Boston Celtics: 3 Knicks to trade into Evan Fournier TPE to clear cap space for NY
The Boston Celtics front office has gotten full permission from franchise owner Wyc Grousbeck to do whatever it takes to fortify the current reigning and defending Eastern Conference Champions for next season and beyond.
According to Cs President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens, his light is as green as the team’s jerseys.
In other words: it’s go-time. The NBA offseason was two games away from being a quiet one, since the Celtics were on the doorstep of Banner 18 and all seemed right in the world, with the aging Golden State Warriors looking like they were a Kevin Durant away from being able to pull off a championship series upset following Game 3 at the T.D. Garden.
The rest is history, though, and Stevens and co. now have a team that is great, but just not great enough. Luckily, that is about to change possibly as soon as this week with the team looking to be aggressive with their three traded player exceptions — set at $17.1 million (Evan Fournier), $6.9 (Juan Hernangomez) million, and $5.9 million (Dennis Schroder). The Fournier TPE ($17.1 million) is the Houdini’s focus today.
One team that could be looking to do some salary dumping this week is the New York Knicks, who have two major point guard additions on their radar this offseason.
The first and more realistic target is Jalen Brunson. New York just hired his father Rick as a coach, and will only need to clear $25 million in cap space to sign him. That would be an overpay for an undersized guard who has a 49/37/80 career shooting split and has started just one full season on the Dallas Mavericks, the team that took him with the No. 33 overall pick in 2018. Then again, such a move would be so uniquely NYK that it’s probably going to happen.
On the other hand, most Knicks fans would probably prefer Kyrie Irving, a former No. 2 option on an NBA Champion and 3x All-NBA Team point guard (1x Second Team, 2x Third Team). Posting and Toasting wrote about the potential basketball beauty Irving can create at MSG:
"“Does Kyrie make sense on the Knicks? Good Christ, yes. He would instantly be right up there with Walt Frazier as the greatest point guards in franchise history. He’s a legit primary scorer, something Julius Randle isn’t and RJ Barrett isn’t and may never be and pro’ly should never be. He creates for his teammates. He’d make Madison Square Garden sound like it hasn’t in a long time, and maybe ever; after all, the greatest Knicks of the post-championship years (Bernard King; Patrick Ewing; Carmelo Anthony), for all their greatness, were not human highlight reels. Irving is the sizzle and the steak.”"
In order for this move to ever be a reality, the Knicks would need to clear significant cap space and would require several salary dumps in order to do so.
Here are 3 Knicks the Boston Celtics should pursue to absorb into the Evan Fournier $17.1 million TPE:
Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose is someone that, before his latest New York Knicks stint, was someone you didn’t want to associate with any young core with the potential to grow. It wasn’t so much because of his on-court abilities, which have been at a steady sub-star level since his return from a meniscus tear in 2014.
Since re-joining Tom Thibodeau in New York for a second stint with the Knicks, Rose has been a productive member of the second unit capable of stepping into a starting role if called upon in an emergency. His role under Ime Udoka would be to bring Payton Pritchard along as a passer while also providing second unit scoring that was sorely lacking outside of Derrick White (minus Games 5&6 of the NBA Finals) in the postseason. He’d need to be folded into the Evan Fournier TPE ($17.1 million) for his $14.5 million cap figure.