Though the injury bug has chomped down hard on the Boston Celtics this season, they still find themselves in the upper echelon of teams in the Eastern Conference standings.
Bosting a record of 11-8, Beantown sits soundly in the fourth seed thanks, in large, to the early season dominance of their two young studs, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Each averaging 26+ points, 5+ rebounds, 3+ assists, and nabbing over a steal per game on over 42 percent shooting from deep, with the wings running the show, coupled with the recent return of potential X-factor in All-Star point guard Kemba Walker, 2020-21 should prove to be quite a successful season for the Cs.
That said, if they ultimately wish to reach their first NBA Finals in over a decade, they’ll likely want to make some sort of moves between now and the start of the postseason to better round out the rest of their roster.
The Boston Celtics should be hell-bent on utilizing their $28.5 M TPE
For us at the Houdini, the means in which we prefer the Boston Celtics to upgrade their rotation is via the trade route, as they currently are in possession of a historic $28.5 million Traded Player Exception and, as of this writing, have yet to utilize it.
In the past, we’ve presented you with many players Danny Ainge and co. could consider targeting with their TPE.
Today, we present to you 3 new names that could be considered:
(** Article was submitted prior to Tuesday night’s game **)
Boston Celtics TPE target No. 1) Teerrence Rosss
In the past, we’ve stated that the Orlando Magic would be an ideal trade partner for the Boston Celtics, though in these writings we discussed how Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic are the names that should be targeted.
While we still believe that Ainge and co. should pursue these two aforementioned bigs, another player they could consider inquiring about is forward Terrence Ross.
In the midst of yet another impressive season, the 29-year-old is posting per-game averages of 14.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game on 41 percent shooting from the floor and 34 percent shooting from deep, all while coming off the pine.
Currently, the C’s bench unit ranks in at 24th in points per game and is a middle of the pack 14th in offensive rating.
Adding Ross into the mix — an early Sixth Man of the Year candidate — would certainly help boost all these standings, while also giving the team that fourth double-digit score they’ve been missing since Hayward’s departure this offseason.