Boston Celtics: Pros and cons of adding Zach LaVine

The Boston Celtics have set themselves up to be in a boatload of rumors next offseason, specifically pertaining to All-Star caliber players entering free agency.

Supposedly, Bradley Beal is the C’s primary target. However, they’ve freed up so much money and put themselves in a position to take multiple paths depending on how the 2022 offseason shapes up.

One of these paths does not involve Jayson Tatum‘s childhood best friend and All-Star shooting guard.

Earlier this week, Gary Washburn reported Zach LaVine could be a top target for Boston.

The guard is set to be a free agent next summer and will likely be fielding offers in the hundreds of millions of dollars considering how big of a breakout he had last season.

The Celtics are limited in what they can pay LaVine, but if the young star were willing to meet Boston’s price, Beantown would be in for one of the best young duos in the league.

The shamrocks would inevitably have to change their playbook, and the players themselves would have to change their habits, but it would be well worth it if that gets them Zach LaVine.

The Boston Celtics scoring would drastically improve with the addition of LaVine. Although it may seem hectic introducing a 27 point per game scorer beside other high 20 point per game scorers, rest assured that won’t be a problem.

As long as Ime Udoka can scheme his offense correctly, there should be more than enough ball-time to go around to make Tatum, LaVine, and Brown happy.

One way this can be achieved is by leveraging the three’s off-ball abilities.

Since all are excellent shooters off the catch and are big enough to pose a threat at the rim as a cutter, all they would need to figure out is how to get them the ball in the right places.

If Smart were to stay on the team when LaVine arrived, he would be the guy to direct traffic, but if not, the Celtics will have plenty of ancillary passing between him, Tatum, and Robert Williams to connect plays.

The idea of Boston moving towards a motion offense and away from their traditional isolation-heavy and thus stagnant offensive playstyle would be a dream come true.

There will still be ample room for the Big-3 to get theirs one-on-one, but if they want to succeed at the highest level they’ll need to buy in and work together.

We wouldn’t want a repeat of 2018-19 now, would we?

Another benefit to adding LaVine to the Boston Celtics core is what the move does for the three’s development.

Both LaVine and Tatum made giant leaps as playmakers this past season, but if they were to team up together with Brown, all three would need to make strides as passers instead of focusing on scoring.

This improvement applies to Brown the most since he’s the weakest link as a passer but will be heavily relied upon to connect plays.

Developing these three into scoring and passing wings would be a dream come true for any of the player’s followers. Having weapons like that makes for generational offensive efficiency and resiliency come playoff time when defenses tighten up.

The cons of adding Zach LaVine to the Boston Celtics core are minimal but could be blown out of proportion.

As I mentioned earlier, the Cs do not want to repeat the 2018-19 season where they had too many scorers and not enough ball time to satisfy all of them. It’s a little different this time around since they will be more top-heavy, but the issue of equal ball-time remains a concern.

Ime Udoka will be the most responsible for making sure ball-time isn’t an issue, but Tatum, Brown, and LaVine will also be responsible for buying into their roles.

The second con is the lack of depth the Boston Celtics would have. Between LaVine, Brown, and Tatum, there’s not much more money to go around to also have a legitimate bench, especially with Smart and Williams locked in.

The Cs will have more than enough talent to rotate the three and stabilize bench units between those three, but if one gets hurt, that plan goes out the window.

Stacking the deck like the Celtics plan on doing is why drafting is so important. Although guys like Romeo Langford, Grant Williams, Aaron Nesmith, and Juhann Begarin might turn out to be quality rotation players, it would be much better to have guys like Tyrese Maxey, Brandon Clarke, Matisse Thybulle, and Sharife Cooper to fill those gaps in the bench.

Having an inexperienced bench has its issues, but with the talent that the Cs would have upfront, the cost-benefits easily outweigh the negative experience.

Overall, every Boston Celtics fan should be in favor of adding Zach LaVine to the mix. He takes the offense to the next level, forces everyone on the team to improve something they’re uncomfortable doing, and locks them into a championship-caliber core for the foreseeable future.

Will the bench be bad? Will the Cs have some dry offseasons? Will there be times when the defense struggles?

Yes, yes, and yes, but it’s all worth it to add a top 25 player and burgeoning offensive force next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.