Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens could pat himself on the back right now and call it an offseason, given the work he has done to complement his Eastern Conference championship roster from this past season. Having already added a pure point guard (Malcolm Brogdon) and a veteran shooting big man (Danilo Gallinari), Stevens could be perfectly satisfied with the outcome of the 2022 NBA offseason.
Then again, Stevens isn’t the type of guy to sit back when there are still moves that could be made to advance the team further in 2022-23 to close the gap between where the Cs are and where they could be — definitively at the top of the mountain.
Right now, Boston is arguably already there. Sportsbooks tabbed the Cs as the team with the second-best odds to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy next June. But if you ask Hardwood Houdini, turning the final few young guns remaining on the roster–including Grant Williams, who enters a contract year with the possibility of being handed a poison pill deal next summer in restricted free agency–into win-now veterans is the best way to move the needle forward even more. The team might lose potential long-term rotational pieces, but ensuring the team capitalizes on the current title window should be more important.
Especially if it gives the team the means to replace the outgoing talent, which this HH trade proposal aims to do:
Why the Boston Celtics do it
We know the starting lineup is set as it is, but the second unit is all but essentially in place as well with Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White comprising the backcourt and giving the team options on the wing, and Danilo Gallinari and Grant Williams giving the team floor-stretching options at both frontcourt spots.
You may ask yourself why then the team would move Williams, but as mentioned before, the 2019 late-first round pick could garner a contract that could push the team well into the luxury tax for the foreseeable future next offseason. Moving off him now hurts, but it justifies the team returning back a true center in Boban Marjanovic that fills the only need left on the Cs roster: backup center.
Trey Burke has had better seasons than Payton Pritchard may be capable of having. Boston would just need him to get back to his pre-pandemic levels of play to truly get the better end of the point guard swap portion of this four-player deal.
The two future second-round draft picks make this trade one worth making for the Boston Celtics, who will be able to add cost-controlled talent in 2024 after presumably going all in during Jaylen Brown’s final two years under contract.
Why the Houston Rockets do it
At some point, Houston needs to try to take a big step forward after future-focused being made for so long. This trade doesn’t empty their treasure trove of assets, but does find two older guys on rookie-scale contracts that could be ideal role players on a potential youth-filled riser in the west.
With Jabari Smith Jr., Jalen Green, Tari Eason, Alperen Sengun, and Kevin Porter Jr., the time is now to attempt to rise in Houston.