The news cycle over the past few days has been dominated by the possibility–if not the downright reality–that the Boston Celtics were on the verge of making a move on the trade market.
Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer joined NBCSports’ Chris Forsberg’s “The Early Edition” and spoke at length about what Danny Ainge may be up to:
"“We’ll see what opportunities come up over the next month ahead of the deadline. But it was weird, honestly, on Saturday night. Like out of nowhere I had two separate people text me that ‘Hey, the Celtics are up to something’ and then I check with other people that I trust a lot and everybody was saying it seems that they are up to something, they’re on the prowl looking for a player out there. It’s still unclear who though,” O’Connor said. “I mean, you look around the league, Danny Ainge himself said recently about looking for a bigger player who can shoot. Maybe a guy like Thaddeus Young could play some small-ball five for you, a P.J. Tucker from the Rockets, a versatile wing. There’s good role players to be had out there and for Boston, they have enough assets and enough first-round draft picks where if they decide to if the price is right — I do think Boston will be able to make a move if the price is right.”"
Judging by the looks of it, something could be up. While O’Connor specifically brought up Thaddeus Young and P.J. Tucker, a more intriguing name has popped up as an option for the Cs and was even name-dropped as a target by his own team’s market’s most prominent newspaper, the Sacramento Bee–who noted that Boston fans and media members have mentioned this former champion as an option:
"Kings general manager Monte McNair might have to make a big decision regarding Harrison Barnes in the coming weeks as the March 25 trade deadline approaches. If McNair is willing to entertain offers for Barnes, there could be at least one team coveting the services of the 28-year-old forward from North Carolina. Boston Celtics fans and the Boston sports media have identified Barnes as one of the top potential targets for Celtics president Danny Ainge."
Barnes is a battle-tested veteran who has served as the main option before (in Dallas before Luka Doncic arrived) and as a tertiary offensive weapon (with Golden State and now in Sacramento).
If the Boston Celtics wanted to add Barnes, here are two different ways they can do so: