The Boston Celtics look to be in the market to make some moves this offseason. To thrust them into the title-favorite conversation, there are 3 specific trades they could make.
2019-20 proved to be a fantastic year for the Boston Celtics. Despite coming into the season with an extreme amount of roster shakeups, the team wound up rostering one of the league’s best core fives in the NBA — Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart –, found themselves with two All-Stars — Walker & Tatum –, and attained their sixth straight postseason berth.
Even still, after being downed in six games to the fifth-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, it’s quite evident that Boston still has some work to do should they wish to get over that final hump and advance to the NBA Finals.
During his first media appearance of the postseason, President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Danny Ainge publicly admitted the Cs are still a ways away from reaching the stratosphere in which they want, going as far as to say “we’re not good enough.”
To the delight of unsettled shamrocks fans as well as us here at the Hardwood Houdini, Ainge went a little further with his claims of a desire to help improve the organization’s chances of attaining banner number 18, hinting that offseason moves could be on the horizon.
"“We feel like we can beat Miami, but we didn’t. They beat us fair and square. They played better down the stretch of the games in that series. I have great respect for them and all that they’ve accomplished. We’re going to try to get better.”"
For those of you who follow our content — we love you all –, I’m sure you’re aware of our fondness of trying to concoct hypothetical trade scenarios in an effort to help improve the Boston Celtics in seemingly any way possible.
Today, we treat ourselves yet again to playing the role of imaginary GM, as we have conjured up 3 specific trade ideas that would make Beantown instant favorites to win the NBA Finals in 2020-21:
Trade to make Cs title favorites No. 1) Myles Turner and bench scoring
We must give credit where credit is due, as we did not come up with this trade idea on our own. Recently, Bleacher Report came out with an article entitled Trades to Get Every Eliminated Playoff Team to 2021 NBA Finals and, in turn, concocted this juicy little number.
All the Houdini can say is bravo, B/R, for this may be your finest work yet.
As we’ve been saying virtually since the season started, the Boston Celtics seriously need to bolster their frontcourt rotation. While Daniel Theis proved to be quite an underrated commodity at the starting pivot spot for the majority of the 2019-20 season, once the playoffs rolled around and, more specifically, when they ventured deep into the postseason and faced off against Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat, the 28-year-old was seemingly in over his head trying to combat their All-Star center.
Because of this, I believe we speak for all C’s fans when we say we hope Danny Ainge tries to address the depth at the five. This trade does exactly that and more.
Myles Turner may not be the biggest name at his position, but he certainly is one that fits Boston’s scheme quite nicely — perhaps even better than Theis.
On the season, the 23-year-old big posted solid averages of 12.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and a whopping 2.1 blocks per game on 46 percent shooting from the floor and 34 percent shooting from deep.
Unlike some of our own deals we’ve created to try and improve the center spot, this trade actually sees Theis staying in tow. A rotation consisting of both the Turner and the German Hammer is easily one that presents a deep and sound combination of both defensive and floor spacing abilities.
Not only does this trade address the C’s weakness at the pivot, but it also addresses their lackadaisical second unit scoring punch — ranked 29th in points per game (28.5), 28th in 3-point percentage (31.8), and 20th in offensive rating (53.6) — by adding two offensive-minded role players in Jeremy Lamb (12.5 PPG in 2019-20) and Doug McDermott (10.3 points on 43 percent shooting from deep in 2019-20).
This deal ties up many loose ends on the Boston Celtics’ roster and, thus, would easily better position themselves for a shot a glory as early as next season.
Trade to make Cs title favorites No. 2) Rudy Gobert
The idea of the Boston Celtics pursuing center Rudy Gobert has become somewhat of a past time for us here at HH.
While in the past we have created scenarios in which Danny Ainge can finagle his way into also acquiring the likes of, say, Jordan Clarkson and, in some instances, Bojan Bogdanovic, today we’re meeting halfway between our wishes and the ideology in which B/R abided by in one of their latest publications involving a Gobert to Boston deal.
Like our last slide implied, the shamrocks really need to address their center position heading into next season, especially after the way the Heat took advantage of said weakness with Adebayo. Unlike our last slide, however, this trade sees the Celtics acquiring a legitimate star at the position in Gobert.
