Since the start of January, the Boston Celtics have been playing like one of the best teams in the entire association, winning 23 of their 31 outings during this stretch and, as of this writing, boast an overall record of 40-27, good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings.
And while this is all well and good, as they have seemingly gone from a potential lottery team to a legitimate title contender in just the span of a few months, the objective for every organization is to continue building and better positioning themselves for a brighter tomorrow, which leads us at HH to believe that, come the offseason, this front office will once again be hot and heavy to make some spicy moves.
Obviously, Brad Stevens’ overall mission is to try and surround the likes of franchise cornerstones, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, with solid complementary talents to, in turn, make their lives easier as the team looks to compete for championships, and this coming summer there are slated to be quite a number of players that could become available for the taking, be it via free agency or the trade market.
In fact, over these last 15 games of the regular season, the shamrocks will find themselves squaring off against several of these potential targets and, today, we at the Houdini pinpoint 3, in specific, that should be high on Boston’s radar:
Boston Celtics offseason target No. 1) Wesley Matthews
While the Boston Celtics as a team may look like an attractive destination for impending free agents seeking to win, due to their cap restraints, should the front office look to the open market to bring aboard some extra pieces to the roster, in all likelihood, they’ll need to aim for mere role players rather than top-billed talents for, frankly, their payroll just simply won’t allow for much else.
Now, while this may be somewhat upsetting to hear–after all, who doesn’t want to see their team go and land the best talents?–, there are still going to be several available individuals that could make for quality additions, including Milwaukee Bucks wing, Wesley Matthews.
Someone that we at HH have been complementary of for quite some time now, throughout his career the veteran has proven himself to be a quality 3-and-D role player who can log significant minutes at the two or three.
Equipped with 13-years of experience in the league, the 35-year-old finds himself boasting career averages of 12.3 points, 2.9 boards, and two assists, and a steal on 42 percent shooting from the floor and nearly 38 percent shooting from deep.
With his extensive track record of being a serviceable contributor when called upon, the Celtics could do a lot worse than a guy like Matthews on a low-cost deal adding depth at their rather shallow wing position.