Boston Celtics: 1 trade for every 2019 rookie under contract

To be fair, Grant Williams was the only rookie to actually carve out a role in Brad Stevens’ offense during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 campaign. He was able to find success in the second unit forming a nice on-court relationship with Enes Kanter and was even able to find minutes as a small-ball center in a lineup that had plenty of big man depth.

Also, to be fair, it doesn’t appear that Williams is on any sort of a chopping block. He seems to genuinely enjoy playing in Boston, as he runs a youth leadership program partnered with MENTOR to offer guidance to several high school kinds in the Boston area. He got the idea from Kemba Walker.

Oh, speaking of Walker, Williams has actually been living with the All-NBA point guard during quarantine. That seems like a surefire way to prove to higher-ups that you are a good long-term fit with the team when you can bond so strongly with the team’s star player.

With all of that said, the NBA is still a business. Let us never forget that Danny Ainge traded Isaiah Thomas away after one of the bravest playoff performances of all time in 2017 to upgrade the point guard spot with Kyrie Irving.

This move would certainly not be anywhere near as seismic, but the same idea applies: trading Williams to the Golden State Warriors for rookie forward Eric Paschall would be an upgrade at the forward spot and would provide the second unit a scoring infusion that Williams doesn’t–and may never–provide.

Paschall stepped into a far larger role than anyone could have envisioned this past season, but he answered the call admirably with averages of 14 points, five rebounds and two assists. His sub-30 percent clip from the 3-point line is concerning, but his contributions everywhere else make him worth giving up late first round and early second round picks for.