Boston Celtics: 3 Clippers trades if LA blows up core

A super sixth-man makes his way to Beantown

You may be asking yourself if Lou Williams is worth giving up a lottery pick for. After all, he’ll be 34 years old by the time the 2020-21 regular season starts. His time-line isn’t exactly a math with the Boston Celtics roster, particularly after two draft picks would be joining the team after such a deal.

The answer to that question is absolutely. Making just $8 million in 2020-21, Williams is an upgrade over anything they can get on the open market at a similar price. And while he is a bit older than the average member of the Cs roster, he is the perfect bench piece for a team looking to contend right now.

Losing Daniel Theis in the deal hurts, but he could be due for a substantial raise next summer and Boston has to deal with incoming extensions for Jayson Tatum in 2021 and Marcus Smart the following summer. Williams might not make $8 million on his next deal due to age, the mid-level exception being lowered due to falling cap projections and even a backlash from his quarantine violations during the 2020 regular season seeding games in Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports Complex.

If Montrezl Harrell bolts the Clippers in free agency–which, by all indications seems like a legitimate possibility–Theis would be a perfect replacement. Vincent Poirier would be a salary filler throw-in, but perhaps he can get a look in the center rotation as well.

Like the other deal, an incoming draft pick would give the Clippers a future building block if this continues to spiral out of control. Being that Williams is a 3x Sixth Man of the Year award winner, including the prior two seasons to this one, a lottery pick is well worth the price of a piece that can potentially put them over the top in the east.