The Boston Celtics are ensuring they are preserving their cap space for the following offseason when multiple key superstars become available. With that being said, Brad Stevens is also not exactly keen on punting the season away and tanking for a high draft pick.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown alone are good enough to lead a team to the playoffs. They need marquee talent around them to secure a high seed and spark a long run. Last season, the Celtics failed to surround them with marquee talent, and although Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown got the Cs into the playoffs, the talent around them was unable to elevate the team to a second-round appearance.
That’s an embarrassing way to end the season, regardless of Jaylen Brown’s injury. The Celts were fresh off an Eastern Conference finals appearance, where it appeared they could have very well been in the finals if not for Gordon Hayward’s horrific ankle injury in the first round.
To follow that up with a .500 season and first-round whooping from the same team–one they themselves fleeced earlier in the decade–is a complete and utter embarrassment.
The Boston Celtics need to rebound badly, but they must do it while remaining financially flexible for next year. So how can they do that?
The answer’s simple, and the Cs have already begun doing it: the Boston Celtics need to chase down every expiring contract they can muster.
Here are three expiring contributors that could elevate the Boston Celtics back to contending status.
Trade target #1 for the Boston Celtics: Joe Ingles
Earlier in the month, a report surfaced that the Utah Jazz were interested in selling Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic for superior point of attack defenders. With the Boston Celtics making no effort to replace Kemba Walker and instead are rolling with Marcus Smart as their lead guard, it’s unlikely Stevens deals the heart of the team for one of the two wings.
That leaves the two most recently acquired assets for the Celtics to trade, both of which provide much better point of attack defense than the Jazz currently employ.
With Bogdanovic set to make approximately $38 million over the next two seasons, the Boston Celtics will likely turn their attention towards Joe Ingles, who will be a free agent next summer. On top of his deal being expiring, its $14 million value matches Richardson’s $11.6 million deal in a potential swap. The Cs can easily match contracts and entice the Jazz with a valuable defensive asset while retaining a valuable offensive asset.
Ingles is coming off the most efficient scoring season of all time relative to his TS%. He is one of the best off-ball wings in the league that can also provide value on the ball with his crisp decision-making and passable shot creation.
He’s not an exceptional athlete, and he isn’t quite the defender he used to be, but he’s still a positive on that end, and his IQ makes up for the lackluster speed and verticality. If the Cs want to improve their spacing, Joe Ingles is their guy.
If the Boston Celtics don’t want to part from J-Rich or the Jazz don’t want them, they could offer financial relief and young assets for the Jazz to use in another deal involving Bogdanovic while still netting the Cs Ingles. One way or another, Ingles needs to find his way onto this roster, or else the Celts are poised to repeat what happened last season.