All offseason, newly appointed President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens, has made it his mission to make sure Ime Udoka has a better roster to work with this coming year than he personally did during the team’s disappointing 2020-21 run.
At this point in time, it would appear, at least on paper, that he’s managed to accomplish this goal, what with the key additions of Al Horford, Josh Richardson, and the steal of a free agency signing in Dennis Schroder.
However, there are many who believe there’s still plenty of work to be done, be it in the shape of smaller free agency pursuits or, in some instances, blockbuster trades.
Recently, Bleacher Report made it clear that they fall into the category of the latter as they went about and concocted a monster trade that would land the Boston Celtics a new franchise point guard in Portland Trail Blazers superstar, Damian Lillard.
The exact trade proposed in the piece reads as follows:
For those of you who have been following us at HH of late — we love you guys — you’re likely already aware that this is by no means the first time B/R has thought up a trade that would land the star guard in eastern Massachusets and, frankly, it almost certainly won’t be their last.
Due to the current climate of the modern-day NBA, the staff at Bleacher Report believes that more star power is needed within the rotation for the Boston Celtics before they can be considered a realistic championship contender.
To them, a trade like this would immediately thrust them into the same stratosphere as the conference’s top dogs in the Brooklyn Nets and the reigning league champions, the Milwaukee Bucks.
"The Celtics get a big-time player in Lillard without giving up Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart or Robert Williams. They part with most of their prospects, take on a hefty luxury tax bill, and have a much better chance of competing with the Eastern Conference contenders."
Now, in the past we’ve seen copious amounts of trades being formulated involving Damian Lillard being shipped to Boston and, more often than not, Jaylen Brown is usually being sent back to Portland as the main piece in a return package.
In turn, this theme undoubtedly has angered Celtics fans.
In this piece, we see B/R putting together a package that brings the All-NBA talent to the Cs all while holding onto the Jays in the process.
Now, of course, we do see a few quality talents sent packing in this exchange, with promising young players like Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmith heading to the Trail Blazers along with salary matches and the rights to several future first-round picks.
Though this may be upsetting to see on the surface, in the Houdini’s opinion, this proposed deal is unequivocally worth executing for the shamrocks, as it ultimately nabs them arguably the best player at the game’s most important position.
The 6x All-Star had one of the best seasons of his career last year, dropping unbelievable averages of 28.8 points, 7.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 39 percent shooting from deep.
Lillard running alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would give the Boston Celtics one of the most lethal trios in all of basketball and would immediately up their chances of raising banner No. 18 in the not-so-distant future.
This proposed deal by Bleacher Report would be an absolute steal for Brad Stevens and co. and should strongly be considered should it ever be put on the table in trade talks.