Boston Celtics analyst hints at who can be traded following playoff elimination
The Boston Celtics have many difficult decisions to make if/when they are eliminated from the Eastern Conference postseason — mainly pertaining to figuring out which core members are expendable in a potential trade during the offseason. Boston only has Grant Williams’ impending restricted free agency to sort out on the free agent side of the transactional equation considering the lack of usable cap space, so finding a trade is the only way for the team to meaningfully move the needle forward.
The question naturally becomes “Who would Brad Stevens be willing to part with in the offseason?” And Boston Celtics analyst Dan Greenberg attempted to answer that question, albeit in a less-than-straightforward manner, in a tweet on May 22:
I think it's unlikely to see any of the top 7 guys traded, and if one is it's probably the 32 year old who is on an expiring deal https://t.co/ySUTi9EKiB
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) May 22, 2023
There is only one player who fits that description: Mike Muscala, who turns 32 on July 1, aka the official first day of NBA free agency. Whether or not Muscala is a top-seven rotation player — the Houdini has Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon, Al Horford, and Robert Williams III in that group, as does Joe Mazzulla based on his playoff rotations — but there is validity to the idea that Boston’s front office would explore dealing the former second-round draft pick.
The Boston Celtics figure to be busy on trade market in 2023 offseason
Falling short of Banner 18 was always going to cause the Boston Celtics front office to take a long look in the mirror, but the manner in which the Cs have been dominated by Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals seemingly points to something bigger going on in the locker room.
From the jump, the 2022-23 season was taxing on the players. Ime Udoka’s suspension was a clear chemistry killer waiting to happen, but the team banded together to be the league’s best team until the calendar turned to 2023. Once Mazzulla was given a long-term extension to be the full-time head coach, the team stopped executing with the same precision on both sides of the ball.
With where things are now, it appears as though Boston’s roster is broken in many ways. There are starting caliber options coming off the bench, and it’s unknown which players were unhappy with Mazzulla being extended before proving anything.
Changes are coming in one way or another this offseason for the Celtics, and those changes will have to happen via what figures to be an extremely robust trace market during the 2023 offseason.