Boston Celtics: How recent moves point to Cs signing Stephen Curry

After a quiet draft, the Boston Celtics had one of their most active offseason days in a long time, acquiring Josh Richardson, Kris Dunn, Bruno Fernando, and a second-round pick for Tristan Thompson and their remaining Gordon Hayward Traded Player Exception.

The two deals signaled two things — Brad intends to keep the Boston Celtics competitive with a good defense but is also looking towards next summer when the Cs can create a max slot if they move some money around.

Bradley Beal looks likely to be staying another year with the Washington Wizards despite them trading his co-star, Russell Westbrook, and the team headed towards a struggle to make the play-in.

One could logically assume Beal is out of his mind to waste another year of his career confined in Washington D.C., but some things on the outside are controlling his decision-making.

Jayson Tatum, a long-time friend of Beal’s, must have convinced him to stay during his days of contemplating putting in a trade request.

Boston was not going to trade Jaylen Brown for Bradley Beal, so the two St. Louis natives needed to work out a way to play together while not requiring the front office to give up its young star.

The 28-year-old scoring superstar has a player option in the summer of 2022, which he will likely opt-out of to enter free agency as the Wizards embrace a rebuild.

The market for Beal will be a competitive one, but the Boston Celtics have stacked the deck to their favor with just one card: Jayson Tatum.

The two’s friendship has been well-documented, and their dream of playing together has been well known. Next summer, they can make their dream come true, and all of Boston has to do is move some money around to create a $34.1 million max slot.

That’s why Brad Stevens is taking on many expiring deals to make creating that max slot even easier.

The other target the Boston Celtics should prioritize is Stephen Curry.

The all-time great point guard and best shooter in league history looks to be on track to forgo an extension with Golden State and find a new club to support his talents.

Although the Warriors have a fantastic track record of building highly efficient and talented teams, their management has struggled to put a team like that around Steph Curry since the departure of Kevin Durant.

Part of this struggle can be placed on bad luck, like Klay Thompson’s injury scaring away potential free agents, but for the most part, Golden State has failed to be aggressive and make moves to win now.

Their draft speaks to that, utilizing both of their lottery picks instead of trading them for some experienced help and using their highest pick on the biggest project in the draft, Jonathan Kaminga.

There’s still time for the Warriors to make moves in free agency and trade for some veteran support, but nothing Golden State has done in the past year indicates they’ll do that, which could lead to Curry leaving and the franchise having to embrace a rebuild.

The Boston Celtics are arguably the best suitor in the league for Steph Curry.

They have two young but postseason experienced stars with a solid defense in place and a front office that’s intent on winning soon.

Steph Curry’s fit next to the Jays should not have to be explained, but to give you a quick idea of what he’ll provide, the Boston Celtics will have the best spacing possibly in league history.

They’ll have the best offense in league with a top 10 defense, which will directly equate to high-level playoff success.

If the Boston Celtics have any chance at Stephen Curry next summer, they need to take a swing.