If the Washington’s Dãvis Bertãns is truly available, is it worth it for the Boston Celtics to trade for him?
The Boston Celtics are either in the contender conversation or just short depending on who you ask. A trade could help put them over the top.
While there is some discrepancy on just what type of player the C’s should look to add, most are in agreement that another piece certainly couldn’t hurt.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, Beantown is showing “strong interest” in Washington Wizards center Dãvis Bretãns.
"“There is strong interest in Boston in Davis Bertans, who would fill a couple of needs. Bertans could join the frontcourt rotation and juice what has been a brutally bad shooting bench. The Celtics second unit is 28 in three-point shooting, per NBA.com, sandwiched between Minnesota and Cleveland. For a team that makes a living beyond the three-point line … that’s bad. Washington has effectively hung up on teams looking to extract Bertans, but Boston could make things interesting if they throw a pick or two into the pot. Because really … what are they holding on to them for?”"
While one could argue the Boston Celtics need more bulk inside, there is a clear need for perimeter shooting. The team is currently ranked last in catch and shoot points per game at 22.3, via NBA.com’s tracking stats.
That’s not exactly a recipe for success for a team whose diet largely consists of jump shots.
Enter Bertãns, a player whom we’ve discussed the team potentially acquiring on multiple occasions.
Bertãns is an expert in this area, as he currently leads the league in catch and shoot three-point attempts per game at 7.1 while also shooting 44% on these looks.
It’s this type of elite shooting off the bench that could make Boston’s elite perimeter talent that much harder to stop in the postseason.
The icing on the cake is that he’s only making $7 million dollars. A potential package Boston could piece together could look something like this:
It’s been believed that if the Wizards were to move the sweet shooting big man, they would want a lottery level draft pick. Boston currently holds the Memphis Grizzlies’ first round pick that is top six protected in this years draft.
Memphis’ overachieving team this season has all but decided the pick will convey this summer, but it remains to be seen what the specifics of the pick’s quality will be.
Even if Memphis were to make the playoffs, thus making the pick just outside the lottery, Washington could do worse than hauling in a mid-level first round pick and a young wing/ former lottery pick like Langford for a player that may not even be on their roster next year.
The most important thing here is Boston wouldn’t have to part with a rotation player — let alone one of their top players — in order to make a trade happen.
Dãvis Bertãns could be the missing piece to make the Celtics a legitimate contender this year. They should be willing to part with a couple of assets in order to acquire his services.