The Boston Celtics could soon look to make a trade

The Boston Celtics have quietly set themselves up to be players at the trade deadline this upcoming season. With tough contractual decisions coming next summer, could the franchise decide to pull the trigger on a deal?

With all but one roster spot decided, we can finally get a clear picture of what the Boston Celtics’ roster will look like heading into the 2019-20 regular season.

On paper, they have a fun, talented group of guys with seemingly no selfish players in sight. With Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum all receiving invites to the Team USA training camp for the upcoming FIBA world cup, chemistry development between Boston’s talented core appears primed for an early start.

Newly acquired center, Enes Kanter, while undoubtedly having holes in his game, is one of the more fun and free-spirited guys in the league. Take time to scroll through his social media to see what everyone loves about that guy.

At the very least, this iteration of the Celtics will be a fun watch; but fun isn’t what we’re here for at the end of the day.

The goal has been, and always will be, championships.

Boston’s roster is young and talented but also has too many question marks to be considered a surefire contender.

Will Gordon Hayward bounce back? Do Brown and Tatum take a step or two forward? Can the Celtics figure out a center rotation that preserves their defensive identity?

The off-court questions seem to be even more pressing. Hayward has a $33M player option in the summer of 2020, and Brown is hitting restricted free agency in a rather weak free-agent class.

If Hayward were to return to his all-star form, deciding between him and Brown is a story for another day. Ultimately, Hayward could make that choice for them. That would then pose the question: can you afford to pay three wing players max dollars?

Forget the financial aspect of it, does that even make sense from a team-building perspective? Brown, Hayward, and Walker combined would eat up roughly 75% of Boston’s cap space. If they wanted to add Tatum’s new contract to the mix in 2022 while retaining Hayward, the math gets pretty ugly.

One would have to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that a trade is coming sooner or later. Looking at some of the signings the franchise made this summer, I’d bet on the former.

Daniel Theis was signed to a two-year, $10M deal with the last year being non-guaranteed. Kanter’s contract was a near carbon copy, but for slightly less money and a player option on the second year.

That’s essentially two cheap, expiring deals that another team could consider significant assets. Boston also has a flurry of talented rookies on cost-controlled contracts.

Pairing that with a guy like Brown, who has All-Star potential, and you have yourself an enticing trade package.

Already, it appears Brown will likely command a hefty price in the summer of 2020. However, a chance to boost his numbers with fewer scorers on the roster this year should all but guarantee it.

Keith Smith of Celtics Blog wrote from his conversations with people at summer league that the Celtics were unwilling to move Brown this year.

"Opposing executive on Brown: “That’s the guy we wanted to steal. Our thought was ‘They have (Jayson) Tatum and (Gordon) Hayward and drafted another wing, maybe they are out on Brown’ and boy were we wrong. The conversation got about as far as the ‘Jay’ sound out of my mouth and they said ‘Neither Jayson or Jaylen are on the table for you’. So, yeah. They love that kid.”"

It appears some execs around the league see the upcoming financial burden Boston may have to deal with. Whether this is how the Celtics actually feel or not, they can always change their minds.

If Danny Ainge truly feels this team is only one piece away from competing for a title in an NBA that hasn’t been this wide open in at least a decade, he’ll make a trade.

For the sheer fact that Hayward’s contract will be hard to move whether he’s producing like an All-Star or not, and Tatum still has another year on his rookie deal, Brown is the most likely to get moved.

The biggest hole on this roster is the center spot. Kanter, Theis, Vincent Poirier, Robert Williams and Tacko Fall (two-way contract) are all nice, but none of them are anywhere close to a complete player.

Brown, Kanter, and Theis’ contracts together add up to about $16.3M. That would be enough to net Boston about $20M in cap space. If a team wanted more long-term value, the Celtics could include Romeo Langford in place of Kanter and still come out to about the same amount of money.

One trade partner I like is the Indiana Pacers. A lot of people want to swap Brown and Domantas Sabonis in their trade machines, but I prefer Myles Turner.

Turner would act as the defensive rock the Celtics had grown accustomed to the past few seasons with Al Horford and Aron Baynes. Also, add TJ Leaf in for salary matching purposes.

Meanwhile, the Pacers are in a similar situation as the Celtics, as they will most likely have to choose between Turner and Sabonis soon. This theory is re-enforced with them just drafting another center in Goga Bitadze.

They would have that problem sorted out for them while gaining a young/ two-way wing in Brown, a reliable rotation center in Theis, and Langford, who has a very intriguing floor as an offensive fulcrum off the bench.

Turner is the central cog in Indiana’s top-five defense, but perhaps they trust their system enough when you have three elite perimeter defenders in Brown, Victor Oladipo, and Malcolm Brogdon surrounding Sabonis, who would take over the starting center spot full-time.

A starting lineup of Walker, Smart, Tatum, Hayward, and Turner has almost no weaknesses with a perfect balance between role players and primary scorers. The bench has some question marks undoubtedly, but you can squeeze out a solid nine to ten-man rotation out of Kanter, Poirer, Wanamaker, Carsen Edwards and Grant Williams.

If you don’t like that trade, there’s always the Bradley Beal situation to keep tabs on. If Beal did become available, it would cost Smart, but the Celtics would be landing a top-five player at his position.

Not to mention Beal’s well-documented relationship with Tatum. Both players are from the St. Louis area and were already seen working out together this off-season.

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Whatever their decision, Boston’s front office has the luxury of zero expectations this year. They can roll out the fun, scrappy roster while laying back in the weeds; waiting for the perfect deal, or what disgruntled star will look to dislodge themselves next.