Nicolas Batum has decided to call it a career. After 15 years, he is retiring from the NBA. Honestly, good for him! He is actually one of the premier swing players of his era, and he should be proud of the legacy he left behind. He never played for the Boston Celtics, but he actually factored into how the team is the way it is today!
Before we start this off, it needs to be said that Batum never meant to alter the Celtics' trajectory the way he did. He was more or less the sacrificial lamb that changed everything. Note that we have delved into how Montrezl Harrell passing on Charlotte's lucrative offer paved the way for Gordon Hayward to ditch Boston join them in 2020, so we don't need to rehash the details.
But what also gets forgotten is that Batum played a hand in that. To add Hayward for the money they wanted, the Hornets had to waive and stretch the last year of his contract to open up the cap room to sign Hayward, as he was then paid $27 million over the next three years.
In summation, waiving Batum made room for Hayward, who was signed and traded to the Hornets to give Boston a TPE, which they used on Josh Richardson, who they then swapped for Derrick White, and bam, look where it got Boston today.
Batum never played a game for Boston (though he made some sense as a target this summer), but he left his mark, even if it was unintentional.
The smallest actions can cause the biggest chain reactions
The compound effect by Harrell's rejection of the Hornets and Batum's contract being stretched took Hayward out of Boston, which led to White joining Boston a year and a half later. There's no telling if Hayward would have stayed or if the Celtics would have gotten White anyway down the line, but it is amazing that two small actions really did carve out the route the Celtics went on.
That's why even the little things can't be swept under the rug when they happen because you never know what could turn into. This has worked multiple times in the Celtics' favor. Remember when they signed Malik Fitts, Nik Stauskas, and Juwan Morgan for the stretch run off 2022 despite them having no value? Well, that got them Malcolm Brogdon the following summer.
Remember when they aquired Marcus Thornton - cue to young Celtics fans asking "Who?" - in 2014 in what was seen as them absorbing empty calories in their rebuild? Well, that led to Isaiah Thomas, which led to Kyrie Irving. Kind of insane, huh?
It's fun when scenarios like these come up, whether they work for or against the Celtics. Or, in this case, it's kind of a gray area.
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