Boston Celtics: 3 horrifying trade targets Cs should avoid at all costs

Hey all you gruesome ghouls and goblins (read in a Carole Baskins voice to make it extra scary), it’s Halloween and we at Hardwood Houdini want to treat you, the Boston Celtics fanbase, to some more tales of potential horrors that could wind up working their way into the rumor mill as we trudge right along through this year’s campaign.

Heading into 2021-22, the Cs were viewed by many as being a team on the rise after spending the bulk of their offseason re-tooling and restructuring their talent pool within the rotation to try and ensure that their tumultuous 2020-21 season was simply just an off period rather than the start of a new normal.

Unfortunately, however, through the early stages of this year’s campaign, though they’ve given way to glimpses of them potentially being a better squad than they were all throughout last year, still we find them making similar mistakes and running into similar problems.

Because of this, as we advance through the rest of their 82 game adventure, it most certainly should not be viewed as being out of the realm of possibility that we could see the front office make some more sizeable shakeups to this roster, with many believing the trade route to be one of the most sensible avenues for them to look towards.

Already, we’ve seen fans and the media alike — admittedly, including ourselves — share their thoughts on which potentially available talents the front office should consider pursuing at some point between now and March’s deadline.

While there have been quite a number of solid players mentioned, there have been plenty linked to the Cs that the Houdini views as being unnecessary additions who, in theory, have the potential on doing more harm than good.

With this in mind, in honor of spooky season, we at HH present to you 3 horrifying trade targets that the Boston Celtics should be looking to avoid at all costs:

Horrifying Boston Celtics trade target No. 1) Markelle Fultz

Prior to the season, the concept of who the Boston Celtics would look to use one of their several TPEs on during this coming campaign was all the rage, with the folks at Bleacher Report even going about and predicting, for the second year in a row, that the front office will wait till the deadline to utilize these luxuries.

Within their prediction, writer, Greg Swartz, gave off a list of players he felt could be viewed as viable options to target, specifically with their lofty $17 million exception, and among those who were mentioned, perhaps the most intriguing name was Markelle Fultz of the Orlando Magic.

To some, including a few of us here at the site, the concept of trading for the former No. 1 overall pick is one that is of high interest, as he’s proven to be a rather talented performer when on the court and the Celtics could use for an upgrade in their point guard talent pool.

I, however, am more under the impression that this move should be avoided at all costs and even wrote about why just a few short weeks ago:

"For far too many consecutive years we’ve seen the Boston Celtics seemingly rely on oft-injured players to be the main option for the team at point guard — Isaiah Thomas, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, etc. Fultz would unfortunately be yet another talent at the one that shamrocks fans constantly find themselves praying will manage to avoid any serious ailments. Yes, he’s still only 23-years-old and, since taking over as a full-time starting floor general in the NBA he’s played rather well — averages 12.2 points, 5.2 assists, 3.3 rebounds on 46 percent shooting since 2019-20. That said, the headache that could so easily come along with the injury-riddled talent is truly not worth the gamble in our opinion."

Of course, this sentiment still rings true and, on top of this, there is still no set timetable for Fultz to return to the court after having torn his ACL last January, thus making the appeal of dealing for the point guard this season that much less appealing.

The last thing this struggling Cs team needs is to bring on a player who has shown throughout his NBA tenure that he struggles to stay on the court.

The fear of seeing him reaggravate an old injury or endure a new one would simply be unbearable for Boston and its fanbase.