Boston Celtics: 3 “untouchable” players only Cs could realistically afford

The Boston Celtics have a tremendous group of assets filled with both young and established talents. Because of this, in any hypothetical trade scenario, they would have a leg up on most franchises.

The Boston Celtics come into this season yet again finding themselves projected to be within the upper-echelon of the Eastern Conference standings, as many analysts familiar with the NBA expect the team to have a top-5 finish come the regular season’s end.

Their illustrious status has a lot to do with their plethora of top-tier talents found on the roster, including All-Stars Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum, arguable All-Star snub Jaylen Brown, and perennial NBA All-Defensive First-Team selection/ Swiss Army man Marcus Smart, just to name a few.

Even without the likes of Walker — who is expected to miss at least the first month of regular-season action as he recovers from a nagging knee issue — the C’s prospects are still rather high thanks to their second-best wing duo in the league in Tatum and Brown.

However, some believe that the team should still consider making moves to better their roster, with one recent report by ESPN’s Bobby Marks suggesting that they should get in on the James Harden, adding that they would have “the most appealing package for Harden.”

While we don’t necessarily want Boston to actively pursue the former league MVP, as it would cost more than we at HH would like the Celtics to part with, we cannot argue with Marks’ logic in regard to them being able to piece together an insanely enticing package.

With this, we got to thinking — with the assets in which the Cs currently have in tow, what other top-shelf players around the league could they afford?

No, we are not suggesting they pursue any blockbuster deals at the moment. That said, we do believe there are a few specific superstars around the association that perhaps only what the shamrocks could provide could entice their respective franchises to consider parting ways with them.

Because of this, today the Houdini presents to you 3 “untouchable” players that perhaps only Boston could realistically afford:

Player only the Boston Celtics could afford No. 1) Luka Doncic

Let me make this clear — ALL of the players that will be mentioned on this list are unbelievably unlikely to be had by the Boston Celtics — or, frankly, any other team than the one they are currently on –, but this one is easily the MOST unlikely.

That said, this doesn’t take away from the fact that in comparison to the rest of the league, the Cs are one of the only teams that could make the Maverick’s front office consider doing a move such as dealing their franchise cornerstone.

In a past article by Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report, he suggested a self-titled “absurd” trade involving Boston and Dallas that would send out Jayson Tatum and a first-round pick in exchange for Luka Doncic.

Of course, starting off by stating that there is “less than a zero percent chance” that the Slovenian star would be traded, he would go on to say that “it would take a young centerpiece and more to even make the Mavs think, and that’s exactly what the Celtics would pony up in this exchange.”

Despite what some of you may think, we here at HH are not crazy — obviously, Doncic is untouchable, and this scenario would never happen.

However, in the same vein as Doncicn, so too is Jayson Tatum, and he seemingly has been viewed as an untouchable since his second season in the league, where Danny Ainge refused to even consider trading him for the likes of Anthony Davis.

With this in mind, as was stated in Buckley’s article, in order to give up an untouchable, you’d have to receive an untouchable.

The Celtics could feasibly be able to afford such an exchange and more with what they currently have in tow.