Boston Celtics: Daniel Theis trade not looking good right now

Perhaps it was rash of Danny Ainge to ship Daniel Theis off the Boston Celtics for the sake of avoiding an awkward contract negotiation standoff in the offseason. At this point, the deal is looking like a massive mistake for the Cs front office.

The idea behind it was a solid one: trade away one expiring contract for two. Ainge overlooked the issue of acquiring guys that had never been more than reserves in Luke Kornet and the already-released Moritz Wagner and not bringing in a solid hand veteran instead.

Now, on nights when the oft-injured Robert Williams is injured, the depth at the pivot is a glaring weakness. Last night, in a 22-point rout at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, Boston struggled to cobble together a respectable defensive front in the frontcourt with Tristan Thompson on the bench.

Kornet failed to make any significant dents in the rebounding battle in his 10 minutes on the floor, while whenever Grant Williams is active, the demand for a significant scheme departure is necessary with such an undersized 5 on the floor.

Ainge may want a mulligan on that Theis trade in hindsight.

Perhaps the greatest injustice to the German big man this season was Brad Stevens deploying him at the 4. Theis was never equipped to defend athletic tweener wings like Aaron Gordon, Kevin Durant or Pascal Siakam and was destined to underperform in that role.

His best minutes came at the 5 alongside Semi Ojeleye this year, but the rise of Robert Williams and the Thompson offseason signing dictated him being the odd man out.

As Masslive’s Brian Robb points out, Ainge should have had more of a contingency plan in the case that Kornet and Wagner didn’t take a significant leap forward:

Now, we’re here. Theis is in Chi-Town winning games for the Bulls (well, at the very least contributing with a nine-point, eight-rebound game last night) that won’t ultimately get them to their goals.

In a way, though, Chicago’s victory over the Boston Celtics on Friday night was a personal victory for Theis, after years of the “War on Theis” were waged on him during his days in Beantown.

As he enters free agency this offseason, Theis gets the chance to be featured on a Bulls team losing reasons to play their under-contract stars in order to earn his next payday. On the flipside, the Celtics have no room for error as they look to avoid having to qualify for the Eastern Conference quarterfinals after three conference finals trips in four seasons.

Forgive my pessimism, but the Daniel Theis trade is not looking good for the Boston Celtics in any tangible way at the moment. Who knows what it’s going to take to land him in the offseason, but his impending departure would have been no worse–and in fact would have probably been more helpful–than Kornet being pinned to the pine as Wagner finishes out the year in Orlando.