Boston Celtics: “Pass or Pursue” on 2 recently proposed Cs trades
By Mark Nilon
Proposed trade No. 1) Cs land George Hill, ship off youth
Perhaps the biggest concern Boston Celtics fans have coming into this season is the health of their franchise point guard, Kemba Walker who is expected to miss at least the first month of the regular season as he recovers from the nagging knee injuries that sidelined him often during the second half of last year’s campaign.
Because of this, the idea of having quality “insurance policies”, if you will, in the form of backup floor generals will be mightily important for the shamrocks throughout the entirety of the 2020-21 season.
According to writer Zach Buckley, this deal does exactly that for the Cs:
"Few players are more likely of a trade candidate than George Hill. He’s 34 years old, stranded on a rebuilder and down to the final fully guaranteed year of his contract."
"The Celtics would add some reliability to their backcourt with Hill. They need more experienced options, and his combo-guard game would be an easy fit with virtually anyone."
What is interesting (in a negative way) about this proposal is that we here at HH believe the Celtics already have a quality veteran point guard with ample experience in this league in Jeff Teague. Alongside him, Boston also has the likes of Marcus Smart as well as some youthful options in Tremont Waters and rookie Payton Pritchard who could easily find themselves fielding time at the one should Walker find himself out of the lineup.
With this in mind, why on earth would Danny Ainge and co. then go ahead and trade their 14th overall pick from last year’s draft in Romeo Langford AND Semi Ojeleye for a player that, in actuality, really doesn’t do much in regard to punching the needle forward.
We get that Langford’s rookie year was unbelievably underwhelming but, at the end of the day, he’s still only 21-years-old and entering just his second season.
Giving up on him this early for a player who really is not much better/ would not be much more impactful for this team than Teague is certainly a head-scratcher of an idea.