The Celtics have been lusting after Trey Murphy III for months now, but it appears those talks are dead before they ever got off the ground. The Pelicans, who are a very confusing franchise, now seem intent on keeping Murphy unless they are blown away by an offer. Considering a Murphy trade would be tough and costly anyway while staying under the first apron hard cap, it’s probably time to give up on that dream.
The Celtics may be more focused on smaller moves for role players that fit the new-look roster better and accentuate Jayson Tatum. Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports mentioned that Boston could look into players like Herb Jones, Keldon Johnson, and Lu Dort.
With Paul George waiving his trade kicker, Boston is about $8 million below the first apron, which is now a hard cap after using the mid-level exception on Mitchell Robinson. That means the Celtics can’t take in more than $8 million in a trade without sending out salary, even if they utilize their $27.7 million traded player exception from the Anfernee Simons deal.
That makes it very difficult to add a player like Murphy without giving up PG or Derrick White. But the players mentioned above make a good amount less than TM3 next season. Herb will make $14.9 million next season, Keldon is at $17.5 million, and Dort is on the books for $18.2 million.
So, the Celtics would still need to move a contract to acquire any of these players, but they could use their TPE and move Sam Hauser’s $10.8 million. The question then becomes: can you find a player in that price range who’s clearly an upgrade and a better fit than Hauser?
Substantially upgrading Sam Hauser going to be very difficult
These are fine names, and even if they are only examples, they make sense. Jones and Dort are defensive studs with questionable offensive games and streaky shots. Dort is expiring, and Jones has a three-year, $68 million extension starting in 2027-28. Johnson scaled down his role and won the Sixth Man of the Year Award for the Spurs this season, but his shot is shaky, he’s a questionable defender, and he mostly got played off the floor in the playoffs.
Is it really worth giving up assets and adding salary for any of these players? I say no. Hauser has his flaws, but he’s an absolute marksman, his gravity and spacing always impact the offense, he doesn’t turn the ball over, his defense isn’t that bad, his contract is excellent (about to enter year 2 of a 4/$5m) and, perhaps most importantly, we know he’s a great fit with Tatum.
If there’s a clear and obvious move to be made, then by all means, the Celtics should go for it. But at this point, I think the Celtics like their roster and want to see what it looks like. Even a margin move would likely be costly and may not even work. The move is probably just to ride it out for a year and see what’s what, duck below the tax, and hit the ground running next year with no apron or tax penalties to worry about, a huge expiring contract, and a surplus of draft capital.
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