Pascal Siakam traded to Boston Celtics in B/R’s latest piece

Despite the fact that the Boston Celtics may currently find themselves on a hot streak, what with the fact that they have come away victorious from three of their last four outings including a near 30-point thrashing over the Portland Trail Blazers in their last game, they mustn’t be fooled by the recent surge — the Cs are still a team in need of some tweaking.

Having struggled to simply just hover above .500 through 24 games played, Boston finds itself boasting a record of just 13-11 and, with this, are seemingly always revolving in and out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

In order to better position themselves for a legitimate shot at contention this year, it is the belief of many that Brad Stevens and co. must look to add more talent to the rotation alongside young stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

While many — such as ourselves — have suggested the idea of pursuing smaller moves like ones that would bring on solid rotational players or promising young prospects, there are some who are under the impression that the Celtics should be looking to acquire more star-power via trade to help them compete with the firepower that the rest of the league’s elite squads possess.

In fact, just recently the folks at Bleacher Report pondered on such a high-impact concept and, in one of their latest pieces, concocted a deal that would send Toronto Raptors star forward, Pascal Siakam, to the Boston Celtics.

The proposed trade reads as follows:

In a move that would go on to create a new-look Big-3 in Eastern Massachusetts, writer, Grant Hughes, believes that this specific trade would ultimately make the shamrocks’ starting lineup both more fearsome as well as more well-rounded and quasi-positionless:

"Siakam has won a ring and made an All-NBA team in 2019-20. He’s played a career-high 41 percent of his minutes as a small-ball 5 and is far more mobile than Horford. His assist percentage is quietly right on track to match that of the Boston big man this season.Siakam is also shooting it better from the field and from deep, and he’s eight years younger than Horford, putting him more in line with the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown age band. Robert Williams III can still start alongside Tatum, Brown and Siakam, but it’s easy to imagine the Celtics downsizing to close games."

So far in 2021-22, Siakam finds himself posting per-game averages of 18.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and just shy of a block on 47 percent shooting from the field.

Over the years the 27-year-old has proven to be a potentially elite two-way big who can space the floor, bang down low whilst in the post, and block shots all while displaying a smooth handle on the ball, thus allowing him to get out on the break as both a distributor as well as an off-ball gunner.

Taking part in this proposed deal would instantaneously give the Boston Celtics a much more lethal and athletic option to have rolling out at the starting four spot both in the now as well as for the many years to come (as stated in Hughes’ piece, Siakam is eight years younger than Al Horford and is under contract through 2024).

Now yes, obviously giving up key core players such as Horford and Marcus Smart would be a tough pill to swallow initially, especially considering how impactful both have been both on and off the court of late, but considering the upside that a guy like Siakam possesses, it likely would prove to be well worth the exchange in the long-run, especially considering we see no draft capital being sent packing in the process.

Add on the fact that we see a guy like Goran Dragic — a player we’ve discussed as being a possible trade target this season who can help mitigate the loss of Smart in the playmaking department — coming aboard as well, and this deal seems to be an absolute no brainer move for the Boston Celtics to pursue.