3 popular trade targets the Boston Celtics must avoid this summer
By Mark Nilon
The NBA postseason still may be in full swing, but this hasn’t stopped media outlets from churning out content relating to offseason endeavors, even for teams like the Boston Celtics who, during the 2021-22 campaign, established themselves as one of the best squads in the association and legitimate threats to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy.
With talented youngsters such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the way, this C’s team has the makings of being a true powerhouse for the better part of this decade, especially if they can find a way to add more pieces around them that could, in theory, help aid in their efforts of hoisting yet another banner into the crowded rafters back at TD Garden.
However, said pieces must gel with the two franchise cornerstones both on paper and on the hardwood, and, though overall roster talent is viewed as perhaps the most important thing to have in this modern-day era of basketball, fit and complementary styles of play should still be seen as incredibly important (in some cases, the most important).
Over the years we’ve seen a plethora of players, ranging from high profile stars to mere role players, linked to the organization as being potential additions to the roster, and, while they may be popular names amongst C’s fans, we at HH aren’t necessarily so keen on the idea of them joining Ime Udoka’s rotation.
With this, here are 3 popular trade targets the Celtics should avoid pursuing this summer:
Boston Celtics trade target No. 1) Jerami Grant
Jerami Grant has been a player many Boston Celtics fans have been linking the franchise to for well over two years now and, this offseason, it’s very likely that he’ll once again be rumored to be on the trade block, which means the ties between him and eastern Massachusetts will once again be revisited.
The major talking points people have when it comes to this hypothetical pairing are that the C’s don’t have a long-term option at the starting power forward position and that they don’t have a strong tertiary option within the rotation alongside the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Now, frankly, there’s a strong argument to be made that both of these stances still stand and that, should Boston come away from 2021-22 empty-handed, they should be addressed during the summer months.
That said, is Grant really a viable solution to these predicaments?
To us, the answer is, and has been for quite some time now, a resounding no!
Don’t get us wrong, the forward is certainly a talented player in this league who, at 28, still slots into the timeline that this Celtics team currently finds itself on. However, just because a player fits well on paper, it doesn’t mean that they’d fit well when put into action.
Jerami Grant is someone who’s best when given a high amount of volume and who’s utilized as the main option within a team’s respective system. Without these factors, he’s still a very solid player, but no one’s claiming him to be a franchise player.
We know these claims to be true based on how he played during the first six years of his career when partnered with other higher-end options and how he’s produced these past two seasons with an average usage rate of 27.2 percent.
If he were to be running alongside the Jays, there’s simply no way that he’d come anywhere close to this type of usage which, while it doesn’t necessarily mean that it would bring him back to his pre-Detroit days (which, again, were by no means bad), we find it hard to believe that he’d be putting up the types of numbers that make him a desired target for Boston in the first place.
This, of course, won’t stop the Pistons from treating their player like a legitimate star if dangled on the trade block, and nor should it.
Having said this, however, what this means is that their front office will likely be looking to receive a return package that is generally expected for a player of this perceived ilk which, for the reasons we’ve stated, is simply too steep of a price for Brad Stevens to work with.