Coming into the season, many penned the Boston Celtics in as being a team that could legitimately compete for a top spot in the Eastern Conference standings due to the bevvy of moves made by the front office this past summer.
Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out according to plan as they find themselves at just a .500 record of 10-10 and, based on their play against some of the league’s upper echelon squads, it’s evident that they still need to do a bit more work in order to get to where they wish to be.
Said work could come in many different ways: scouring the left-over free agency pool for potentially impactful players, tweaking the rotation they currently roll out, etc.
However, another popular method many have discussed is the concept of taking part in some in-season trading.
Recently, the folks at Bleacher Report went about and rattled off a list of 3 players they believe should be on Boston’s trade list and, of these names, we stated the front office should pursue all of them.
Now, the next step is figuring out a way Brad Stevens and co. could actually be able to acquire these players, and we here at the Houdini have concocted a specific deal for each of them we believe could get the job done:
Boston Celtics land a new franchise point guard, San Antonio steers into rebuild
A player that has long been mentioned as a potential trade target for the Boston Celtics is San Antonio Spurs point guard, Dejounte Murray.
A do-it-all type of talent, the sixth-year pro is viewed as a player that could be of great use for the Cs who, quite frankly, could use for a bit of everything, especially when it comes to their backcourt personnel.
We couldn’t agree more with this stance, which is why we believe dealing for him would be a smart move to make for the front office, even if it means parting ways with several young talents and draft capital.
It’s obvious that the Spurs are no longer all-in on vying for contention and, instead, find themselves in a rebuilding phase. For teams in this stage, young prospects and draft picks are viewed as highly valuable assets, which means packaging Aaron Nesmith, Romeo Langford, and Payton Pritchard into a deal would almost have to be a guarantee.
Though perhaps not blowing anyone away with their box-score stats, all three of these young ballers have shown flashes of potentially being legitimate difference-makers in the NBA and, with the proper development and the right situation, they could go about and ultimately unlock their full potential.
Along with these player, we see the Spurs bringing on Josh Richardson to simply make the money work as well as two future first-round picks, the second of which being top-16 protected.
In return, the Boston Celtics obviously bring back Murray who would immediately serve as the team’s clear-cut No. 1 floor general with his production and stellar stat-sheet stuffing averages of 18.9 points, 8.2 assists, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game, while his ripe young age of 26 and current multi-year deal would make him a franchise building block to have run alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown moving forward.
Alongside him, however, the shamrocks also manage to receive another helpful contributor in sharpshooting wing Bryn Forbes who, with his career average of 41 percent shooting from 3-point range and current catch-and-shoot averages of 48 percent shooting from the field and 47 percent shooting from deep, could serve as a fantastic complimentary floor spacing piece within the rotation.