Boston Celtics: “Pass or Pursue” on 3 recently linked free agent targets
By Mark Nilon
The Boston Celtics are a team in the midst of a late-season resurgence, as they’ve managed to rattle off eight wins in 10 games and now, due to their recent success, are found slotted in at the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference with an overall record of 31-27.
With a closely contested race in the East’s standings, there’s a very real possibility that the Cs can jump all the way up to a top-5 seed come year’s end and, in turn, lock up first-round home-court advantage, thus strengthening their chances at seeing yet another deep playoff run.
However, unless they can overcome all odds and somehow find a way to outduel the Philadelphia 76ers or the obviously more menacing Brooklyn Nets, the 2020-21 season will end like the majority have over the past decade — without an NBA Finals berth.
At the end of the day, if you’re not winning championships you’re building up your team in an effort to do so, and, for most organizations, the journey starts in the offseason via either the NBA Draft or free agency.
In regard to the latter, unfortunately for Boston, Danny Ainge and co. currently have little wiggle room when it comes to offseason spending, as they are projected to have little more than the MLE at their disposal to pursue other team’s opposing free agents.
However, even still, there are a few quality targets the shamrocks could find themselves targeting and, recently, Bleacher Report writer, Greg Swartz, put together a list discussing 3 specific players the front office could be interested in.
With this article, it sparked the desire for us at HH to push out yet another installment of our favorite series we call “Pass or Pursue”, where we discuss whether or not the Boston Celtics should sit out on going after a specific player, or if they should actively try to sign them.
So, without further adieu, let’s get started:
Boston Celtics target No. 1) Otto Porter Jr.
Viewed as a legitimate target at this past trade deadline as well as a potential buyout candidate the Cs could consider thereafter, Otto Porter Jr. looks set to stay in the Sunshine State with the Orlando Magic till season’s end where, as his inclusion on this list can infer, he’ll be heading into unrestricted free agency.
The third overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Porter clearly has the potential to be a quality player in this league and, even with injuries throughout his eight-year career, he still boasts averages of 10.9 points, five boards, and 1.1 steals per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent shooting from deep which, without a doubt, would be a great addition to the C’s bench.
Unfortunately, however, even with these per-game averages, impressive shooting splits, and solid fit (on paper) in Boston’s second unit, when looking at a player like the 27-year-old wing it’s hard not to look at his health issues throughout the years.
Since entering the league, Porter has only managed to play in 75 or more games on three separate occasions. He has dealt with a myriad of separate ailments throughout his career which, sadly, has affected his overall potential.
When healthy, we’ve seen him post well north of 15 points per game on 48 percent shooting from both the field and from deep (see his stats from his first 17 games in Chicago), and even saw glimpses of such production early on in this current campaign.
Still, the concept of bringing on an injury-prone player to a team that was hindered significantly throughout this entire year seems a bit troublesome to the Houdini.
We hope Otto Porter Jr. finds sustained health from this point forward in his career, but it’s our belief that the Celtics should steer clear from taking a chance on the wing.