According to Shams Charania of ESPN, people around the NBA are preparing for the Boston Celtics to make some major changes to their roster, likely through trade. "“The rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to the Celtics roster this offseason," he said on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN.
Charania also noted that "sources have been telling me for weeks now, that the Celtics will be exploring trade options this offseason." There has been a ton of speculation regarding the future of the Celtics, but hearing Charania talk about it is almost like a nail in the coffin for fans hoping to see the current core stick together past this year.
That reality just doesn't seem likely.
Shams Charania report all but confirms Celtics will make major trades this summer
In late March, during an appearance on The Greg Hill Show over at WEEI, Wyc Grousbeck spoke about how impossible it is to stay in the second apron as an NBA team nowadays.
"You can't stay in the second apron," Grousbeck said. "Nobody will. I predict for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one's gonna stay in the second apron more than two years."\
Considering the Celtics have been a second-apron team in each of the last two years, it seems almost certain that they will look to get out of that threshold heading into next season. Unfortunately for them, in order to do that, they will have to trade one of their top guys: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, or Kristaps Porzingis.
And according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, who spoke with an NBA capologist who stated that "they're going to have to trade some guys at some point," Holiday and Porzingis are the likely candidates to be moved.
"The two major salaries that league figures are monitoring in possible future trades: Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday," Fischer wrote.
Also included in Fischer's reporting is the fact that White's name didn't pop up once as a potential trade candidate as he was conducting interviews for his story. "White would seemingly generate the most trade value of the three if he were to be made available after the playoffs, but his name wasn't mentioned once to me in reporting out this story," he wrote.
Boston is in the midst of another title push after capturing Banner 18 last year, and Holiday and Porzingis were huge parts of that run. And they'll be huge parts of this run, too.
However, for the fans who hoped all the rumors and speculation regarding the somewhat inevitable future of Boston's current core were false, Charania's report should serve as a final warning: This Celtics core is on a timer, and once the clock stikes zero, trades are going to be made.
It's simply the unfortunate reality of the current CBA.