Boston Celtics: 3 buy-low trade targets Cs should consider

Boston Celtics buy-low candidate No. 3) DeMarcus Cousins, Houston Rockets

Ok, so before you jump to the comments section and blow up on this idea, we implore you to hear us out.

We understand that DeMarcus Cousins has had his bouts with injuries over the past several seasons. We also understand that he has a reputation of being a “trouble maker.”

All things considered, however, a player of his caliber at just $1.6 million on a one-year deal is easily something a center-starving team like the Boston Celtics should at the very least consider pursuing.

Playing for a new deal this offseason, it is obviously in Boogie’s best interest to ball out and be on his best behavior in 2020-21.

With this, I’m sure you’ll want to bring up that he is averaging only 5.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game and the fact that he has been ejected twice already this season as reasons to be trepidatious about such a move.

However, if one would actually look into the specifics as to why these aforementioned aspects to his current campaign exist, you’d be less apprehensive and more aligned with our logic.

First, let’s start with the ejections.

The first came during a January 4th game against the Dallas Mavericks, where the big-man was called for two technical fouls.

‘T’ number one came when he stepped in to defend teammate John Wall, who was entangled with Willie Cauley-Stien under the basket. ‘T’ number two came after he showed a facial expression and raised his hands in disagreement and shock after not receiving an and-one call on a layup.

His second ejection came this past Sunday, where he was called for a flagrant-two foul when contesting a layup attempt by LeBron James.

Granted, Cousins did already have a technical foul from earlier in this game after getting into it with Markieff Morris but, even this was justified, as he was simply sticking up for his teammate who was shoved by the forward with no call in response.

As anyone could tell from the clip that is circulating around the internet, a flagrant foul being called against the former All-Star was asinine, as the only thing Boogie did was scrape off some hair dye from the top of James’ scalp.

Now, as for his underwhelming numbers this season, we can sum this up rather quickly: it’s due to the emergence of Christian Wood.

Signed to a lucrative 3-year, $41 million deal this offseason, it was obvious that the Rockets were planning on him being a highly utilized player in their system and, being he plays center, minutes were expected to be sporadic for Cousins.

Add in the fact that the younger Wood (25-years-old) is posting stellar averages of 23.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game on 54 percent shooting from the field and you see exactly why Cousins has seen a career-low in minutes to start the year.

If you want to go even further, when you peep the center’s per 36-minute conversions, he is posting 16.6 points, 15.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 3.8 blocks per game.

While these types of arguments involving such conversions are typically based on hypotheticals, we’ve actually seen the man perform at even greater heights throughout his career, and is just three years removed from averaging 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 35 percent shooting from deep.

Yes, the man sustained a few serious injuries since then, including a torn Achilles and ACL but, frankly, at his price-range coupled with his potential, getting someone who at worst can bring you averages of a double-double and serve as a competent floor-spacing big is easily a move worth considering.

The presence of Wood already makes him somewhat expendable. Similar to our thoughts on P.J. Tucker, should Harden make his way out of Houston, the Rockets could find themselves taking part in some sort of fire sale this season.