Celtics trades would be almost impossible without this 1 small solution

The Boston Celtics brought back their entire roster this summer. From Xavier Tillman to Luke Kornet to Neemias Queta, 13 of the 15 players who just won a title in Boston are back in town, with the only exceptions being Oshae Brissett, who is still a free agent, and Svi Mykhailiuk, who just signed with the Utah Jazz.

On top of that, the Celtics re-signed Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Sam Hauser, securing their core for the future. That said, them bringing back their entire roster means that they will be paying a hefty tax next season and for the foreseeable future.

With that in mind, making trades is close to impossible for the Celtics. They have very little flexibility to make moves. They can’t aggregate salaries in trades, they can’t take back more money than they are sending out, and they can’t deal cash considerations.

Dalano Banton trade exception is the only realistic way for Celtics to make trades this season

Add in the fact that Boston likely isn’t in a huge rush to trade anybody in their top eight, and making trades is next to impossible. However, there is one small way they could make a deal—Dalano Banton.

More specifically, the trade exception the Celtics got when they traded Banton to the Portland Trail Blazers last season. The exception is worth roughly $2.019 million and expires on February 10.

Unfortunately for the Celtics, that doesn’t leave them with much room to add players, as most players around the league make more than that amount of money. Even most minimum-contract guys surpass that mark.

The first batch of players who Boston could hypothetically trade for, solely from a mathematical perspective, are guys like Jaden Hardy, Jabari Walker, and Jose Alvarado. Essentially, any player drafted or signed to minimum deals in the past few years.

Without giving up on someone like Kornet, Tillman, Queta, or Baylor Scheierman, these are the types of players who Boston will be restricted from potentially trading for.

The Celtics are in a great spot. They love the core that they’ve put together and it doesn’t seem likely that they will be itching to make trades at the deadline. So, barring any massive changes, they probably won’t be making many big-time trades this upcoming season.