Boston Celtics: 2 trades to land All-Star center Rudy Gobert
By Mark Nilon
Trade for Rudy Gobert to Boston Celtics No. 1) Hayward heads back to Utah
As we mentioned in the introduction slide, the idea of the Boston Celtics trading for Rudy Gobert is certainly nothing new to us here at HH. Because of this, over the past few months, we’ve gone about and concocted several hypothetical trades involving the French big-man making his way to Beantown.
Just a few short weeks ago, we put together the deal you see above from an article discussing 3 trades that would make the Cs instant title favorites.
Our reasoning for why this deal makes sense is essentially the same as it was then:
"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."
In turn, Utah reunites with their former face of the franchise who, despite a few ups and downs since leaving Salt Lake City, is coming off of a stellar regular season in which he posted averages of 17.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists per game on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 38 percent from deep.
Adding him to a lineup already consisting of current face of the franchise, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Joe Ingles would make them a true powerhouse offensive core.
Bringing on Daniel Theis to replace the All-Star center down low — ranked behind ONLY Gobert in real defensive plus-minus and can help better space the floor on offense (34 percent career 3-point shooter) — would serve as a solid swap-out, while the No. 14 pick could be used to add on yet another talent in the upcoming draft who could one day develop into the franchise’s next-great big.