There could be unintended negative potential side effects for the Boston Celtics if they explored a trade for Danilo Gallinari — this, at least, according to MassLive’s Brian Robb (subscription required) during his latest Boston Celtics Mailbag.
As Robb points out, trading Gallinari before he ever set foot on the T.D. Garden parquet in uniform could send a bad message to future free agents who may not trust that the team values them more than being a trade chip.
Robb was answering a reader’s question about whether or not there was any value to trading away Gallinari at this point:
"“There’s none for this season since his odds of making a return to the court are essentially nil after suffering a torn ACL in September. With that said, they signed him for a two-year deal (with a player option) that Gallinari is guaranteed to pick up coming off a serious injury. The Celtics could elect to use him in a potential trade at the deadline by making an upgrade for the present and using his salary to make the money match in a deal. However, Boston will need to be careful about the optics of such a move since trading a player who took less money to sign in Boston before he even gets a chance to suit up doesn’t look great to other potential free agents down the line.”"
The Boston Celtics winning a title would ease free agent concerns
The NBA is a business, so any player signing a contract for any team — outside of the LeBron James-level stars that have no-trade clauses baked into their contracts — knows what they’re signing up for.
The Boston Celtics are a team whose 1A top star, Jaylen Brown, isn’t even safe from trade rumors, having gone through an entire summer as the front and center trade piece of Kevin Durant negotiations with the Nets.
Should the team trade Danilo Gallinari for the perfect bridge-gapping big man or a capable wing behind Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and end up with a championship, any prospective free agent next summer won’t think twice about the Gallo swap.
The Cs already got past the Isaiah Thomas trade debacle from the summer of 2017, so dealing Gallinari is something they can certainly survive as well.