The Boston Celtics reportedly had expressed interest in acquiring Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis. Saturday morning, Jake Fischer and Marc Stein shared the following in the latter's Substack, The Stein Line.
"Sacramento, sources say, has only increased the intensity of its talks to ship out Ellis entering the weekend … with the Lakers, Pacers, Spurs and Celtics among several teams still hoping to factor into the race to acquire the defensive-minded guard."
However, less than an hour before midnight on the East Coast, Ellis's name came off the board.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the Cleveland Cavaliers, another franchise heavily linked to the fourth-year guard, have procured one of the top role players available at this year's trade deadline.
The deal is a three-team construct. The Cavaliers land Ellis and former Celtics guard Dennis Schroder. The Kings will receive De'Andre Hunter. The third party is the Chicago Bulls. The latter franchise is absorbing Dario Saric's contract to obtain two future second-round draft picks.
Another benefit is that Cleveland just created $50 million in salary and tax savings this season.
Keon Ellis goes from Celtics' trade target to conference foe
The Cavaliers haven't performed at the level many pundits projected before the current campaign got underway. However, they are 7-3 in their last 10 tilts, 29-21 overall, and fifth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Cleveland is plenty capable of emerging from the East, which is wide open this season, and reaching the NBA Finals. Adding Ellis and Schroder for a player in Hunter, who the franchise likely had higher hopes for after acquiring him before last year's trade deadline, strengthens that prospect.
Ellis is a fantastic perimeter defender. He's quick, disruptive, and savvy. The six-foot-four guard is swiping 1.1 steals in 17.6 minutes of floor time this season. That matches his career output in that category.
At the other end of the floor, he's a reliable three-point threat. For his career, the former Alabama standout is launching 3.3 attempts from behind the arc and knocking them down at a 41.5 percent rate. He's also hoisting 3.3 threes in the current campaign, converting them at a 36.8 percent clip.
It's worth noting that he's not a primary ball handler, nor is he known for being a shot creator. He still would have fit in well in Boston. However, if he were coming in and the Celtics parted ways with Anfernee Simons, whether it was in the same deal or a separate trade, it would be a significant downgrade in those two areas.
The two could have fit alongside each other. However, if Boston had added Ellis to the roster without having to say goodbye to anyone on the team before Thursday's deadline passed, the current depth chart would become more congested than the Mass Pike at rush hour.
The cleanest fit would have hinged on Jayson Tatum returning this season, the Celtics trading Simons for a center, and Payton Pritchard returning to the role of sixth man.
However, the latter is excelling as a starter and is well worthy of remaining in the first unit. And while this author still believes Tatum will rejoin Boston this season, a plan banking on that would have exposed Boston to an unnecessary risk.
The Celtics are in a good enough position that reshuffling the deck for Ellis or bringing him on board as a luxury would have represented a nice pickup at the trade deadline. However, the more substantial part of what happened is that he joined a direct competitor.