The Boston Celtics, despite picking up some frustrating losses along the way, appear to be on a bit of a hot streak recently. They have won eight of their last 12 games, and their win over the New Orleans Pelicans last night pushed their record to 26-25, one game over .500.
Even with the recent success, you can’t help but feel like the Celtics are still the same team that they have been all season long. Their four most recent losses have included some fourth quarter collapses against the Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks, and just abysmal play from the start against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Being just one game over .500 isn’t exactly where the Celtics want to be, making it likely that the team will still pursue a couple of trades before the upcoming Trade Deadline on February 10th. It’s clear the team’s strategy with these trades needs to be acquiring some help for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The dynamic duo combined for 69 of the Celtics 107 points against the Pelicans last night, and it’s clear the team is relying way to heavily on their top two players.
Boston’s bench needs an infusion of talent, and in order for that become a possibility, some of the players that are currently mainstays on it need to be moved on from. The bench has been virtually worthless all season long, and until improvements are made, the C’s will continue to flounder. Here are two players on the Celtics that absolutely need to be moved before the Trade Deadline.
Boston Celtics player that needs to be traded No. 2: Al Horford
It’s safe to say that Celtics fans were relieved to see that Kemba Walker was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder this past offseason after he had a nightmarish 2020-21 campaign. Walker was a shell of his former self, and the Celtics, although they lost some valuable draft capital, gained some much needed salary cap relief and a player in Al Horford who was already familiar with Boston and filled a position of need.
With 51 games in the book for the 2021-22 season, it’s safe to say that Boston dealt one damaged player for another one. Horford has been wildly ineffective this season, and it appears that Father Time is beginning to catch up to the ever consistent Horford. With a team-friendly contract, the Celtics should be able to find someone to take Horford off their hands, and they need to move him if they intend on getting better anytime soon.
Horford has started 42 games for the C’s this season, but it’s not a stretch to say that he should have been benched in favor of Grant Williams awhile ago now. He’s averaging 10.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game, which aren’t horrible totals, but it’s clear that Horford is not the player he once was. He’s shooting career lows from the field (43.4 percent) and from behind the arc (an appalling 29.3 percent), and he’s generally been useless on offense all season long.
Horford is still a solid defender for the most part, as he has been able to keep stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid at bay in their meetings this season, but he’s too much of an offensive liability to hold onto him for specific matchups at this point. Over his last 17 games, Horford has scored 10+ points just three times. He hasn’t been the player Boston was hoping they’d get from the Thunder this offseason, and it’s time to move on.
Trading Horford and giving Williams his starting spot would help this team take the next step forward. Williams is a solid defender, and he’s been one of Boston’s best three point shooters this season (42.6 percent). It’s a shame Horford’ second stint with the Celtics hasn’t gone as planned, but it’s time to move on from the veteran big man and give the guy behind him a chance to shine.
Boston Celtics player that needs to be traded No. 1: Dennis Schroder
Dennis Schroder has been Boston’s third leading scorer on the season behind Tatum and Brown with 14.8 points per game, but he has also been the most volatile player on the team. One night, he scores 23 points, as he did in a win over the Indiana Pacers earlier this month. The next night, he misses all six of his shots and finishes with just one point in a loss against the 76ers. Schroder’s inconsistency has killed the Celtics, and it’s time to find him a new home.
Schroder has generally been as advertised for the Celtics this season. He’s an erratic scorer who at times can pretty much get to the rim whenever he wants, but also goes through phases where he looks like he could take 100 shots and miss all of them. Schroder has been particularly bad recently, as he’s now gone five straight games without scoring 10 points.
The main issue with Schroder is that he’s taking away minutes from Payton Pritchard, who probably should have been the second string point guard coming into the season after his impressive rookie campaign. Pritchard hasn’t been as effective this season because he’s been given virtually no run time behind Schroder and Marcus Smart. But Pritchard has shown that the more minutes he gets this season, the better he plays.
Aside from Schroder’s on-court woes, there’s no benefit to holding onto Schroder past the Trade Deadline in terms of roster building. Schroder’s deal is up at the end of the season, and it seems unlikely the team would be able to afford giving him a new deal next offseason, that is if they even wanted to give him on in the first place. Moving Schroder for whatever you can get is better than watching him walk away this offseason for nothing.
Schroder has been a helpful presence off the bench from time to time this season, but it hasn’t been nearly consistent enough for him to make any sort of actual impact for the Celtics. Boston would be better served moving Schroder and finding out what they actually have in Pritchard at this point. The C’s took a risk on Schroder this offseason, and while it’s worked out occasionally, it’s time to end this experiment and dump him off to another team.