Boston Celtics: 3 high-risk, high-reward free agents Cs could sign

The Boston Celtics have already made some noteworthy and much-needed shakeups to their organization that has impacted the front office, the team’s roster, and, most recently, their coaching staff (welcome to Boston coach Ime Udoka).

However, though the team seems to be off to a scorching-hot start to their offseason transactions, one mustn’t envision the Cs fizzling out any time soon, for there are many who believe this team will wind up looking completely different come 2021-22 when in comparison to this past year, thus meaning there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Unfortunately, even with the trade that sent Kemba Walker to the OKC Thunder last week, the money saved from the move still isn’t enough to make Boston a likely threat to nab the bigger names from this year’s free agency class.

Because of this, Brad Stevens and co. will have to get creative with their spending and pursue players that, perhaps, will not be the most highly sought-after commodities on the open market.

In the Houdini’s opinion, this 2021 free agent class has a plethora of high-risk, high-reward players that could be worth taking a chance on for a cash-strapped team like the Boston Celtics.

Here are 3, in specific, we believe the franchise should consider pursuing:

Boston Celtics target No. 1) Elfrid Payton

Perhaps the least glamorous name that will be found on this list, Elfrid Payton is coming off of easily his worst season as an NBA player.

In 63 contests played with the New York Knicks, the seventh-year veteran posted measly averages of 10.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game, and, in the postseason, he even wound up being sidelined for good after just two games.

Now, heading into free agency, many will undoubtedly have some recency bias when analyzing Payton, which certainly will not bode well for him from a financial perspective.

This is exactly why he may be a solid buy-low option for the Boston Celtics to consider.

No, we’re not going to suggest that his 2020-21 season was better than it may have appeared — it wasn’t!

That said, it’s certainly plausible that a big reason for why he performed so poorly was due to the scheme that was being run in New York, with Julius Randle playing the role of primary ball-handler which, in turn, forced the 26-year-old to play off-ball.

This is not a recipe for success when it comes to a guy like Elfrid Payton.

Referred to as somewhat of a Rajon Rondo-lite player, the point guard is best served as a team’s primary floor-general; someone who can set up an offense and get his teammates clean looks at a bucket — averaged 11.2 assists per 100 possessions prior to this past season.

Last season, the Cs were heavily dependent on isolation sets (seventh in the league in field-goal attempts in this fashion), as they had no real set-up option to help find players for uncontested scoring opportunities (finished 27th in assist percentage as a team).

With his strengths, Elfrid Payton’s presence could help Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown get less-cluttered looks at the basket which, in turn, could wind up helping Boston’s offensive flow significantly.

We’ve been saying for a while now that a quality set-up artist could be a sound and much-needed addition for this team, and Payton could prove to be a low-cost option for this team to consider trying out.