Boston Celtics: Brian Robb sees Cs getting involved in Ben Simmons talks

The Boston Celtics could end up being involved in the eventual Ben Simmons trade expected to imminently take place before the start of the 2021-22 NBA season.

Just not as the team that lands the 3x All-Star floor general.

Simmons doesn’t want to play another second in a Sixers uniform, even threatening not to show up to training camp next Tuesday. The odds are high that he is dealt in the coming days, but don’t expect President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens to buy low on the former #1 overall pick in 2016…even with his price tag seemingly dropping every second.

Instead, as MassLive’s Brian Robb points out, expect to see Stevens leverage all of the trade exceptions he (and ex-GM Danny Ainge) have created in the last year:

"All things considered, Boston may have other plans for their bigger TPEs and could potentially value the long-term flexibility they provide for later this season over anything they could get out of a potential Simmons deal as a third team. Still, this is a situation that is worth monitoring closely for the front office since there are limited teams that could help in such a scenario."

The Evan Fournier trade exception, the largest created since the Gordon Hayward TPE–which was coincidentally used on Fournier–wouldn’t be enough to land Simmons in a deal. In fact, even the historic $28.5 million Hayward TPE wouldn’t have been enough.

Simmons’ deal is an albatross considering his shooting struggles, and Stevens almost certainly doesn’t see him as the kind of player worth trading Smart or Robert Williams for.

It’d be irresponsible for the Boston Celtics to send away youth, draft picks, and core players for Simmons at this point, but it wouldn’t be irresponsible to figure out how he can still get involved in a deal for the LSU product without winning the Simmons sweepstakes directly.