Just over a month from the Feb. 5 NBA Trade Deadline, it’s unclear whether or not any moves are in the cards for the Boston Celtics. Boston’s 23-12 record has them sitting second in the Eastern Conference halfway through a season where many feared they’d end up in the lottery.
With the surplus of success, it’s beginning to feel less and less likely that they’d offload Anfernee Simons and his $27 million contract with the lone goal of cutting costs. Sure, the right move would help them avoid the first apron as well as potentially ducking the luxury tax, but would it be worth shaking up the chemistry?
Probably not.
Any potential move would have to be a fringe type of deal -- nothing major.
Perhaps the Celtics should make a move for Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis. Ellis has plenty of fans around the league, according to ESPN insider Anthony Slater. The Kings just aren’t sure if they want to move him or extend him.
"Fourth-year guard Keon Ellis is one of the more interesting under-the-radar trade deadline names to monitor," Slater wrote Wednesday. "Ellis is on an expiring $2.3 million deal and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but he is extension-eligible on Feb. 9 and has plenty of fans across the front office and scouting community. Ellis is a disruptive defender who has made 41.6% of his career 3s and is viewed as obtainable. The Kings have taken plenty of calls on him, team sources said, but they haven't ruled out keeping him around and trying to work out an extension. "
Does a Keon Ellis trade make sense for the Celtics?
Ellis’ small contract would enable Boston to land him without coughing up a major rotation piece. The problem is that Sacramento would likely require some draft compensation in exchange for the soon-to-be 26-year-old. Previous reports have indicated that the Celtics aren’t particularly interested in doing so.
Typically, it’d be wise to curb any excitement or expectations about trading for a player who struggles to hold down a consistent role on a bad team. Then again, who knows what to think with Sacramento?
If there’s any franchise that would be easy to win a trade against, it’s the Kings. Sacramento has been in basketball purgatory for the majority of the past 20 years. Their current squad is basically the Play-In Chicago Bulls team from the early 2020s.
Mind you, they built that team on purpose.
This season, Ellis has appeared in 35 games for the Kings, with four starts mixed in there. He’s averaging 5.7 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game on 38.5% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc.
His numbers are down across the board from last season, when he’d seemingly taken a step forward.
Any potential trade would have to involve one of Boston’s minimum contracts, likely Chris Boucher, who hasn’t played since November. The financials aren’t the problem; again, it’s the added draft capital that would be a holdup.
There’s no way to know for sure what the price would be, but if there are other teams around the league who are interested in Ellis, it may be too steep for Boston.