The Boston Celtics Trade Deadline deals are just more of the same fluff

The Boston Celtics latest trades are just more of the same old fluff fans have been seeing for years in Boston as chess pawns are acquired then dealt, acquired then dealt, etc.

The end results under both Danny Ainge and now the current President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, are usually the same. The team gets no better than it was before, but maybe the front office feels good because at least they did something.

Sorry, that’s just not good enough for a fanbase that in the past, now distant unfortunately, was used to winning championships. One title over the last 35 years isn’t exactly what they’re looking for.

The Boston Celtics Trade Deadline moves didn’t accomplish much

Aside from Danny Ainge striking gold with trades to bring in Kevin Garnett and then fleecing the Brooklyn Nets for a bounty of draft picks, what have most of the Celtics numerous moves amounted to? They’ve amounted to little is the answer.

The latest trades saw a slew of bodies being shifted around and nothing much accomplished, again. The biggest splash of sorts by Brad Stevens did this,

"The Boston Celtics have agreed to send guards Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford and a top-four-protected 2022 first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs for guard Derrick White, the team announced Thursday."

Is that supposed to be a big deal? Is adding Derrick White, a guard who is a reputed defensive specialist, to a team with another top defensive guard in Marcus Smart supposed to put the Celtics in a position to contend for a title this season?

White may be a decent player but he isn’t going to drastically change the landscape of the Eastern Conference. OK, he had a nice debut with 15 points and six rebounds, but let’s see what the rest of his games look like before crowning the Celtics champions of the NBA.

Some like the deals. One writer termed it a disaster. It may not be, but it certainly didn’t seem to move the needle enough toward real contention anytime soon.

In a second deal, the C’s acquired another former Celtic, Daniel Theis, who was shipped out at the Trade Deadline last season. Theis is an OK player, but at 6’8 tall, he’s not going to provide much help to the center position in Boston.

That deal did this,

"Right before the NBA trade deadline’s final buzzer at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets completed a trade that will send Dennis Schroder, Enes Freedom and Bruno Fernando to Houston, and Daniel Theis to Boston, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski."

Schroder, who was signed last offseason, was in and out of Boston in a hurry, and back in came Theis. It’s another example of in with the old, out with the new for Boston. Where’s the beef in all these deals?

Theis follows in a line of players who have gone out then returned including Al Horford, Joe Johnson, and Enes Freedom who are sent out, brought back, and maybe sent out again like Freedom.

This is basketball ping-pong, with the players acting as the ping-pong balls. Now, they’ll possibly bring back Isaiah Thomas for a second go-around. Who’s next?

Some players on this personnel merry-go-round never even see the floor like Moses Brown and Bol Bol. How does the team know if they’ll blossom if they never see the court much in games that count or are injured and never even hit the floor like Bol?

The White deal may turn out to be a revelation. That’s yet to be seen. Yet, one game does not a Boston career make, though some will crown White as the missing piece after just one good game.

On the bounce, a player or coach can often light it up, then more than likely than not fade back to the norm. White’s career averages so far in his career are nothing spectacular (11.6 PPG/3.3 RPG/3.8APG). The jury is still out on whether he’ll take a leap in Boston. Don’t count on it. Usually, you are what you are.

So there it is in a nutshell. More deals that for all intents and purposes look like moving chess pieces around a chessboard and never getting any closer to capturing the king, an NBA championship.

Instead of a mega-deal to really attempt to upgrade the team into a championship contender, Stevens continues as did Ainge to nibble around the edges, look busy, make a lot of deals and really accomplish, well, little.

We’ll see in the ensuing weeks and months if these two deals amount to anything. This space is not optimistic.

Yet, they will maybe get fans closer to answering the question of whether this team’s management has any idea of what it’s doing. That at least would be something.