With the losses continuing to pile up for the Boston Celtics, it increasingly looks like we are in store for a busy trade deadline in 2021.
Luckily for Cs fans, the last time the team was this unsuccessful near the midway point, Danny Ainge rolled the dice on an undersized point guard serving as the third wheel in a floor general rotation in Phoenix that wasn’t cutting it.
In 2015, Ainge made a deal for Isaiah Thomas that has gone down in the history books as one of the great mid-season transactions in the history of the Celtics franchise. Perhaps things could similarly be turned around six years later as a year of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum’s early primes slip into malaise.
A move must be made, and Hardwood Houdini has been clamoring for one all season as the team has proven time and again that this is not a balanced enough roster. With the wings having the most serviceable depth of any position on the roster and the backcourt looking sturdy due to the stealthy draft choice of Payton Pritchard (and his subsequent breakout season), the frontcourt should be Ainge’s focus this trade season.
But who should he focus on?
Here’s how each trade block option stacks up in relation to who the Boston Celtics should pursue:
Boston Celtics big man trade target #6. Thaddeus Young
Thaddeus Young has been linked to the Cs by Kevin O’Connor, and while his disruptive length and rebounding (8.5 boards per-36 minutes) could be useful for the Celtics’ second unit (17th in rebounding league-wide), his 23% 3-point shooting would provide no spacing for a team that needs it for its slashers and drivers to have lanes to attack the rim.
Simply put, there are better uses of the Gordon Hayward TPE, and there are better players to be had if dangling the salaries of Tristan Thompson/Daniel Theis is on the table.