To trade or not to trade–do the Boston Celtics have enough to win without one?

Trade season has begun, and–even though they seem like viable buyers–the Boston Celtics may not be active in the trade market again. If that happens, does the team have enough to win it all?

Loyal Houdini readers (I appreciate all of you!) know that I, along with many other Boston Celtics blogs, want the team to make a move. The center position is oft-spoken about around these parts, with several different archetypes thrown around to fill in at the 5.

It has ranged from former NBA Champion and Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love, to former 3x NBA Champion and defensive player of the year Draymond Green. Behemoths like Hassan Whiteside and Andre Drummond have been mentioned, but so has 3-point sniper Davis Bertans.

No one within reason is off the table. As constructed, the roster is heavily reliant on perimeter play. That hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing either. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have fully ascended, with both averaging around 20 points per game. Gordon Hayward is having a career-year (coincidentally surpassing his last year in 2016-17…also a contract year) and Kemba Walker is the same All-NBA point guard he was in Charlotte but actually seeing team success due to having worthy running mates.

At 18-7, and fresh off of ending a two-game losing skid with a win over Dallas, the Boston Celtics are well on their way to the postseason at this rate. The #2 seed, which they currently occupy, is well within reach being that the team has proven capable of beating the likes of Milwaukee, Miami and Toronto. They have two more chances against Philadelphia (0-2) and Indiana (0-1) to prove they can defeat every Eastern Conference contender.

What do those two teams have in common? Well, they both feature two of the better front-courts in the entire conference. The Pacers are buoyed by the two-headed monster of Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis. Luckily for Boston, those two are rough fits on the floor together. Neither can capably follow Tatum and Hayward around the perimeter, leaving them open to a 3-point barrage.

The 76ers are better equipped. Al Horford, formerly the switch extraordinaire in Boston, can capably guard every position off of a switch. Check out how he was able to stifle LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2018.

With Joel Embiid also in tow occupying driving lanes, the 76ers are a match-up nightmare for the Boston Celtics…as his 38-point performance made clear. When Horford was a member of the C’s, he was Embiid’s kryptonite, owning a 10-3 record (4-1 in the playoffs) against the former #3 pick.

Now, he is the big that helps the 76ers survive on the floor without their All-NBA center. Embiid’s dominance has always been a containable problem because of the presence of Horford, and to a lesser extent, Aron Baynes.

Daniel Theis has twice proven that he can’t be the man for the job. Theis, in his third NBA season, is a fine center. His box-plus/minus reveals that he is playing his role well, but against Embiid, he–and all of the other non-Enes Kanter big-men–were lost.

While you could try to find a counter-point with Kanter’s performance (which also included 20 points and nine rebounds) you also can’t help but look at his overall declining stats as a sign that he has yet to earn Brad Stevens’ trust beyond the 16 minutes per game he has been granted this season. Given his history of defensive lapses and failure to ever be anything other than a liability at the end, it’s hard to view him as the answer at the pivot.

So, with the roster as constructed, you need to hope for some luck in the playoffs. Against offensively-inclined big men, the team is not equipped to prevent points for the Embiid’s of the world. But if things break the right way, perhaps their road to the NBA Finals could be an easy one that includes an Eastern Conference Finals match-up with Milwaukee (who are easy to game-plan around with Giannis Antetokounmpo being the lone person to focus on stopping) and match-ups with Toronto, Miami or Brooklyn on the way.

If, however, the 76ers or even the Pacers (who were not at full strength the first game they played this season) are their second-round match-up, they are behind the 8-ball. Until they can fortify their front-court with a big-man who can hold his own physically in the paint, they are at the mercy of Philly’s All-Star center duo.

The free agent market is likely to bear few fruit. Robert Williams is too inconsistent still to trot out in games that matter. Vincent Poirier couldn’t find playing time before his injury. Tacko Fall is a fun but low-upside gamble.

If the Boston Celtics have championship ambitions, they need to do something, anything, to improve their interior. Barring the team’s core morphing into the small-ball “Death Lineup” Golden State Warriors (and who is opposed to seeing a Walker-Smart-Brown-Hayward-Tatum lineup in extended minutes), it will be an uphill climb to raising banner #18.