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Boston Celtics: 3 Grant Williams-Payton Pritchard trades for a win-now veteran

By Andrew Hughes

These 3 HH mock trades involve the Boston Celtics dealing away Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard for win-now veterans this offseason (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
These 3 HH mock trades involve the Boston Celtics dealing away Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard for win-now veterans this offseason (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Celtics could reunite Rudy Gay and Ime Udoka (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)
The Boston Celtics could reunite Rudy Gay and Ime Udoka (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images) /

The Utah Jazz just received an unheard of haul for Rudy Gobert, with the franchise landing unprotected first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 2027, as well as a top 5 protected in 2029. That should lead to a trade for another Rudy, Rudy Gay, this offseason.

What works out in the C’s favor in any trade talks with the Jazz is the presence of former Boston general manager Danny Ainge in the front office as an executive. Ainge certainly knows Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens quite well from their shared time as GM and coach in Beantown, so an incoming phone call would not be ignored by the Utah front office.

Gay is the type of combo wing that could work well with Danilo Gallinari off the bench, spelling Jayson Tatum and Al Horford in the starting lineup. He also has familiarity with Boston Celtics HC Ime Udoka from their days with the San Antonio Spurs together.

The best part of a potential deal with a seemingly rebuilding Jazz is that they may just be willing to fork over a future pick in order to nab a pair of prospects that have experience with new head coach Will Hardy — a former Celtics assistant who just signed a five-year deal with Utah.

Utah could simply trade Gay into one of Boston’s TPEs, but the allure of grabbing two young pieces on the cheap as they look to either build around Donovan Mitchell or start over completely is tough to pass up.

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