Boston Celtics: Pass or pursue on 5 surprising deadline targets
At 2-5, this Boston Celtics season is not going according to anyone’s plan early on. Monday night, the Cs were in control…until they weren’t against the Chicago Bulls.
The end result, a 128-114 loss, was heartbreaking at best and damning at worst.
We can start with the 39-11 fourth-quarter disparity that swung the game completely in favor of Chicago and made a surefire Cs victory a loss. The 14-point lead became a 14-point defeat when it mattered most.
Elsewhere, the Cs young guns (Payton Pritchard, Grant Williams, Romeo Langford) produced just four points in 30 minutes of floor-time. Pair that with a 6/17 shooting night from the bench backcourt of Dennis Schroder and Josh Richardson and you have a bench ill-equipped to contend with an opponent that dropped 128 points.
The loss was bad on every level and moves us further in the direction of wanting President of Basketball Ops. Brad Stevens making a move with the flexibility he maintained throughout a busy summer.
With Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz penning a piece titled 5 Stars Who Could Be Surprisingly Dealt at 2022 NBA Trade Deadline, HH figures exploring the plausibility of the Cs acquiring each by this coming February:
The Boston Celtics add Bosnian big Jusuf Nurkic to their bench?
Jusuf Nurkic is firmly entrenched as the starting center in Portland. The Trail Blazers are not off to an ideal start to the season with a losing record, but there’s plenty of time to right that ship.
Even at the moment they qualify for the NBA Play-in tournament, but there’s a very good chance they figure things out and improve their standing in the Western Conference.