While there isn’t a pressing trade need for the Boston Celtics amidst their multiple win streaks from their first quarter of the season, there does appear to be a position that MassLive’s Brian Robb believes could be an area of concern.
Luke Kornet is doing everything in his power to ensure Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens doesn’t feel that position is the center position — which was in the title of Robb’s piece titled ‘Luke Kornet taking pressure off Celtics trade needs with steady bench play.’
Robb shared within the piece that the play of Kornet is actively turning Stevens’ attention to the wing for depth behind Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Sam Hauser — or to complement the 3-point shooter — instead:
"“Rob Williams return in a few weeks will push Kornet onto the fringe of the team’s rotation and potentially out of it entirely so it may not make a lot of sense to try to upgrade a player who is clearly a key part of a terrific bench unit to this point. Brad Stevens may be better off trying to address another area of the roster with weaker depth (wing behind Tatum/Brown) or try to find another stretch power forward option with size.”"
The Boston Celtics could embrace small-ball to avoid needing to trade for a wing
Truthfully, as is, the Boston Celtics could get around their dearth of wing depth by embracing small-ball and staggering their two starting center caliber bigs (Robert Williams III, Al Horford) with their playing time. This game plan would call for more minutes for Payton Pritchard, plenty of Jayson Tatum at the power forward spot, and Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon playing up a position.
While sacrificing last year’s starting five that was 12 points/100 possessions better than the second-best team and had the best defensive rating, while also ranking third in offensive rating per NBC Sports Boston’s Max Lederman could be seen as questionable, doing anything but keeping this roster in tact could viewed through that same lens with the team winning 4x as much as they lose in the early portion of the 2022-23 season.