As time begins to dwindle down on the 2020-21 trade season, Boston Celtics fans are seeing their favorite franchise’s name pop up in rumors galore.
Most recently, the buzz that has hit the mainstream is that the Cs are interested in Orlando Magic power forward Aaron Gordon, and are viewed as the frontrunners to attain his services.
However, many are still under the impression that a move should be made for a legitimate center rather than a four. Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey seems to be one of those people and recently concocted another deal with the Magic that would seemingly fill their void at the pivot.
The concept Bailey came up with is quite simple: trade for Gordon’s frontcourt mate, Nikola Vucevic instead.
Bleacher Report proposes deadline deal for Boston Celtics to land Nikola Vucevic
The proposed trade package reads as follows:
A seemingly low-cost deal in exchange for an All-Star big man, the article would go on to state that Vucevic’s presence with the Boston Celtics could help alleviate the perimeter defensive pressures that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown feel when with the ball in hand, while his dominant stature would be an unquestioned overall upgrade down low:
"With him inside, perimeter defenders wouldn’t be able to focus as much on Tatum and Brown outside. And Vuc can invert that too with his ability to shoot the three. When he spaces the floor, bigs have to follow him. That opens driving lanes for teammates.Using the $28.5 million trade exception created by the Gordon Hayward deal to bring Vuc in would vault the Celtics back into the contenders’ picture.The cost would probably be steep, though. Vucevic is a near-7-footer who can dominate the glass, score inside, hit threes, pass and play solid positional defense. The Magic moving him would likely coincide with a philosophical shift to tanking. So, it’ll need to be worth their while.But the Celtics have all their future picks, and their recent draft record on selections outside the top three isn’t stellar. It’s unlikely that the eventual combined value of the 2021 and 2023 picks would be equal to what Vucevic can give Boston now and for the next couple of years."
Last season, perhaps the biggest reason as to why the Boston Celtics didn’t make it past the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals was because of their inability to slow down big man Bam Adebayo.
The big-bodied Nikola Vucevic’s presence alone could potentially be enough to intimidate virtually any opposing center in the league while his overall talent level (averaging 24.6 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists on 48 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent shooting from deep) would easily be the highest in which we’ve seen the Cs have had at the pivot since Kevin Garnett.
Frankly, we here at the Houdini see this hypothetical trade proposal as one certainly worth Ainge casting out there. The only question is, would the Magic be willing to bite?