A last-season deadline deal where the Boston Celtics land Terrence Ross

The NBA trade deadline is only a handful of hours away and, by all accounts, it appears that the Boston Celtics are going to be looking to get in on some of the action prior to the proverbial 3 PM (ET) buzzer.

Over the past several months, we at the Houdini, along with several other media outlets, have been churning out trade piece after trade piece, discussing potential scenarios that we believe fans could wind up seeing during this year’s trade season.

Unfortunately, many of these ideas and concoctions are no longer plausible, be it due to rumblings of players being taken off the market by their respective teams or because presumed targets have already been traded elsewhere.

However, fret not C’s fans, for there are still several talents still found listed on the block that Brad Stevens and co. could look to pursue via trade, and one, in particular, has been a favorite target of ours for quite some time now.

Orlando Magic veteran wing, Terrence Ross, has been found on our watch list for well over a year now and, per recent reports, it seems as though he’s now high on Boston’s as well with Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe stating that the shamrocks’ front office is “working on a package” to acquire the 31-year-old.

Though at the moment it is believed that the Magic are seeking a first-round pick in exchange for their aging swingman, many rival executives and decision-makers are banking on this asking price dropping to just two second-round selections as the day goes on and, should this happen, the Boston Celtics should absolutely be interested in pursuing a deal, and we believe this could be a package worth considering for the team:

Similar to last season, the Celtics find themselves in possession of several Traded Player Exceptions, one of which being received from their offseason Evan Fournier sign-and-trade to the New York Knicks (ironically, he was also acquired at the deadline last season by the Magic via TPE).

While many — including ourselves — were hoping to see Stevens utilize this lofty $17.1 million luxury on a few other higher potential names found across the league, as the clock continues to tick it appears less and less likely that they’ll be able to bring on a player of, say, Christian Wood’s talent level by these means and, should they wait too long, they run the risk of losing the exception all together if it’s not used within a year from the initial Fournier transaction.

Because of this, should Ross wind up being their best bet of actually being able to utilize the TPE, they should strongly consider executing a deal and we believe the one listed above could wind up being worth it in the end.

For the past several years now, the C’s have been the proud owners of one of the worst second-unit offenses in the entire association.

This year, things seem to be no different.

As things currently stand, Boston’s bench finds itself ranked 26th in points per game, 26th in field goal percentage, and next to dead last in offensive rating.

Ross could, and has been pegged for a while now as being a potential breath of fresh air to this area within the team’s rotation.

A 10-year veteran with career scoring averages of 17.2 points per 75 possessions, since 2018 the wing finds himself boasting per-game averages of 14.3 points and 3.2 rebounds on 35.5 percent shooting from deep.

Having been deemed by us as being a potential dream target to use on this exact exception, Ross is a player who can go out and buy a bucket in the mid-to-long range with some crafty maneuvering whilst on ball while also being able to jam it home on fast-break lobs with his impressive athleticism.

In return for his services, the Magic simply bring back the expiring contract of P.J. Dozier (acquired by the Boston Celtics back in January via the Bol Bol deal) and two second-round selections.

Though it may not be much, our logic is being how bad the team has played this year coupled with how not-so-great Ross has performed, Orlando really doesn’t have all that much ground to stand on when it comes to negotiations and, in turn, could just be interested in getting off his contract and cultivating more draft capital to aid in their rebuild.

This proposed deal would do exactly that for them.

As has been stated in the past, acquiring the likes of Terrance Ross could be a great move for the Boston Celtics to ponder on, especially when considering they don’t have any semblance of a trusty offensive threat off the pine and that they currently have no dependable options to backup Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum at the wing position.