Boston Celtics: 2 offseason trades for Cs to land Damian Lillard

Trade idea No. 2) Boston Celtics land new starting point guard and center

The problem we have with the first trade — other than the fact that we see Jaylen Brown leaving us — is that, even with Lillard’s immediate impact that he’d bring, the Boston Celtics would still find themselves strapped for cash whilst possessing plenty of holes within the rotation that need filling.

Like we said, if the Cs wish to acquire the superstar guard, they’ll need to part ways with Brown.

However, just because the two are imperative to make any deal work between both Portland and Boston, this is not to say more assets from both sides can’t be thrust into a package along with them.

This trade sees a few more moving pieces attached but, in all honesty, it may be the more ideal scenario to pursue.

Now, many may expect that adding Kemba Walker’s contract into the mix may be an obvious turnout and, in other proposals we’ve seen across the media landscape — admittedly, including some of our own from the past — this has been the case.

However, with how lowly his contract is viewed, Portland would easily be more inclined to just bypass the inclusion of the former All-Star in a deal.

Fine.

Instead, what we see to make salaries work is the inclusion of Tristan Thompson once again along with Robert Williams III, Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard, two future firsts, two seconds, and, perhaps the biggest loss of the assets not named Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart.

In turn, the Trail Blazers send the Boston Celtics Damian Lillard (the whole point of this article) as well as two players in Jusuf Nurkic and Robert Covington that could easily play major roles in a complete franchise turnaround.

Obviously, with Lillard, the impact he would bring to the Cs would be immeasurable.

With Nurkic coming aboard, Boston nabs a talented starting center with impressive size (7-foot, 290-pounds) who, throughout his five-year tenure in Portland has posted averages of 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.4 blocks on 49 percent shooting from the floor.

On top of this, the Cs also are getting a hard-nosed, defensive-minded veteran presence in Covington who can guard seemingly any position, space the floor (shot 38 percent from deep this past season), and who could at the very least try to replace the ever-present presence of Smart and his intense on-court energy and antics.

This trade, in specific, may see a large amount of turnover for both ball clubs, but in the long run could prove to be mutually beneficial, especially considering that, in this scenario, Lillard wants out of Rip City.

The Boston Celtics plug some rather large holes within their rotation that could close the gap between their most recent first-round exit and legitimate championship contention while the Portland Trail Blazers bring on a bevy of young assets, a building block in Jaylen Brown, two expiring contracts, and draft capital.