Boston Celtics B/R proposal completely misses mark swapping Marcus Smart for former star
Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley released a trio of potential offseason trades involving the Boston Celtics, with two of them — under the absolute right circumstances, of course — being at least worthy of consideration. Those circumstances involve seeing John Collins as a potential final piece to put them over the top (maybe?) and Jaylen Brown forcing a trade and causing the Celtics to accept a return involving a fringe star like Mikal Bridges. Those are understandable, if a tad far-fetched. The one not yet mentioned, and the one worthy of the most attention is the mock proposal that would send Marcus Smart and Grant Williams (in a sign-and-trade scenario) going to the Suns in return for a 38-year-old Chris Paul and multiple second-round draft picks.
Where to begin…
On the one hand, viewing Paul as the potential final piece to put the Cs over the top holds no merit considering CP3’s postseason failures. While Paul is an all-time regular-season performer in his career at the floor general position, his shooting woes have always reared their ugly head in the postseason when the game slows down and his slight stature becomes more of a hindrance against defenses paying attention to every detail. The thing about Paul at this point is that his shooting has fallen off a cliff during the regular season as well, having had his third-lowest career conversion rate overall (44%) in 2022-23 and his second-lowest conversion rate from beyond the arc (31.7%) in 2021-22.
Giving up on Marcus Smart without winning a title first could do damage to the rest of the Boston Celtics’ core
On the other hand, trading away Smart could disrupt the rest of the Boston Celtics core, mainly Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, due to how close this group has become through having come close to Banner 18 on multiple occasions — not to mention the Ime Udoka dismissal following their best season together with the now-Rockets coach.
Paul is still more of a distributor at this stage, but he isn’t a better two-way player overall, and his physical abilities will only continue to wane as he ages and suffers more injuries on the court. The Houdini will take a 29-year-old with years of experience in Boston and as a teammate of the team’s two franchise stars over someone whose playoff resume will ultimately take the shine away from his greatness any day.