Expiring contract on league's most embarrassing team deemed a Boston Celtics target

Among the 2024 trade deadline Boston Celtics targets Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley listed on January 4 was Detroit Pistons guard Alec Burks, an expiring wing who has no place on the NBA's most embarrassing team this season.

"If they do any subtracting, Alec Burks should be one of the first to go," Buckley prefaced before saying, "He's a 32-year-old on an expiring contract, so his days with the organization are almost certainly numbered. Plus, he has more than enough on-court ability to attract win-now clubs like the Celtics.

"He is a feisty on-ball defender who can create shots (for himself and, to a lesser extent, for his teammates) and bury them from distance. In other words, he has enough two-way juice to handle a rotation spot on a winning team—so long as Detroit steers him toward one."

Pistons fans can't disagree with the most embarrassing label. We all saw the 28-game losing streak, with fewer of us, though not an insignificant number of us, seeing the Wingstop memes. As Detroit held a 19-point halftime lead on December 28, I heard a few fortunate (and informed) gamblers rush to their mobile apps to fire in a Boston moneyline bet at halftime.

Boston Celtics would have to trade Payton Pritchard to land Alec Burks

Any aggressive posturing from the Celtics front office ahead of February 8 will have to include Payton Pritchard's name in the rumors that accompany such strategies. A potential Burks pursuit is no different. His $10 million would require Pritchard, barring taking every contract at the end of Boston's roster, to match salaries. The draft pick price would be exorbitant in the case Pritchard isn't involved.

Burks is having a bit of an off-year shooting-wise, but any semblance of the last three years in Detroit (2022-23) and with the New York Knicks (2020-2022) would bring the Celtics a true difference-maker for a second unit that ranks dead last in points per game in 2023-24.