Under-the-radar trade deadline deal leaves Boston Celtics ahead in key area
The staff of The Ringer recently praised the Boston Celtics trade with the OKC Thunder to land Mike Muscala for two future second-round picks in a piece examining the best, worst, and zaniest moves of the trade deadline.
In Michael Pina’s response to the question of which under-the-radar deadline trade was his favorite, Pina pointed out a very astute point about where the Celtics stand following the February 9 fireworks: ahead of all their rival contenders in both conferences in terms of future assets.
The Bucks gave up five future second-rounders for Jae Crowder, who hasn’t played since the Western Conference semifinals last May, while the 76ers — who already paid a fortune to land James Harden at the 2022 deadline — now have just two draft picks in both rounds from 2024-2026. Brooklyn lost contender status (if they ever had it to begin with) while the Heat did little to improve their own, and both teams gave up many of their own draft picks in recent years anyway. Cleveland’s core hasn’t proven they are in the top tier and worthy of worry despite clipping the Cs earlier this season on several occasions.
Here was that excerpt of Pina’s Celtics-centric response to the question about under-the-radar deadline trades:
"“The best, deepest team in the league got better and deeper without giving anything valuable up (sorry, Justin Jackson!) that will hurt it going forward. They held onto Payton Pritchard, Danilo Gallinari’s contract, and all their future first-round picks. Boston is an extremely good team now, and it still has some flexibility—which isn’t something most of its competitors can say.”"
Brad Stevens keeps Boston Celtics flexible with improvement along margins
Brad Stevens paid the price of one draft pick every offseason and the 2022 trade deadline to have the Boston Celtics entering the 2022-23 season as a contender — even with the loss of head coach Ime Udoka a week before training camp. At the 2023 trade deadline, the C’s President of Basketball Operations was able to make a small-priced improvement along the margins to ensure this team has a minimum number of holes entering this upcoming pivotal postseason.
If this iteration of the team doesn’t work, though, Stevens gave the Celtics the greatest gift moving forward, flexibility, because he didn’t go crazy spending multiple draft picks on a disgruntled star incapable of lifting his new team. The reset button could be pressed in the offseason in another attempt to get over the hump if Boston can’t this June.