“Pass or Pursue” on 4 recently proposed Boston Celtics trade targets
By Mark Nilon
Truth be told, the Boston Celtics may be the most confusing team in the entire National Basketball Association.
Coming into the 2021-22 campaign, many penciled the Cs in as a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference after seemingly bolstering their roster via the copious amounts of transactions made by the front office during the summer.
However, since their season started on October 22nd Boston has essentially been a full team version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, performing like legitimate playoff threats one night only to follow up such a high-end performance with one that has them appearing as though they should strongly consider blowing up their All-Star duo and start focusing on major core reconstructions.
As a result of their up and down performances throughout the year, through 28 games played the shamrocks find themselves holding a pedestrian record of 14-14, slotting them in the ninth seed out in the conference standings.
Now, while there are some who believe the Boston Celtics simply just need health on their side — have been bitten by the injury bug on a multitude of occasions this year –, many more are under the impression that Brad Stevens and co. must jump into action and make some in-season trades in an effort to better equip the talent pool surrounding the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Because of this, over the past several months we’ve seen fans and media pundits alike come up with their own lists discussing players they believe the Celtics should look to pursue who could, in theory, help add a much-needed spark to the team’s on-court production.
Recently, Celtics Wire writer, Justin Quinn, took part in such an activity as he rattled off a list of 4 players he perceives as being worthy of the front office’s attention.
With this piece, it inspired us at the Houdini to push out yet another installment of our favorite series we call “Pass or Pursue”, where we discuss whether or not the Boston Celtics should sit out on going after a specific player or if they should actively try to acquire them.
So, without further adieu, let’s get started:
Boston Celtics trade target No. 1) Bryn Forbes
The Boston Celtics have once again proven to have an unbelievably poor bench scoring unit, ranking 28th in points per game, 25th in field goal percentage, and dead last in offensive rating.
Because of this, it should come as no surprise that many are under the impression that the team should strongly consider pursuing efficient scoring commodities who can come in and knock down their shots at a high-end clip, and Justin Quinn considers San Antonio Spurs wing, Bryn Forbes, to be a quality option to consider.
Currently on the year, the 28-year-old finds himself putting up solid per-game averages of 7.2 points on 46 percent shooting from the floor and 42.5 percent shooting from deep.
As we’ve mentioned ourselves on quite a number of occasions in the past, from an overall skill-set perspective Forbes would be a quality addition to the rotation, especially considering his expertise in catch-and-shoot scenarios where he’s shooting at a 48 percent clip from the field and a 47 percent clip from beyond the arc.
Should he come at a reasonable price, he very well could prove to be that low-risk, high-reward contributor Boston could absolutely use right about now.