Boston Celtics: 4 Rockets to pursue NOT named James Harden

Eric Gordon

With the aforementioned $28.5 million trade exception, the Boston Celtics can take on a higher salary that is undesirable to the team that pays it. Given where the Rockets are right now with the Harden situation, $16 million annually for Eric Gordon may register as just that.

Gordon can still play, but he hasn’t given Houston much return on their investment. He gave them 14 points on 37/32/76 shooting, which isn’t bad for a mid-level exception signing. Gordon makes more than Marcus Smart does, though, so as one of the main offensive weapons with the Rockets, the fit isn’t a good one.

As one of several sharpshooting wings–along with Aaron Nesmith–on the Cs bench, his value would be significantly higher.

Ben McLemore

In the same vein as Gordon, Ben McLemore is a sharpshooting deep threat that would add a scoring punch to a Boston Celtics bench that only scored 26.5 points per game, good (or rather not good) for last alongside the Portland Trailblazers.

Portland has a higher usage starting lineup than Boston, though. Far too many occasions saw the team get little scoring from the likes of Semi Ojeleye and Brad Wanamaker, who got significant playing time for the Cs in 2019-20.

McLemore taking 3-pointers instead of those two is a better situation for everyone.