The NBA Trade Deadline is now less than a week away and the Boston Celtics should have only one goal on their mind: make this underwhelming roster better.
Despite coming into the 2021-22 season with high hopes of bouncing back after enduring quite an underwhelming 2020-21 run, through 53 games played the C’s have sadly fallen short of expectations, as they’ve experienced a number of hardships ranging from health ailments to lackluster performances from star talents.
Now, though it’s indeed evident that the shamrocks have managed to get on somewhat of a hot streak as of late, winning 11 of 17 games played since the start of the new calendar year while also winning 10 of their last 14, it’s still rather apparent that should this team truly wish to contend in the now, Brad Stevens and co. must look to make some more adjustments to the roster.
Though some believe that it may be within Boston’s best interest to simply just focus on bettering their position for future campaigns and let this season run its course, for fun today we at HH would instead like to discuss 3 trades that, in our humble opinion, could make the Celtics legitimate playoff contenders this season:
Trade No. 1) Boston Celtics land Barnes and Hield, Kings focus on future
Two of the more popular names that have been linked to the Boston Celtics as being potential trade candidates this season are both found in Sacramento with the likes of teammates Harrison Barnes and Buddy Hield.
If acquired separately, each one of these aforementioned talents could prove to be tremendous adds to the C’s rotation.
However, if acquired together, such a move could wind up making Ime Udoka’s squad absolutely lethal.
Not only do the C’s desperately need an upgrade at the power forward position, but they perhaps even more so need a reliable scorer off the pine to help improve their bench scoring unit that, over the past several seasons, has been arguably the team’s most glaring weakness.
Barnes, who presumably would take over starting duties at the four, finds himself in the midst of one of his best seasons yet, boasting impressive per-game averages of 16.5 points,6.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 41 percent shooting from deep on five attempts.
His ability to space the floor, create for himself, play off-ball when on offense, and defend either up or down a position when on defense could easily prove to be a great luxury to have in the starting five alongside two other highly versatile wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
As for Hield, who would take on bench duties similar to how he already does with the Kings, as he’d be the go-to spark-plug sixth-man who can come in for either one of the C’s star wings and, with his scoring touch, no have the offense miss a beat.
Like Barnes, Buddy, too, is producing at a rather impressive rate this year, as he’s posting 14.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and two assists on 37 percent shooting from deep. His numbers along with his fearless attitude on offense, be it either in off-ball sets or in catch-and-shoot scenarios (boasts a 58 effective field goal percentage), would be highly valuable adds to Boston’s bench.
As for the Sacramento Kings, they are essentially tearing down the old to make way for the new (i.e. De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Davion Mitchell) all while bringing on two young prospects in Aaron Nesmith & Romeo Langford (both obviously recent lottery selections) and future draft capital along the way.
The inclusion of Al Horford and Dennis Schroder would be a fantastic way for the front office to continue shedding cap space heading into this summer, for the latter is on an expiring contract while the former has only a partially guaranteed deal for next year (his fourth and final year under contract), thus giving the Kings the opportunity to make a significant splash or two during the offseason.