It’s the year of our lord, 2022, and as it turns out, the Boston Celtics still want Daniel Theis in the team’s frontcourt.
Of course, it was the previous front office, led by longtime Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, that dealt Theis away last March in exchange for two players (Luke Kornet, Moritz Wagner) that never cracked the rotation. Wagner was gone within a month of the team acquiring him, while Kornet is playing for the Maine Celtics after a brief stint with the Milwaukee Bucks during the NBA’s COVID-19-caused absent player crisis in late December/early January.
Current President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens had little to do with Theis’ exit, but he could be the man that brings the ‘War on Theis’ back to Boston.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype had this to say about a potential reunion:
"I’ve heard Daniel Theis is a name the Celtics called and did some due diligence on, though I think he’s less likely to end up there following the trade of Juancho Hernangomez because his salary could’ve been used to facilitate a potential trade, and Boston is seeking to remain under the tax."
Theis’ salary cap figure sits at a shade over $8 million, which would have been a near perfect swap with Juan Hernangomez’ contract. Even without the salary of ‘Juancho’ to use in a deal, Stevens has several TPEs he could burn in any Theis trade.
Is it worth it, though? Today, Hardwood Houdini aims to make sense of that question with some pros and cons:
Pros of a Daniel Theis reunion with the Boston Celtics
Daniel Theis came to Boston in 2017-18 when Danny Ainge plucked the German center from his German club, Brose Bamberg. In his first season, the Cs streaked to the conference finals and came within a game of the NBA Finals.
Are we going to bold-face lie to you and say he was the main cause? No, especially since Theis suffered a season-ending injury that March and wasn’t in uniform when the Cs knocked off Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and nearly ended LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers career with an unfathomable upset.
Theis played more of an active role for the highly combustible 2018-19 team that wildly underachieved, and in 2019-20 he became the de facto starter at the 5 with Al Horford and Aron Baynes finding new homes elsewhere.
Of course, that was the last time the Cs resembled a contender, and it’s been rough sailing ever since.
What we know about Theis that we don’t know about others on the market at the pivot is that he works with the ‘Jays’ and Marcus Smart, providing elite screens that help seal off defenders and create easy looks for the team’s perimeter players.
That has to count for something, right? Theis is the closest thing to a sure-thing on the market as a lineup fit.
Cons of a Daniel Theis reunion with the Boston Celtics
One thing we know about Theis in green is that we’ll probably want a more exciting option on the trade market even if he was returned.
Hardwood Houdini spent a not insignificant amount of time calling for frontcourt upgrades all throughout Theis’ tenure in Boston. He was always a solid backup option, but we were never sold on Theis being the main man in the middle to combat the Joel Embiid’s of the world.
Luckily, Robert Williams has emerged as the answer on the block. That would make acquiring Theis a bench-building move unless Ime Udoka wants to continue forcing the double-big lineups that didn’t work last year and aren’t working again this year.
Do the Cs want to pay an average of $9 million a season for a second string center that isn’t big enough to bang in the paint with the beasts of the league and also doesn’t shoot well enough to draw said beasts out of the paint?
Of course, his contract isn’t one that will break the bank given the absurd player salary increases we’ve been seeing in recent years, but he owns a contract that extends three seasons beyond this one. Cap flexibility has been important to Brad Stevens, and while Theis doesn’t make a crazy dent, he certainly does cut into future cap space.
If the man that brought Theis into the NBA didn’t want to re-sign him, it’s unlikely the new regime breaks the bank in any way for a deal.
So if the Houston Rockets want to take on the C’s end of the bench pieces and a heavily-protected future second-round draft pick, maybe something could work. But overpaying for Theis would be front office malpractice.