The Boston Celtics are looking to have a much more successful year this coming season than they did during their 2020-21 run.
With the myriad of moves made by President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, this summer, including the acquisitions of Al Horford and Josh Richardson and the free agency signing of Dennis Schroder, it would appear the C’s new-look rotation has them on pace to achieve this aforementioned goal.
That said, perhaps the best part of this whole ordeal is that the roster shakeups may not be done with just yet.
Through the front office’s offseason endeavors, they’ve managed to come into possession of several Traded Player Exceptions, one of which registering in at a value of $17 million.
Because of this, the shamrocks will be able to pursue numerous players on the trade block between now and this year’s deadline in an effort to try and better their chances of contending against the league’s upper-echelon ball clubs.
However, making the right decisions when it comes to who they should target is imperative, for the wrong choice of pursuit could be the difference between successfully utilizing their exception and completely wasting it.
While there are a plethora of players that many believe to be worthy of consideration for the C’s $17 million TPE, we at HH believe there are 3, in specific, that should be avoided:
TPE target Boston Celtics should avoid No. 1) Cedi Osman
Recently, we’ve seen Cleveland Cavaliers wing, Cedi Osman being viewed as a legitimate option for one of the C’s TPEs and, frankly, we’re not entirely sure why he’s so highly regarded by some fans and media pundits.
By no means is this meant to serve as an insult to the soon-to-be fifth-year baller, as we’re well aware that he has many attributes that could be of sound service to a bevy of ball clubs.
Instead, however, this is just us simply questioning whether his arrival in Boston would actually end up benefiting them enough to warrant such a move.
To be honest, we don’t believe it would and, in a recent “Buy or Sell” piece discussing recently listed targets, we went with the latter option in regard to the Turkish-born talent:
"Now yes, Osman has proven to be a quality player in this league and, when given opportunities, he has generally delivered (just two seasons ago posted per-game averages of 11 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists on 44 percent shooting from the floor and 38 percent shooting from deep). That said, though we’ve already stated that the Cs could use for some more firepower in the wing department, the acquisition of Osman would almost certainly result in a decreased role for young guys like Aaron Nesmith and Romeo Langford, both of whom are still fighting to live up to their lofty lottery selections from two of three most recent drafts. The 26-year-old is a solid role player in this league, and that is something that cannot be denied but is he really someone that would be worth cutting into the development of the team’s young wings? This year, many, including ourselves, expect a big jump from specifically Nesmith. In order for him to have a chance of accomplishing such a move forward, the 21-year-old will need to see extended playing time, and Osman — who, again, is solid but has lacking upside — would easily eat into his minutes."
Coming off of a reletively down year last season, despite keeping his scoring numbers at about his career average (10.4 points per game in 2020-21), his shooting efficiency dropped considerably, as he converted on just 37 percent of his attempts from the floor and 30.6 percent of his attempts from deep.
This added to the fact that it would eat into the development of the C’s recent lottery picks in Aaron Nesmith and Romeo Langford makes it rather hard for us to believe that swapping assets out (no matter how valuable or invaluable they may be perceived) just to have too many cooks in the kitchen at the wing would wind up being pf great benefit to the team moving forward.