Boston Celtics: 2 realistic trade destinations for Josh Richardson
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics trade partner No. 1) Toronto Raptors
When it comes to discussing teams that could look to pursue the likes of Josh Richardson at this year’s deadline, one has to assume it will be a ball club that has a rather shallow bench unit, for the veteran swingman will almost certainly be used as a high-usage player coming off the pine.
With this in mind, no team comes quicker to ming than the Toronto Raptors.
Despite the fact that Canada’s favorite ball club is actually having themselves a quality campaign, sitting within the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 27-23, night in and night out they find themselves rolling out one of the worst second units in the entire association and, in fact, they are the worst in terms of offensive production.
As things currently stand, the Raptors rank 22nd in field goal percentage and then dead last in 3-point percentage, points per game, and in offensive rating.
In all likelihood, Masai Ujiri is not going to be able to strike a major deal this season to land their newly-minted All-Star, Fred VanVleet, a proper running mate so, instead, he’ll likely go on to just try and make lower-key maneuvers to help fill out the rest of the roster and bolster the weaker spots within their current scheme to make them a more well-rounded team, and perhaps a guy like Richardson, who’s averaging 20 points per 100 possessions this year, could be viewed as a quality lower-cost option to consider.