Despite the fact that the Boston Celtics held zero selections of note heading into this year’s NBA Draft, the majority of buzz over the past month has found itself focused on the illustrious event.
Now, with June 29th in the rearview, fans and media alike can get back to discussing events on the offseason calendar that the Cs actually have somewhat of a chance at coming away from as relative winners.
Despite their lacking salary space, Boston could actually still find themselves being relatively active during August’s free agency period.
Though there are quite a few noteworthy names that top-off this year’s class such as Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, and DeMar DeRozan, intertwined in this group are solid players who realistically could serve as true difference makers for the shamrocks should they be willing to sign for the right price.
No, we’re not insinuating that a player like Mike Conley is going to settle for the Mid-Level Exception so that he can join a Boston Celtics team that is coming off of its worst season since 2014-15.
However, there are some players who could prove to have a similar impact on the Cs that, in theory, could wind up signing in Beantown on a team-friendly deal.
Today, we discuss 3 players we believe should be heavily pursued by Brad Stevens and co. this summer:
Free-agent Boston Celtics should heavily pursue No. 1) Evan Fournier
First up on the docket, we have a rather obvious name that should be high on the front office’s list of free-agent targets in sharpshooting wing, Evan Fournier.
Traded to the Boston Celtics back at the March 25th deadline, the ninth-year veteran proved to be an unbelievably efficient tertiary scoring option alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the rotation, and his numbers certainly back up this claim.
Now, while his scoring averages may have dropped once suiting up for the Celtics in comparison to his near 20 point per game numbers early on in the year — dipped to 13 points per game in Boston –, this was to be expected as he was finding himself sharing the offensive load with several other dominant scorers rather than just one while in Orlando (Nikola Vucevic).
What we should acknowledge about his production whilst in green and white was his efficiency as a shooter, where he converted on 43 percent of his twos, 46 percent of his threes, and boasted a whopping 75 percent efficient field goal percentage on catch-and-shoot attempts.
Frankly, it’s not hard to see why many believe re-signing Evan Fournier this offseason should be a must for this organization, as he’s viewed as the third-best forward available on the open market and the Cs, luckily, own his Bird rights.
However, striking a deal with him may not exactly be a walk in the park, for his production both last season as well as during this summer’s Olympic games could make him a hot commodity in free agency.
We’ve already gone on record to state that there are quite a number of teams that could pose a threat to steal Fournier away this offseason and, should he continue his stellar play in Tokyo, this aforementioned list could wind up expanding.
Because of this, the Boston Celtics will likely have their work cut out for them should they wish to re-up with the French-born baller and, frankly, we believe he could prove to be worth it in the long run.