2019-20 saw the French-native post impressive per-game averages of 15.1 points, 13.5 rebounds, and two blocks a night on a career-high 69 percent shooting from the floor.
Voted onto his fourth straight NBA All-Defensive team while finishing third in the running for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award, Gobert still managed to etch himself into the conversation of best defenders in the association — won the award twice before, most recently coming in 2019.
Boasting the fourth-best defense in the league without a true center, adding a talent like the Stifle Tower would make this already menacing unit that much more lethal to square off against for an opposing squad, while also having little to no impact on their fourth-ranked offense.
The additions of Tony Bradley and Georges Niang would essentially be just to match salaries, but would also add both depth at the center slot behind Gobert &, presumably, Robert Williams III and would potentially aid in the C’s quest to improve their second unit 3-point shooting prowess, as Niang is a career 38.7 percent shooter from deep.
Trade to make Cs title favorites No. 3) Giannis Antetokounmpo Blockbuster
Another year, another Finals-less campaign for the megastar Giannis Antetokounmpo. With the team’s second-round dismissal from the postseason, many are speculating that the reigning two-time league MVP might want a change of scenery this offseason.
Should this happen, every team will likely be inquiring for the man’s services… including, obviously, the Boston Celtics.
It’s a well-known fact that, regardless of which team he ends up on at the start of the 2020-21 season, they’ll find themselves in the upper-echelon of the NBA’s title-odds. Add him to an already menacing group like the Cs, and you’ve got the makings of a pure dynasty should he be paired with rising superstar himself Jayson Tatum and the 2020 All-Star snub, Jaylen Brown.
The 3-team trade above involving the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat, and Boston was actually concocted in a recent article penned by my co-editor Andrew Hughes. In it, he went into depth about why each team would consider doing this deal:
"Why the Boston Celtics do it: The Cs obviously get the best player in the deal in Antetokounmpo, but they also get a legitimate starting point guard in Eric Bledsoe and two veteran bench pieces in Andre Iguodala and Kelly Olynyk. With a big-3 of Antetokounmpo, Tatum, and Brown and a starting lineup rounded out by the defensively sturdy Bledsoe and Daniel Theis, this deal fills in the blanks on the bench next to Robert Williams and Brad Wanamaker/whoever else they fill in as the backup point guard. Why the Miami Heat do it: If Antetokoumpo is off the board after a deal with the Cs (and potential subsequent extension) the Heat could complement their two All-Stars with another 2020 All-Star in Walker and a former All-Star and former Heat target in Gordon Hayward. With their cap tied to their new star quartet, the Heat can fill out their roster with undervalued free agents and undrafted rookies–you know, like they usually do. Why the Milwaukee Bucks do it: If Antetokounmpo isn’t going to come back next year no matter what, and the team as currently constructed isn’t going to win a title with no clear path to improvement, the Bucks need to maximize whatever return they can get. This deal gives them a plug-in All-Defensive First Team guard in Marcus Smart, a potential star in Tyler Herro, an ideal sixth man in Kendrick Nunn, and three first-round picks from Boston. One of those picks could be the Bucks’ own 2020 first-rounder that the Cs acquired in the Aron Baynes trade with Phoenix, and one can certainly be the 2020 lottery pick via Memphis. No matter what, this combination of fringe stardom from Smart, potential stardom in Herro, and draft capital from Boston (with a nifty role-player in Nunn thrown in) is the best return Milwaukee can get in a return."
In my personal opinion, this partnership between Antetokounmpo and the Celtics would reach it’s highest potential should the All-Star big agree to fill in at the pivot for Boston, thus creating the truest example of positionless basketball the league would have to offer.
From Eric Bledsoe and Jaylen Brown to Jayson Tatum and Antetokounmpo, there would be an abundance of options in which the Cs could opt to use as a primary ball-handler in any given possession, keeping the opposing defense on their tows virtually the entire time.
While a large chunk of the team’s depth would be shipped out to make the numbers and, frankly, the deal work, with as much star power as this under one roof it would likely be pretty easy for the Celtics to entice talented free agents looking for a chance to “win now” to sign for the league’s Mid-Level Exception or less.
A big-3 consisting of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown would easily be the best that the league would have to offer and, thus, would immediately catapult them into the top-2 conversation for title favorites heading into the year.