Boston Celtics: B/R believes trading Tristan Thompson is a “no-brainer”

The Boston Celtics got off to a hot start to the summer of 2021 after offloading Kemba Walker’s contract in Brad Stevens’ first move as President of Basketball Operations and then, shortly after, landing Ime Udoka to serve as the team’s next head coach.

However, for about a month now, things have been rather silent for the organization.

Because of this, fans of the franchise have simply been left waiting at the edge of their seats to see what’s next on the docket for Boston, with some believing that a blockbuster deal could be realistically on the table in the near future.

However, there are many others who believe that perhaps a more realistic expectation when it comes to the C’s potential trading escapades is that Stevens and co. will merely look to methodically continue shedding cap space, with Bleacher Report even predicting they’ll ‘duck’ the luxury tax, and even suggest trading Tristan Thompson could be an easy way to do this.

Citing his salary coupled with the team’s newly constructed center rotation, writer, Dan Favale, believes that trading the veteran should be viewed as a “no-brainer” move:

"His $9.7 million salary is expiring, and the Celtics have Horford, Moses Brown and Robert Williams III to populate their big-man rotation.A team on the periphery of the contender’s circle can always enter the tax and figure out how to duck it midseason. They have until the end of the year to do so. Boston’s situation feels like the inverse."

Now, while it’s hard to argue against the fact that during his first season with the Boston Celtics, Thompson provided a bevy of valuable aspects to the roster such as toughness, superb rebounding, and championship experience, with how Stevens has gone about and re-structured the team’s center rotation, it would appear the veteran is seemingly the odd-man-out in the frontcourt.

Because of this, in an effort to trim some more fat off of their over-inflated payroll, B/R believes the shamrocks should absolutely consider offloading the 30-year-old’s remaining year left on his deal.

We at HH can’t help but agree with this sentiment.