The Boston Celtics may have had a rough go at it during this past season, but the summer of 2021 has gotten off to a hot start as they embark on the road back to respectability.
After going just 36-36 during the regular season and being bounced in the first round of the playoffs by means of gentleman’s sweep against the Brooklyn Nets, the C’s front office took little time to snap into action after their offseason was kicked off rather prematurely.
In his first act as President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens made a salary-shedding move that sent Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a return package centered around Al Horford.
Soon after, he managed to involve himself in yet another noteworthy move, this time by agreeing to terms with Ime Udoka to serve as his replacement on the sidelines as the newest head coach for the Boston Celtics.
Now, after such a riveting start to his tenure running the show, fans are seemingly at the edge of their seats, waiting for any semblance of information relating to another transaction Stevens could have the team partaking in.
Though rumblings have been rather quiet on the side of the Cs, this has not stopped the media from going into a frenzy of discussing players the franchise could theoretically look to trade for this offseason.
Perhaps the name that has received the most attention by fans when it comes to being linked to the Celtics is Washington Wizards star, Bradley Beal, who, according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, would ‘welcome a trade’ to Boston.
While we at HH have some reservations about seeing the team trade for the 2x All-Star, there’s no doubt that star power is all the rage in the modern-day NBA and, clearly, the idea of pairing the likes of Jayson Tatum and Beal together is an entertaining one to ponder on.
At the very least the Celtics should consider getting involved in talks pertaining to the guard, be it in an effort to either acquire him or to serve as a third party. Today, we discuss 2 blockbusters Stevens and co. should consider pursuing involving Bradley Beal:
Boston Celtics form menacing Big-3, Washington Wizards gear up for a rebuild
In the article we linked to in the previous slide, we stated that there are 2 players in which we believe should be off the table when it comes to talks pertaining to Bradley Beal; those players are Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams III.
Whether this ultimately costs them a realistic shot at acquiring Washington’s star guard or not remains to be seen — though many are under the impression that it would.
Until it is reported one way or the other, we will continue thinking up potential scenarios in which the shamrocks can snag Beal without giving up these aforementioned ballers, and today we present to you our latest go at making a trade work.
Here, we see Boston packaging together a deal centered around expiring contracts/ flippable assets in Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson, two promising young prospects in Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard, and, easily the biggest draw, the rights to four future first-round picks.
Giving up their franchise player would obviously send the organization towards a rebuild, so financial flexibility, draft picks, and young assets would be of great priority for Washington, and this trade would seemingly give them all of these things in one fell swoop.
As we mentioned already, Smart and Thompson are productive veterans on expiring deals who could be more so viewed as flippable assets come next season’s trade deadline to potentially nab the Wizards even more assets that better help their desire for a rebuild.
Nesmith and Pritchard both could be viewed as developmental commodities and potential building blocks moving forward, for the former really kicked things up a notch when receiving more minutes towards the end of the season — averaged 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds on 54 percent shooting from the floor and 45 percent shooting from deep during final 10 games of the season — while the latter was a constant contributor throughout the year.
A youth-movement core revolving around Rui Hachimura, Deni Avdija, Thomas Bryant (once recovered from his torn ACL), Payton Pritchard, and Aaron Nesmith is by no means a bad place to start for a team trying to find its identity.
As for the Boston Celtics, they obviously get perhaps the biggest name that could potentially be on the move this summer in Bradley Beal.
With this exchange, the Cs create a Big-3 that could give Brooklyn’s own star trio and run for their money as well as the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks’ as well.
Beal joins both Tatum and Brown in Beantown to formulate a trio that, last season, would have combined for a whopping 82.4 points per game.
Now, while the concept of parting with both Smart and Pritchard severely weakness an already putrid point guard rotation, with these stars in tow they could either try and entice someone looking to win a chip to join them in Boston on a super team-friendly deal or pursue pass-first, veteran minimum players on the open market to merely help them get cleaner looks at a bucket.
Boston Celtics take part in a 3-team deal that lands Bradley Beal in Dallas
As we said in the introduction slide, the idea of getting involved in Bradley Beal trade talks doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the Boston Celtics who have to end up with him at the end of the day.
Often in the NBA, when a blockbuster move takes place, it comes in the form of a multi-team exchange to help spread the financial burden across multiple organizations or, simply, to have teams bypass undesirable players.
Here, we see exactly this, as we propose the concept of shipping the star guard to Dallas to help Luka Doncic out a bit on the offensive side of the ball.
During this past postseason, it was evident that the Latvian-born superstar needs more help around him, especially in the scoring department where he averaged 35.7 points during Dallas’ 7-game first-round bout against the Los Angeles Clippers and was even responsible for 10.3 more a night in the form of assists.
Even with these stellar numbers, the Mavericks were unable to come out of the Quarterfinals with a victory and a major factor in this unfortunate turnout was thanks in large to their lack of bucket buyers on offense.
Beal, of course, would be a fantastic shot-creator to run alongside Luka, as he’s one of the most prolific isolation scorers in the game today as he’s converted on over 51 percent of his unassisted field goal attempts — in comparison, the Mavs’ current sidekick to Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, converted on just 21.2 percent of such attempts.
As for Washington, they part ways with their franchise player but manage to bring back a talent who, though perhaps took a step back this past season, still managed to post per-game averages of 20.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor and 37.6 percent shooting from deep and is just 25-years-old.
He could serve as a tremendous floor-spacing frontcourt talent along with Davis Bertans to help clear the lane for the oft-driving Russell Westbrook (assuming they can’t find a taker for his contract) for him to either roam free in the paint or dish out drive-and-kicks.
Along with him, we see Jalen Brunson making his way to D.C to serve as a promising young understudy at the one (posted 12.6 points, 3.5 assists, and 3.4 rebounds on 52 percent shooting from the floor and 40.5 percent shooting from deep) as well as Dallas’ first-round pick from 2020 in Josh Green and the rights to five future first-round picks and two seconds courtesy of the Boston Celtics.
As seen in the graphic above, obviously these seconds are used to bring on the final year of veteran forward, Dorian Finney-Smith to help bolster the team’s bench as well as their forward rotation behind the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
At a price tag of just $4 million next season, the wing could be acquired by means of the Enes Kanter TPE, while his averages of 9.8 points and 5.4 rebounds on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 39 percent shooting from deep could prove to be rather valuable to the C’s 28th worst bench scoring unit and 23rd ranked offensive rating.