Boston Celtics: 3 most unlikely players to be on next year’s roster

The 2020-21 season has officially come to an end for the Boston Celtics, as they were ousted by means of a gentleman’s sweep in their best-of-seven first-round series against the star-studded Brooklyn Nets this past Tuesday.

Though in a way it’s tough to say we won’t have more Cs games to tune into for the remainder of this campaign, with how underwhelming they’ve been all season, it can actually be viewed as a bit of a relief for the fanbase and, frankly, the front office.

After finding themselves come within two games of reaching their first NBA Finals in over a decade last season down in the Lake Buena Vista bubble, the shamrocks followed things up with arguably the most disappointing season that any team had, recording a mere .500 record of 36-36, nabbing the seventh seed in the standings and, ultimately, being bounced from the playoffs in round one.

Now, heading into the offseason, there is much buzz surrounding what Danny Ainge and co. will look to do in an effort to get this team back into the title contention conversation and has gone as far as to say that he, Brad Stevens, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown are the only four members of the franchise guaranteed a spot on the payroll next season.

With these comments, many across the media landscape have gone about and discussed who they believe could be on the chopping block this summer.

For us at the Houdini, there are 3 players, in specific, that jump out as being the most unlikely contributors to return in 2021-22:

Boston Celtics player No. 1) Semi Ojeleye

Over the past several years that I’ve been at HH, we’ve done quite a few pieces discussing players likely to not return to the Cs come the following season and, almost every time, we’ve included Semi Ojeleye‘s name within the publication.

Now, while he has managed to stay put even after his various mentions, this time around we’re pretty confident in our decision to include him once again.

While he did manage to improve his long-range shooting this past campaign, converting on 37 percent of his attempts from this distance on nearly three shots a game, the 26-year-old seemingly managed to regress on the defensive side of the ball (once his claim to fame), as he’s tied for the worst defensive rating on the entire team at 116 and holds Boston’s worst defensive box plus-minus rating of -1.2 out of those who have logged over 500 minutes on the season.

a DNP in nearly half of their playoff games this year, the impending free agent’s fate has seemingly been sealed.

Though we’re not saying Semi Ojeleye doesn’t deserve a shot at competing for a roster spot in the NBA next season, when it comes to Boston’s payroll, we’re under the belief that the money that it would take to bring him back (regardless of how minimal it may be) would likely be better used elsewhere.

Based on how Brad Stevens has used him over the last two months, it likely will be.