Boston Celtics: B/R proposes one “surprise trade” to land a star center

In a recent article, Bleacher Report concocted a trade in which the Boston Celtics could land their solution at the center position.

Coming into the 2019-20 campaign, it was a well-noted notion that the Boston Celtics should seriously consider bolstering their center talent at some point throughout the campaign.

After losing Al Horford to free agency, Danny Ainge’s solution was to thrust third-year big Daniel Theis into the starting lineup, while having Robert Williams and newly-signed veteran center Enes Kanter as oft utilized backups.

Now, a little over a year since this plan took to the regular season, it’s evident that this perceived weak spot within the rotation still needs some fine-tuning should they wish to finally get over the hump in the Eastern Conference and advance to their first NBA Finals in over a decade.

In a recent article by Bleacher Report entitled 1 Surprise Trade Idea for Every NBA Team writer Grant Hughes created a plan in which the shamrocks could finally find their answer at the center slot.

The plan: acquire Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz for Gordon Hayward, Daniel Theis, and three 2020 first-round picks (Nos. 14, 26, and 30).

Hughes’ reasoning reads as follows:

"Gordon Hayward’s return to the Jazz would be awkward, but they could buy him out if the vibes got too weird. If everyone could get over the events that led to Hayward’s departure in 2017, he’d have real value on a Donovan Mitchell-led team that should compete for a top-four spot in the Western Conference.As would Daniel Theis, obviously a defensive downgrade from Gobert but still a playoff-tested starting center who’ll only cost $5 million. Both he and Hayward will have to opt in to their 2020-21 salaries for this trade to be possible.Boston would get a defensive superstar it could re-sign as part of its contending core (hopefully somewhere short of the supermax) or use in a one-year push for a championship before recalibrating in 2021. The three first-rounders heading to the Jazz hardly matter, as the Boston roster and its looming tax situation mean it can’t afford to add three first-round contracts. Though this trade almost certainly won’t happen in reality, you can bank on the actual Celtics moving at least one of those picks prior to the draft."

This is not the first time we’ve seen the likes of the “Stifle Tower” intertwined in hypothetical trade scenarios with the Boston Celtics — we’ve concocted several of our own.

The 2x Defensive Player of the Year and 4x NBA All-Defensive First-Team selection just wrapped up one of his best seasons during his seven-year career in the NBA.

Through 68 games Gobert posted impressive averages of 15.1 points, 13.5 rebounds, and two blocks per game on 69 percent shooting from the field.

His presence in Beantown would easily give the Cs their most dominant big man since the days of Kevin Garnett and, should it be possible to acquire him for the proposed deal (or something similar to it) I see no reason why Boston shouldn’t pursue the 28-year-old center.