When Shams Charania says something, NBA fans listen. On the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, Charania dropped this bombshell "The rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to the Celtics roster this offseason..Sources have been telling me for weeks now that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason".
Most Celtics fans knew that with new ownership and a looming repeater tax bill coming their way, changes were on the horizon. Bill Chilsom and Wyc Grousbeck have been quiet about offseason plans but but not quite so much about the looming tax bill. The Celtics high cost salaries makes trades difficult. So changes are coming but what are they and who is at risk? Let's look at the targets.
1. Jrue Holiday
Bringing in Holiday was an absolute heist when Brad Stevens went off two offseasons ago. Holiday is a true "glue guy" and was the epitome of what you expect from a point guard. However, the emergence of Payton Pritchard and the drop off in Holiday's production make Holiday's $34 million price tag next season something to take a look at.
The Celtics can certainly look at another point guard to continue the three-man guard rotation that has worked so well with Derrick White, Pritchard and Holiday. Moving off Holiday and bringing in a young guard like Ryan Dunn from the Suns, Scotty Pippen Jr from the Grizzlies or one of the Trailblazers young guards would be a tall task for Brad Stevens.
2. Kristaps Porzingis
Again, Stevens pulled off another fleecing when he brought in Porzingis, and it served well, pushing the Celtics to championship glory. It was risky in that Porzingis was in the last year of his contract, and Porzingis was coming off injury and looking for an extension. "The Zinger" got injured in the playoffs, but his versatility proved key. This season, after his injury rehab, he's been relatively healthy, but his is an injury risk.
Porzingis is younger and provides verstaility as a stetch 5 that no one else on the Celtics can really provide. Horford is aging and not what he once was, and the rest of the Celtics big men play a more traditional role. The Celtics are talented but one of the keys for their offense is that Porzingis allows them to strecth the floor and spacing allowing for easier looks at the basket. Finding a suitable replacement for that would be difficult.
Cheap stretch 5s are hard to come buy and even harder to pry away from teams. The Celtics would essentially be trading away Porzingis for draft capital and a cheap contract and looking at the draft to replace the skill set. Maxime Raynaud or Nate Bittle are options if they choose to move on from Porzingis.
3. Combination of Moves Featuring Jaylen Brown
Al Horford could retire bringing in about $10 million in cap relief. Combine that with moving off of rotation pieces like Xavier Tillman, Neemias Queta and Jordan Walsh. This would still leave the Celtics coming up short and would require minimum contracts to fill out the roster.
Cutting lower-salaried individuals is not going to bring the appropriate monetary relief to create any significant savings and would mess with team chemistry. The Celtics are one of the few teams in the NBA with a top-to-bottom likeable rotation and this may not be the best of even a feasible approach.
Here we go again. If the Celtics are serious about cap savings, Brown is the easier way to accomplish this and would allow for the best return in a trade. Carrying a $53 million dollar salary next season that continues to escalate for three more seasons, Brown is the most expensive Celtic- at least for the time being.
Jayson Tatum's extension kicks in next year and it would be tough to ship away an All-NBA First Teamer and perennial MVP candidate. What might be more palatable, is shipping off your just as expensive number 2. There are a plethora of scoring wings in the NBA who don't have a super max contract attached to them. The question becomes, are the Celtics will to break up "The Jays"?
The difficulty becomes finding a partner for the Celtics. The Seond Apron Tax restricts trading players. Without all the collective bargaining language, it boils down to this: Brown can't be traded for multiple assets of equal salary. So then what's the point of sending out Brown?
Brad Stevens could save pennies next year and trade Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo. This saves almost nothing. The Celtics potentially mess with their chemistry and there is no guarantee the Bucks even pick up the phone. Assuming no injuries though, a lineup of Giannis, Porzingis, Tatum, White, Holiday and Pritchard screams NBA Championship. Its a pipedream but one of the few ways to even move off of Brown if that's the route they take.
Shams Charania says the rest of the NBA is bracing for change but its difficult to see how those changes can reasonably be made and accomplish both cost savings and continued basketball success. Stevens has learned from the great Danny "Trader" Ainge in how to get the most out of his assets but with the rest of the league on notice, its going to be a lot tougher to fleece the rest of the league.