Boston Celtics: John Wall blockbuster trade Cs could consider

Ever since the Boston Celtics made the decision to name Brad Stevens as Danny Ainge’s successor as President of Basketball Operations, the franchise managed to start doing something that they haven’t really done over the past several years — they’ve committed to making some sizeable roster shakeups.

Kicking off their offseason transaction frenzy with the trade that shipped off Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder, right from the get-go it was apparent that, with Stevens calling the shots, Boston would not be afraid to make moves.

Now, after three full months under this new regime, the shamrocks find themselves heading into 2021-22 looking rather different when in comparison to last year.

However, while Boston has indeed reshaped and retooled their rotation for the better, this is not to say they should be done with partaking in these sorts of extracurricular activities.

Still across the league’s landscape, there are plenty of talents that are reportedly available for the taking and, recently, a big-name fallen star has made his way into this category.

That man: John Wall.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the veteran point guard and the Houston Rockets have reportedly “agreed on working together” to try and find the 31-year-old a new home.

Based on the moves they’ve made in this department during this offseason, it’s safe to assume that the Boston Celtics would not be interested in involving themselves in John Wall trades, for their focus has predominantly been on creating cap space, not increasing their payroll.

That said, while we’re certainly not suggesting Stevens and co. should necessarily insert themselves into trade conversations for the former All-Star, the Houdini believes there are a few ways in which such a move could actually stand to benefit Boston.

In order for the Rockets to have a team become legitimately interested in pursuing the oft-injured and highly-paid Wall, incentives must be included.

Because of this, we feel as though the shamrocks should at least have their interest piqued by the thought of acquiring said incentives, and believe that this trade package we’ve come up with could prove to be an intriguing one for them to consider pursuing:

These past few years have seen far more downs than ups for the point guard which, in turn, has made his status within the league drop so low that, in any trade that involves Wall going outbound, attaching draft capital and/ or other promising talents to him is likely a must.

In the above trade, we see both of these types of assets heading to the Boston Celtics.

As we said, Wall’s reputation has been severely wounded over the past few seasons due to his injury woes which, in turn, has made it a bit difficult for fans to believe that he’ll ever be able to return to his perennial All-Star self.

That said, on a team that has a few All-Stars already in tow as the Boston Celtics do, Wall returning to prime form would not be all that necessary in order to make his fit within the lineup work.

Instead, something similar to his performance from last season along with more of an emphasis on distribution could prove to work rather well for the Cs.

Despite missing the final six games of the year with a hamstring strain, John Wall’s lone season in Houston proved to be rather productive, at least from an individual perspective. In 32.2 minutes a night, the point guard posted impressive averages of 20.6 points, 6.9 assists, 3.2 boards, 1.1 steals, and just shy of a block per game.

Still showcasing instinctive court vision and solid explosiveness, taking a chance on the 5x All-Star who has been nothing but praised for his leadership by Houston’s management and players could be a solid move worth pondering on, especially considering his upside as a facilitator (averaged 9.8 assists from 2013 to 2019), which is an aspect of the offense that head coach Ime Udoka wishes to improve upon, and that they’d land a future first in the process.

Now, while all of these aforementioned aspects of the proposed trade are certainly entertaining, in our opinion, the main draw of this package is easily the acquisition of Christian Wood who, as many of you may know, has been a top target of ours dating back to last offseason.

Ultimately signing with the Rockets on a three-year, $41-million deal, the big man went on to have himself a career year whilst finally manning the starting center position on a full-time basis.

Through 41 games played, Wood posted stellar per-game averages of 21 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game on 51 percent shooting from the floor and 37 percent shooting from deep.

Still just 25-years-old, the big man could easily serve as a foundational piece and a third-option long-term for the Boston Celtics to have run alongside the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for years to come.

A starting five of John Wall, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Christian Wood may not automatically thrust the Boston Celtics into the top seed in the standings, but, assuming they can all stay healthy, it would certainly be an improvement in terms of overall talent and could help aid in their quest to once again legitimately contend for the Eastern Conference crown.

In return, Houston would be bringing aboard salary matches in Al Horford and Josh Richardson, both of whom could be viewed as flippable assets later on down the road in an effort for them to continue stockpiling draft capital.

The biggest pulls for the Rockets, however, would be the acquisitions of Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith, both of whom are recent lottery selections still under their rookie-scale contracts.

Langford, though has been rather inconsistent during his tenure with the Boston Celtics, has shown promise of being a solid two-way player in this league should he be able to remain healthy while Nesmith, who was viewed as arguably the best shooter in his respective draft class, started showing out towards the end of last season, averaging 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds on 53.6 percent shooting from the floor and 45 percent shooting from deep during the final nine outings.

Both prospects would get ample time to develop on this lowly Rockets squad and, especially for the latter wing, partnering them with their two other young franchise building blocks in Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green could give the franchise a promising future core to work with, all while allowing them to continue to tank.

What say you Boston Celtics fans, do you like the thought of this proposed package or should they simply just stay out of the John Wall sweepstakes?

Whatever your thoughts may be, go ahead and leave them in the comments section below!