Boston Celtics: B/R underwhelmed by C’s offseason

The Houdini has been reletively underwhelmed by the 2020 offseason in regard to the Boston Celtics and so, too, has Bleacher Report.

Though it’s just been five days since the start of NBA Free Agency, in that short time span it appears Danny Ainge has made fans of the Boston Celtics franchise feel more dissatisfied and disappointed than they have in quite a while.

After finding ample success over the past several seasons during this specific period in the NBA’s league year, the Cs wound up striking out within the first 48-hours of free agency.

Easily their most polarizing miss was losing out on Gordon Hayward in free agency for nothing in return, as he opted to sign a 4-year, $120 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets. This move stung the Houdini — pun not intended –, as I’m sure it did many of you (perhaps even Hooligan, as well).

Though the team’s front office has managed to make a few sound moves in the days since this debacle, such as signing Jeff Teague and extending Jayson Tatum to a 5-year max deal, overall one may still wind up dealing their free agency period to this point as a relative failure in comparison to the promise they held when coming in.

Recently, Bleacher Report wrote an article picking and choosing the biggest winners and losers from the first weekend of free agency and, to no one’s surprise, deemed the Boston Celtics as one of their “losers.”

Writer Greg Swartz would go on to mainly state that this placement was largely due to their failure to live up to expectations:

"When the Celtics and Hayward mutually agreed to move Hayward’s option deadline back, it appeared something was in the works. A new, long-term extension in Boston? A sign-and-trade that would still bring in talent to Boston?"

Swartz would later bring up the failure from the team’s front office to get a sign-and-trade done involving Hayward heading to his preferred destination, the Indiana Pacers, due to rumored greed from Ainge himself:

"The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn reported that Hayward told the Celtics he wanted to play for the Indiana Pacers, who offered a trade package of Myles Turner and Doug McDermott. He also noted the Celtics wanted Turner and either Victor Oladipo or T.J. Warren back in the deal.Turner would have been the perfect answer at center for the Celtics as a big who can shoot from three and block shots, areas in which Thompson has failed thus far in his career. McDermott would also have been a useful rotation piece as a career 41.2 percent shooter from three who averaged a career-high 10.3 points per game this year.Instead of working something out with the Pacers and getting Turner to lock down the center position, the Celtics got greedy and wound up with nothing."

Losing Gordon Hayward by itself was not the reason why the Boston Celtics were penciled into the “losers” bracket, as Swartz listed the Hornets in said category as well, with the main reason being the fact that they shelled out such a hefty contract to the 30-year-old.

Instead, the reasoning for their placement was heavily influenced by the WAY in which they lost him, and the failure to execute some seemingly attainable transactions.

For a front office that has seen so much success over the better part of the past decade, the 2020 offseason has been quite a let down to this point. However, perhaps this is a result of such lofty expectations created by the media and the team’s loyal fanbase.