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

Player only the Boston Celtics could afford No. 2) Kawhi Leonard

The idea of the Boston Celtics and Kawhi Leonard uniting is nothing new to both fans and, frankly, the internet.

In fact, it was reported that during the Leonard-Spurs fiasco of 2018, the Cs were “heavily engaged” in trade talks with San Antonio to land the likes of the superstar.

Ultimately, however, they opted to keep their young guns of Tatum and Brown in tow, and Kawhi landed in Toronto where he went on to win a championship.

Since then, it has also been rumored that Boston has some regret about not striking a deal.

Should the Los Angeles Clippers — his current team — underwhelm yet again as they did in 2019-20, the 29-year-old could find himself wanting out once more and, if the Cs were still interested in his services, could certainly come up with an enticing enough package to land the 2x NBA Finals MVP.

In the article by B/R listed in the slide above, we saw a section of the piece where Leonard heads to Boston in exchange for Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams III, Romeo Langford, and a first-round draft pick.

Writer Zach Buckley’s reasoning for why the Clippers would consider this should things go south with their All-Star was quite simple — Brown, himself, is a star in the making:

"Brown has made a leap since then and merited All-Star consideration this season. He’s still a weight class or two behind Leonard, but he remains a solid centerpiece in a theoretical Leonard trade. If the Clippers think their formula is flawed—they blew a 3-1 lead in the conference semifinals and could lose Leonard or Paul George to free agency next offseason—this would bring back multiple building blocks, plus a lottery pick."

Swapping out a potentially disgruntled star for a young franchise centerpiece is most certainly not a bad haul, and is something the Cs could afford — though like we suggested in the introduction slide, we don’t necessarily hope they do a move this big.