There was no doubt that the Celtics were hunting for an upgrade in the frontcourt at the trade deadline, and they ultimately settled on Nikola Vucevic. But it sounds like the Cs were sniffing around other big men before pivoting to Vooch.
Jake Fischer reported on Marc Stein’s Substack that the Celtics, along with the Pacers, “were known to be high on the list of teams to have registered ongoing interest in (Ivica) Zubac.” This comes after Michael Scotto had reported earlier in the year that Boston had offered Anfernee Simons, a 1st round pick, and a future pick swap to the Clips for Big Zu.
But that was earlier in the season, when LA was 6-21, and before the Cs had established themselves as contenders with Simons playing a big role. Still, obviously, the interest never waned, and the idea of flipping Ant for a center persisted until they eventually made the Vooch deal.
As Fischer pointed out, the Clippers sent the message all winter that they wanted to keep Zubac in LA. They even held firm on that stance after things came to a head with James Harden, but the Pacers were so persistent, and came with an offer that the Clippers ultimately couldn’t refuse.
Celtics missed out on trading for Ivica Zubac
It makes you wonder whether or not the Celtics could have had a chance to trade for Big Zu at the deadline, after all. He was clearly one of their top targets, which makes sense as he’s just 28 years old and currently on an extremely team-friendly 3-year, $58.65 million deal.
He’s a better, younger, and cheaper player than Vucevic, and would have made sense as the starting center of the present and future. A much better defender than Vooch, Zu could have been an ideal addition to the current Celtics team.
Maybe if they held off a little longer, they could have gotten into a bidding war with the Pacers and ended up with the big-name center they wanted all along. But it wasn’t meant to be. Boston obviously didn’t expect the Clippers to move on from Zu, so they made their move on Tuesday, only to see their conference rivals snatch up Zubac on deadline day.
Seeing him not only moved, but going to one of the Celtics’ main competitors in the East has to sting even more. We’ll never know if the Cs would have been willing or able to beat Indiana’s offer, and so far, Vooch has looked like a very solid addition. But depending on how the next few years play out in the Eastern Conference, we may look back at this trade deadline as a huge “what if?” moment.