Boston Celtics wish they could make this trade for Mike Muscala, says B/R

The Boston Celtics are putting forth that same hustle and bustle style of play during their playoff endeavors that turned them into one of the best teams in the entire association during the second half of the regular season.

As a result, the ball club has gone on to down the star-studded Brooklyn Nets via sweep in round one, squeak by the Milwaukee Bucks in round two, and, after Thursday night’s tremendous showing, they’ve tied up this best-of-seven round three against the Miami Heat at one game apiece.

Now, with a minimum of three games left to be played in this Eastern Conference Finals series (five more in total if need be), the next two of which being played back at home on the parquet floor of the TD Garden, the C’s have quite a legitimate shot of running the table and, in turn, advancing to their first NBA Finals since the 2009-10 season, and a major reason for why they’re in such a position is due to their tremendous roster makeup and production.

Yes, it’s easy to give the bulk of the credit to Boston’s franchise cornerstones in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but as has proven to be the case throughout their second-half surge and during this year’s postseason, the level of success that they’ve achieved could not have been possible without their highly productive supporting cast.

From Marcus Smart to Robert Williams, Payton Pritchard to Al Horford, Ime Udoka’s squad has seen a bevy of players step up big and, as a result, have made this 2021-22 campaign truly special.

That said, while the Boston Celtics do, in fact, have a rather impressive amount of depth to their roster, this is not to say that, if given the opportunity, they wouldn’t like to make some tweaks and adjustments to it, especially at this point in time when a championship bid is so close.

In an alternate universe, one where the trade deadline was non-existent and Brad Stevens could go about and acquire players from another team to bolster his own, there are likely a plethora of deals he’d look to make and, according to the folks at Bleacher Report, one would be executed with the Oklahoma City Thunder where they’d bring back veteran big Mike Muscala and fourth-year wing Kenrich Williams in return.

In fact, the exact deal B/R believes the Boston Celtics ‘wish they could make’ reads as follows:

Citing the fact that Boston’s big man rotation, while talented, has a solid amount of baggage attached to it, coupled with the tough task that’s at hand in regard to trying to defend the Miami Heat’s talented assortment of wings, writer Greg Swartz believes that this proposed trade would help the C’s address both areas, and could benefit them both in the immediate future as well as moving forward:

"Muscala held opponents to a stingy 47.8 percent shooting at the rim this season, a mark even lower than that of Williams (50.7 percent). While he’s not nearly the overall defender that Williams is, Muscala is one of the NBA’s best three-point shooting big men, knocking down 42.9 percent of his outside looks for the Thunder this season.With Williams continuing to have knee problems and Horford set to turn 36 in a few weeks, Muscala would be a terrific rotation big to mix in.The Celtics should push for Kenrich Williams in the deal as well, as he’d help as a switchable defender who can line up against Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and others."

In the past, we at HH have expressed our interest in seeing the Boston Celtics pursuing a deal that would bring back Muscala in return, and even claimed him to be a player that could help the team fix two of their most glaring weaknesses (at least, at the time) in shooting efficiency and frontcourt depth.

Not only does this proposed exchange bring the big to Massachusetts, but it also lands them a solid defensive talent in Williams who has shown that he’s also quite capable of knocking down his catch-and-shoot jumpers (something Ime Udoka’s offensive scheme loves to orchestrate) at a rather consistent rate, as he boasted a 51.5 effective field goal percentage on such attempts this past season.

If Aaron Nesmith, someone who could be on the move this summer anyway, and two second-round picks were to be all it would take to pry these two players away from Oklahoma City, you better believe that, if I’m Stevens, I’m accepting this package without any hesitation!