The Boston Celtics are a star-studded team with high-hopes as we trudge along through this condensed 72 game season in 2020-21.
After making it to within just two games of appearing in their first NBA Finals in over a decade last season, the Cs made a handful of adjustments this past offseason to try and strengthen their chances of getting over the proverbial hump that has stalled them in three of their past four campaigns.
That said, with the Philadelphia 76ers now fully healthy, the Milwaukee Bucks having gotten stronger this offseason with the Jrue Holiday deal, and the infamous James Harden trade to the Brooklyn Nets, the road to the 2021 NBA Finals has seemingly gotten tougher than originally expected.
The Boston Celtics should consider making more moves this season
Because of this, the Boston Celtics should seriously consider making moves at some point in the future to try and combat the star power these aforementioned ball clubs now possess.
One of the Houdini’s favorite routes to cover as to how they can go about bolstering their roster is via trade, where we’ve discussed many players to target over the past several months, weeks, days… essentially, all the time.
One idea we’ve talked about in the past is getting involved in a trade involving Victor Oladipo.
Despite having been traded to the Houston Rockets just a few weeks ago, it appears as though the shooting guard may not be long for Space City, as rumors are that the franchise may be open to moving him before the March 25th trade deadline.
Should a blockbuster go down involving the All-Star, we at HH believe the Celtics should be involved, and we have two ideas that would help better their chances at a championship by season’s end:
Trade No. 1) Boston Celtics land Victor Oladipo, Houston gets youth and picks
In this league, stars are seemingly the answer to winning a chip and, while the Boston Celtics have a few of their own in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kemba Walker, in comparison to the other championship-contending teams, they could still use for some more.
With this proposed trade, the Cs nab themselves a fourth in the likes of Oladipo.
Through 17 outings played this season, the 28-year-old is posting impressive averages of 20.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.4 steals per game on 41 percent shooting from the field and 34 percent shooting from deep.
Bringing on a guy like Oladipo would, in turn, give the Celtics one of the best two-way stars in the league to thrust into a starting lineup that would likely read as follows: Kemba Walker, Victor Oladipo, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Tristan Thompson.
On paper, it would appear Boston would have arguably the best all-around starting-lineup in the league and, in turn, should set them up nicely for a long and menacing postseason run.
As for the Houston Rockets’ side of this deal, with their decision to trade Harden this season it’s quite obvious the franchise is heading for a rebuild with an eye on the future.
In exchange for Oladipo, the team would bring on two players in their second seasons in 2019 lottery selection, Romeo Langford, and the seemingly improving scoring guard in Carsen Edwards.
On top of this, they also wind up receiving a 2023 first-round pick and two future second-round picks.
Trade No. 2) Cs get a sniper, Miami gets a big-3, Houston gets players and picks
A Victor Oladipo blockbuster involving the Boston Celtics doesn’t necessarily mean the shooting guard will wind up in Massachusetts. Instead, we give him his reported wish of heading to South Beach and formulating a new age Miami Heat big-3 alongside All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Despite their underwhelming 7-14 start to the season, let’s not forget the facts that they are still the defending Eastern Conference champions and that Butler missed nearly a month of action thus far due to COVID-19 complications.
Because of their low placement at the 13th seed in the conference standings, they could certainly use for more firepower to help thrust them back up the ranks. Oladipo, along with spark-plug scorer Ben McLemore could be two assets that could help them in such an effort right away.
As for the Houston Rockets, like the previous trade, they land a couple of draft picks to aid in their rebuilding efforts. On top of this, they also bring on some veteran assets to help them stay competitive in the now — Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk — for, remember, they don’t own the rights to any of their own picks for the foreseeable future and have John Wall and Christian Wood under contract, both of whom want to try to compete; with their current state, it’s wise of the franchise to collect picks while also still aiming to win.
However, one of the biggest pulls for the Rockets in this deal is the acquisition of second-year point guard Kendrick Nunn, who is coming off of an NBA All-Rookie First-Team campaign and is putting up 12.1 points, 3 boards, and 2.5 assists per game on 46 percent shooting from the field in his follow up season.
As for the Boston Celtics, they land the sharpshooter Duncan Robinson who, after a breakout 2019-20 season, is having yet another impressive campaign, averaging 13.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game on 44 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent shooting from downtown.
Adding him to Boston’s second unit would give them an offensive-minded asset to help them improve their 24th ranked points-per-game average (33), 28th ranked 3-pointers attempted average (10.2), and their middle of the pack 14th ranked offensive rating (56.6).