It has been quite a chaotic offseason for the Boston Celtics so far. Fresh off a frustratingly bad 2020-21 season, the team has made numerous changes regarding their players and their coaches/front office. It’s safe to say this team will look much different than the one that crawled to the finish line last season.
It may not seem like it, but the NBA season is creeping up very quickly. Preseason action starts up in less than a month, and the start of the regular season is just over a month away, with the opening tipoff for the Celtics taking place on October 20th against the New York Knicks. Within short time, we will be watching the Celtics in action again.
While the C’s haven’t pulled off the huge move they were expected to for a point in time, they have addressed the stunning lack of depth this team possessed last season. A number veterans have been added to the mix to take minutes from the inexperienced youngsters who were in way over their heads towards the end of last season.
All in all, the 2021-22 NBA season should offer a chance for the Celtics to rebound and assert themselves as one of the top teams in the league. A reason for that is because of the big moves they made this offseason that will hopefully pay dividends this upcoming season and seasons beyond. Let’s take a look back at three of the best moves the Boston Celtics made this offseason, starting with one that happened right after the end of the season.
Boston Celtics third best move: Trading Kemba Walker
It’s a true shame Kemba Walker’s time with the Boston Celtics didn’t go as well as planned. He tried his best, but it just never worked out, especially after he suffered a knee injury two seasons ago that continued to plague him right until the end of his tenure in Boston. It was clear that Boston needed to move on from Walker this offseason.
It was no surprise then that shortly after Brad Stevens was announced as the Celtics new President of Basketball Operations he shipped Kemba Walker off to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The deal itself wasn’t really great for Boston; they had to send their first round pick along with Walker to Oklahoma in return for Al Horford, Moses Brown (who was traded shortly after), and a 2023 second round pick.
It’s not the prettiest deal, but it was necessary for Boston to be able to move forward and build their next title contender. The Celtics were paying Walker like an All-Star; the problem was he wasn’t on the court half the time, and when he was, he wasn’t playing up to his normal standard. It became very clear that Walker’s knee injury had a detrimental affect on his abilities last season.
That’s why Boston had to move on from him. They freed up tons of cap space when they shipped off Walker, and immediately put some of it to use this offseason to rebuild their depth. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and move, and that’s exactly what Boston did with this deal.
An added bit of consolation was the addition of old friend Al Horford. Horford already has experience in the Celtics system, and gives Boston a floor-spacing big they haven’t had since he left for the Philadelphia 76ers a few seasons back. Brown was also part of the deal that landed Josh Richardson from the Dallas Mavericks, so it wasn’t all bad here.
It became clear towards the end of last season that Walker simply wasn’t a part of the Celtics future. It stinks that it didn’t work out, and the deal required Boston giving up more than they received. But it was a necessary move that needed to be made, and it made the Celtics better off for the future as a result.
Boston Celtics second best move: Extending Rob Williams
It became clear last season that Rob Williams had the potential to become a game-changing center for the Celtics. Despite his lengthy injury history, the C’s front office decided they wanted Williams to be a part of their long-term future, and signed him to an extension that will see him spend the foreseeable future in Boston.
Williams extension clocked in at $54 million over four years. Considering the heights Williams hit at times last season, this could end up being a steal for Boston. Williams is a dominant player at the rim on both sides of the floor, and adds a vertical facet of the game Boston hasn’t had for some time now.
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Williams’ stats from last season aren’t necessarily anything to write home about (8 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.8 BPG), but Williams was coming off the bench for the majority of the season, and did spend some time injured as well. At his best, Williams displayed the potential of being a triple-double candidate with his above average passing vision for a big man, while also being able to rack up blocks on the other side of the court.
Williams figures to see starting minutes at the center position for the Celtics this upcoming season. After being buried behind Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson at the beginning of last season, Williams surpassed both of them, and is a big reason they are both on different teams right now. Now it looks like Enes Kanter will back up Williams, which is ironic considering Williams was backing up Kanter two seasons ago.
With the extended minutes, Williams seems destined to thrive this upcoming season. He already showed his potential in limited action last season, and now that the reigns are coming off, big things are expected. If he’s able to stay healthy, this extension for Williams will prove to be an absolute steal for the Celtics.
Boston Celtics best move: Replacing Danny Ainge with Brad Stevens
Let’s make one thing clear; this offseason looks completely different if Danny Ainge remained in charge as President of Basketball Operations rather than Brad Stevens. No basketball has been played, but Stevens looks to have done a pretty good job at maneuvering Boston out of a fairly sticky situation.
It became clear it was time for Ainge to move on as the season progressed. Ainge had largely dug the Celtics into this hole with timid roster building that often saw Boston settling for certain moves rather than actually pulling off big moves. There have been countless players Ainge was rumored to be looking to move for, only to watch another team pull the trigger. Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and Anthony Davis are just a few that come to mind.
In a sense, Ainge wasted key years of the Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown era of the Boston Celtics franchise. He was too focused with his golden rule of “build for now and the future” that he failed to properly address the roster at hand. Tons of first round draft picks have been used when the Celtics really didn’t need them. There is an excess of youth on this team as we found out the hard way last season.
It saw the Celtics in a dark place at the end of the season. Failing to get much in return for the Gordon Hayward trade exception, especially when considering he reportedly low-balled the Indiana Pacers last offseason for Myles Turner, seemed to be the final straw. They managed to bring in guys like Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, and Kemba Walker, and fail to do anything with it.
There was certainly a lot of bad luck involved; nobody could have anticipated Hayward’s freak injury a mere six minutes into his Celtics career, or the fact that Walker would regress so much early on in his deal. But Boston was always one piece short of having a contending team, and ultimately that falls on Ainge.
Stevens had first hand knowledge of this, and he quickly worked on cleaning up Ainge’s mess. Moving Walker helped reset the team’s salary issues, and he quickly worked on building up the depth of this roster. Guys like Josh Richardson, Dennis Schroder, and Enes Kanter fill out the bench now rather than guys like Carsen Edwards, Semi Ojeleye, and Luke Kornet.
Stevens also showed an urgency to build this team’s future back up as well. We already talked about the Williams extension, but he also made team friendly deals with Marcus Smart and Josh Richardson. They could end up being key pieces for this team, but they are also much more trade friendly as a result of these new deals.
It’s an urgency this team has been lacking for the past few seasons. There are so many different things Ainge could have pulled the trigger on, but he hesitated and it cost the Celtics. For instance, it became abundantly clear midway through his second season Kyrie Irving wasn’t going to re-sign with Boston; why not try to move him and get something in return?
Stevens taking over as President of Basketball Operations is easily the most important move the Celtics made this offseason. He knows this team revolves around Tatum and Brown for now and the future, and he’s building it as such. It may not all come together this season, but the Celtics are in much better hands with Stevens in charge than they were with Ainge.