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According to Jordan Daly of NBC Sports Boston, the Boston Celtics are not seeking to add a game-changing player at the trade deadline. Daly gave the team’s whole roster as justification for their stance.
After stating, “With most of the minutes already claimed in Boston’s nightly rotation, the Celtics aren’t looking to bring in a game-changing player — their main rotation is set and proven to work,” Daly began. “Boston’s bench, which was seen as a weak point before the season, has slowly proven its ability to play meaningful minutes, playing team-first basketball with the goal of getting wins over individual accomplishments,” he continued. Given that, adding more depth is always a good idea.
According to Daly and others, the most likely route for the Celtics to make a trade by the deadline would be to acquire a more playable depth player whose salary is higher than the $6.2 million Grant Williams TPE in exchange for the recently guaranteed contracts of Dalano Banton, Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Lamar Stevens.
“Assuming the Celtics won’t want to part ways with their bench core of Hauser, Horford, and Pritchard, Boston could look to package a combination of the now fully-guaranteed Luke Kornet, Dalano Banton, Lamar Stevens, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Oshae Brissett,” Daly stated. Note that this grouping of Brissett was not accurate.
“I think the roster is good — it’s pretty obvious they’re good,” Battle stated. “I believe that many overlooked their bench when they were starting the season, which was their vulnerability. I believe that their bench has grown stronger recently. Pritchard, Hauser, and the other guys are playing excellent basketball; their plus/minus and other metrics are increasing. They’ve looked great when you combine the bench with the starting, like Mazzolla has been doing.
“They have entered games with a six- or seven-point advantage, and they have maintained that lead when the bench has entered the game by pushing it to double digits. That, in my opinion, is what you look for in a team capable of winning a title.”
Although it is the genre of analyst to be against any player movement at all, in sports there is never a guaranteed thing. When Payton Pritchard’s shot isn’t falling, there will be a matchup that takes advantage of the present weak rotation, which goes eight-deep, occasionally seven.
Though bonding in the home locker room at TD Garden appears to be unbreakable at the moment, the Boston Celtics might as well have as many players as possible who are not dice rolls.
The Boston Celtics guaranteed the contracts of Dalano Banton, Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Lamar Stevens before the January 10 decision date for a specific reason, as MassLive’s Brian Robb explains: to set up a corresponding transaction ahead of the February 8 trade deadline.
“A source tells MassLive that just because their contracts are guaranteed now does not mean they will play out their careers in Boston,” Robb began before adding, “The Celtics may choose to package multiple minimum salaries with one or more players to make a deal for a player who does not qualify for the $6.2 million Grant Williams trade exception. The wages of Stevens and Mykhailiuk might be useful instruments in that regard, but waiving them this weekend would have made Stevens’ salary match in that kind of arrangement even more difficult.
“In the end, MassLive has learned from numerous league sources that the Celtics are highly anticipated to make a move before the trade deadline. Maintaining the team’s current roster through the guarantee deadline creates further opportunity to close a transaction to improve the back end of the roster.”
The Boston Celtics
This writer once believed that Kornet and Neemias Queta could hold down the big man position, but the truth is that the latter is still too young to be trusted by the green, and the former is obviously not the solution. After all, he wouldn’t have been left hanging in his fourth season and second consecutive full season without a contract.
The lack of significant bench pieces for Boston beyond Al Horford, Sam Hauser, and Payton Pritchard is evident in the fact that the team has four players they do not want to keep around for the long run. Given Horford’s age and Kristaps Porzingis’s injury-proneness, a big man may be the most necessary addition to examine before of the deadline. The fact that the Cs only have three ball handlers in their rotation is understandable given the lack of playing time in the backcourt behind huge minutes producers Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Pritchard. Oshae Brissett might be the big wing Stevens previously stated the team needs.
Sports’ Larry Brown Darryn Albert thinks Chris Boucher, a prominent trade target for the Boston Celtics, would give the Cs what Luke Kornet doesn’t have right now: genuine rim protection and floor-spacing from an offensive repertoire that extends beyond five feet.
“Albert began by stating, ‘These days, Boucher still doesn’t get many minutes for the now rebuilding Raptors (a meagre 14.2 per game off the bench this season),’ but he is a capable overall defender who can also space the floor with a three-point jumper and a strong shot blocker. Luke Kornet, the Celtics’ current third big man, does not exactly possess that.”
Forsberg said, “The lack of pure size on the Celtics is well-documented,” and then, “The team is heavily reliant on 37-year-old Al Horford and the frequently injured Kristaps Porzingis.” That has put Luke Kornet into a big role, and Boston’s defensive rebound rate is a team-worst 69.6 when he’s on the field.
“If only to lessen the load on its centres throughout the regular season, we’ve long thought the Celtics will look at opportunities to add big-man depth before the trade deadline. Although Kornet has had some positive moments, this season’s second-chance opportunities have occasionally felt like game-ending plays, especially when opponents are cutting into runs.”
The executive office in Boston has been calling for upgrades throughout the season, and on January 8, Brian Robb of MassLive disclosed that the Celtics may decide to part with Kornet’s contract or any other non-guaranteed agreement even though Brad Stevens and company had promised them.
According to Bobby Krivitsky of Inside The Celtics, Oshae Brissett, the Boston Celtics’ projected large wing replacement for Grant Williams for the 2023–24 season and potentially beyond, may be the team’s top internal contender in Brad Stevens’ big wing hunt.
“A prime internal candidate to solve (Stevens’ big wing) search is Oshae Brissett,” Krivitsky began by stating, “The six-foot-seven forward is getting and capitalising on recent opportunities to prove he’s worthy of the role.”
Stevens stated on January 4 that a “big wing” is the only rotational player Boston needs.
Stevens stated, “I think we’ll continue to watch free agency and trades, and I would like to see how we can find another big wing or so that can help us, and I think that could be from within” (h/t NBC Sports Boston). “But once more, the difference between this year and perhaps previous years is that, in terms of money, our tools are pretty limited.”
Stevens stated, “I think we’ll continue to watch free agency and trades, and I would like to see how we can find another big wing or so that can help us, and I think that could be from within” (h/t NBC Sports Boston). “But once more, the difference between this year and perhaps previous years is that, in terms of money, our tools are pretty limited.”
Additionally, Stevens gave Brissett and every other reserve wing the opportunity to take advantage of the opening to fill that position.
Stevens remarked, “I don’t want to say that person isn’t in the building because they might be in there right now.” “When our bench has entered games that don’t play as they’ve assisted us, it has greatly encouraged me. I’m happy to see that our men have a demanding travel schedule in January and that we have five games in [seven] days as we proceed through this stretch. For such guys, there will be more opportunities, which will be beneficial as February approaches.
It was Oshae Brissett’s job to play big wing for the Boston Celtics.
It was always the plan for Brissett to replace Grant in Boston’s big man rotation; Brian Robb of MassLive crowned the former Indiana Pacers second unit star, calling him the C’s Williams replacement in free agency.
Robb began, “Brissett is still only 25 years old and has shown enough promise in Indiana to be a useful depth piece for certain matchups.” He continued, “If the team loses him via free agency or a sign-and-trade, he is also conceivably a very low-cost Grant Williams replacement (and a far worse shooter).”
Brissett hasn’t had to be that way yet. The Boston Celtics have won almost every game thanks to the strength of their starting six. But as the season draws to a close, Brissett needs to do everything within his power to convince Stevens not to look to the trade market in search of that big wing. If he does, he will miss out on the opportunity to earn more money in the summer, when he can decline his player option and maybe enter free agency.
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