The Celtics have what most consider to be the best “top 6” in the league. Hauser and Pritchard have been solid rotation guys. Beyond that there’s a lot of question marks on the Celtics bench.
So according to Shams, you can expect the Celtics to be ready to make moves to beef up the bench.
“The Celtics gave a couple of first round picks in the Jrue Holiday trade but they still have a few left over. I expect the Celtics to be active in the trade market as we get closer to February, to try to see if they can beef up their bench rotation.”
“I expect the Celtics to be active in the trade market as we get closer to February, to try to see if they can beef up their bench rotation.”@ShamsCharania‘s biggest concern for the Celtics is late game execution, what kind of player are they missing?
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) December 5, 2023
As Keith Smith points out, the Celtics have a $6.2M TPE that they can use to take back salary without sending anyone out. The trick is finding someone in that salary range that would be a difference maker. And adding salary at this point would count 3 to 4 times the salary when calculating the tax bill. If there’s a clear upgrade to be found, there’s a world where the owners would sign off on the added bill. I don’t know which players fit that description.
If you aren’t using the TPE, then you have to consider which players you’d be willing to trade away (and 3-for-1 deals are hard to complete in season while teams still have roster constraints).
If any front office would be creative enough to get something done it would be the Celtics. It is probably too early to have any real solid feel for who Boston would target. But it is always fun to speculate.
