Player Boston Celtics should have pushed for No. 3) Lonzo Ball
For the entirety of the 2020-21 campaign, Boston Celtics fans made it quite apparent that they would love to see the likes of Lonzo Ball donning the green and white threads, running alongside the Jays.
When it was reported that the New Orleans Pelicans were fielding calls for the point guard at last year’s deadline, we at HH immediately jumped into action and concocted some packages that we believed would be worth it for the shamrocks to land the talented youngster.
When it was reported that the Cs were interested in pursuing the 24-year-old this summer, we were all about it and, frankly, it made a ton of sense as to why, which was broken down beautifully, I must say, in a piece we penned earlier this summer:
"Simply put, his game is the perfect compliment to Tatum and Brown, and he’s one of the best set-up artists in the entire league with arguably the highest basketball IQ (according the Magic Johnson that is). Coming off of his best season in the NBA, Ball went about and posted sound all-around averages of 14.6 points, 5.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and just over a half-block per game on 41 percent shooting from the floor and 38 percent shooting from deep. With his desire to push the ball on fast breaks, this slow motion Cs team (ranked 20th in Pace this season) would get an up-tempo spark in Ball who can push the rock on the break to either find the open man or knock down shots on his own while also having the ability to get back on defense and simply excel with his stupendous versatility due to his size (6-6) and quickness."
Now, yes, everyone and their mother would constantly tell us that due to their lacking financial flexibility, the Boston Celtics would not be able to afford Ball outright on the open market.
We obviously knew this, which is why we were constantly bringing up the concept of executing some sort of a sign-and-trade with NOLA in order to acquire him. To this day, baring any unreasonable asks from the Pelicans, we still feel as though this could have proven to be a good move to have made.
As we all know now, however, it would seem that the Cs were perhaps not as big on the idea as we were and, instead, simply watched as the Chicago Bulls executed such a transaction, thus landing their floor general of the future while Boston still has no finite answer at the position themselves.
Though we’ve already gone about and said it’s hard to say the Cs truly did anything wrong with their offseason execution, when it comes to players we wish they pushed a little harder for, Lonzo Ball takes the top spot in our eyes.