first round are outside of the lottery. Players become more of a crapshoot as the draft goes on and the likelihood of even finding a starter goes down significantly, which won’t speak highly for a team looking to trade their best player.

Other than the draft picks, Boston does have good, young players they can package with them. Avery Bradley is coming off a season where he was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, Marcus Smart is already one of the best defensive guards in the league after only two seasons, and Jae Crowder continues to develop into a borderline All-Star two-way player.

Even though all three succeed in their roles in Boston, how well would they do where they’d be a first or second option?

Bradley is a very good 3-and-D player, however, that’s all he is. He’s not a terrific passer (2.1 APG) or rebounder (2.9 RPG), and isn’t someone you can rely on to lead your team on offense. He was a decent three-point shooter last year who can create shots off-the-dribble, although, you can’t call an ISO play for him late in the game and watch him go to work.

He’s a starting caliber role player in the NBA who’d make any team better but isn’t as valuable as some people make him out to be. Besides, in a couple of seasons Bradley will want to restructure his contract and a team will likely have to overpay if they want to retain him.

Despite Marcus Smart being a very good defensive player, he has shown very little on offense over his two seasons. Sure, he has the potential to be a starting guard in the NBA, but he’s far from that right now. Not only does he become a liability on offense at times, but he performs noticeably worse as a starter.

Smart has started 48 games over his career and posted 8.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and three assists per game while shooting 35 percent from the field and 28.8 percent from three. His shooting percentages are much worse and he averages about the same as he does when coming off the bench, even though he sees five more minutes per game.

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Jae Crowder is easily the most valuable of the three, however, the Celtics seem reluctant to move him. They didn’t want to add him to a Jimmy Butler trade at the deadline which cut off talks between the two teams. Crowder is developing into a very good two-way player who is getting paid $8 million or less through 2019-20, but he’s never going to develop into a star.

He’s a very good role player who makes a big difference on Boston, but he’s not the player they can rely on to take over a game when Isaiah Thomas starts to struggle. It’s not to say that they should add him to any deal, but sometimes you have to give up your most valuable asset to land a star.

When it comes down to it, the Celtics’ assets look better on paper than when you actually dig into them. This is one of the least valuable third pick’s in recent years and the players they’re willing to give up are high-impact, role players on a contending team. Players like Terry Rozier and Smart have a lot of potential, but how good can they realistically become?

Next: Top Five Picks in the Danny Ainge Era

Boston isn’t even willing to talk about the most valuable assets they’re holding onto – the 2017 and 2018 Brooklyn Nets picks. I don’t blame them as they very well could be back-to-back first picks in very good drafts, however, if they want to land a star like Jimmy Butler this off-season, they’ll need to at least discuss the possibility of sending over Jae Crowder or a future first round pick.