We’re only now approaching the official first full month marker of the 2022 NBA offseason, but already it appears the Boston Celtics have come away from this time period as major winners.
From their free agency signing of Danilo Gallinari to the blockbuster exchange that landed them Malcolm Brogdon, the C’s have managed to improve their already menacing roster that just finished second in the running for the league title.
Because of their magnificent additions, it appears as though every other team across the association is simply just trying to catch up with Boston, as trade talks have been heating up day by day ever since Brad Stevens and co. came out of the gates swinging.
Other big market teams and hopeful playoff contenders such as the Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Lakers have been found in the spotlight during these big-time rumored talks, with rumblings of major blockbusters potentially being on the horizon.
This summer, we’ve seen a bevy of top-flight talents being listed as available for a trade and, as a result, seemingly every title hopeful is looking into ways they can go about acquiring them.
Now, while it appears as though the franchise is in fact content with the moves they’ve already made and may only look to take part in one or two smaller transactions moving forward (something we at HH completely agree with), from a bragging rights perspective it is a bit fun to realize that, if they really wanted to, the Boston Celtics could easily outbid virtually every other team in the game for some of the top-billed talents rumored to be on the block.
With this in mind, here are 3, in particular, we believe the organization could realistically acquire if they really wanted to attain them:
Player the Boston Celtics could outbid other teams for No. 1) Jordan Clarkson
Recent events and rumblings seem to insinuate that the Utah Jazz could be heading towards a full-blown rebuild, and, should this be the case, their objective moving forward into this offseason could very well be offloading any and all the capable, win-now players they have in exchange for assets that could help them down the road.
When it comes to a potential trade involving veteran wing Jordan Clarkson, though the Boston Celtics may not be able to offer up any first-round selections in the immediate future (the next available selection they’d be able to ship out would be for the 2025 draft), another highly useful resource a tanking team could covet is a lofty TPE.
Such a luxury could absolutely come in handy in the future, as the Jazz could go on to be viewed as a serious player to absorb unwanted contracts in time without sending back anything in return in exchange for even more draft capital.
Luckily for this situation, Clarkson’s $13.3 million salary for 2022-23 fits flawlessly into the C’s $17.1 million exception, while Utah’s CEO of Basketball Operations and Alternate Governor, Danny Ainge, has some well-known close personal ties with Boston’s front office and, in theory, could be easily swayed to work something out to create both a new TPE while also bringing back some picks and perhaps a player he himself drafted in the past (Payton Pritchard and/ or Grant Williams to be more specific).