NBA trade season is in full swing, and the Boston Celtics are in the thick of the action.
The Celtics made a significant trade Tuesday, reportedly sending Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick to the Chicago Bulls in return for big man Nikola Vucevic and a second-round pick. But president of basketball operations Brad Stevens still has time to make more moves before the NBA trade deadline on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.
After Boston’s win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg broke down the additional flexibility Stevens and Co. gained by trimming about $6 million in salary (Simons is making $27.7 million this season, while Vucevic is making $21.5 million) and ducking under the first apron of the NBA’s luxury tax.
“They’re now off the first apron, which essentially unlocks one key benefit: If a player is waived who is making more than the mid-level exception — about $14.5 million — the Celtics can now make a play for that person,” Forsberg explained on the Celtics Talk Podcast with co-host Kayla Burton.
“Most of the time that’s minimum deals, but the Celtics actually have some trade exceptions if they needed to (take on) more (salary). … Long story short, they could make an aggressive offer towards a player who maybe was an All-Star in the past, but for whatever reason has been waived by their team.”
Forsberg is referring to the buyout market, where players who are released as a result of trades are free to sign with other teams after Thursday’s deadline. More often than not, those players are aging veterans who weren’t making a significant impact for their other teams. But there are diamonds in the rough, as the Celtics themselves proved in 2008 when they signed P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell, who were important depth pieces on a championship team.
As Forsberg pointed out, it’s also possible Boston makes another deal, with end-of-the-bench big man Chris Boucher a likely trade candidate.
“There’s probably another shoe to drop,” Forsberg said. “It’s not hard to put these pieces together. Chris Boucher was unlikely to be here long-term … so we’ll see what happens from here.
“They could look on the trade market. They still have plenty of exceptions. They have plenty of means. They might crawl back onto the first apron depending on how much salary they take on, but they could figure that part out. With the fact that Boucher’s money will come off, it should clear enough money to make some moves.”
So, which type of player should the Celtics target, either in a small trade or as a buyout signing? Forsberg lobbied for a steady veteran guard who can bolster the backcourt behind Payton Pritchard and Derrick White.
“The comp I would always use is a Kris Dunn type: a veteran guy who plays defense, can be a secondary ball-handler, spell Payton and Derrick at times,” Forsberg said. “(He’s) probably not going to play a ton of minutes in the postseason, but if you could get somebody like that on a minimum deal or end-of-season money, then it’s just another body to navigate both the end of the regular season and potential spot minutes in the postseason.
“Sometimes those guys catch lightning in a bottle.”
Dunn is set to take on a larger role with the Los Angeles Clippers after they traded James Harden, so he might be staying put. But one name to watch is veteran guard Mike Conley, who is expected to be bought out or traded by the Bulls after a three-team trade that sent him from Minnesota to Chicago.
While Conley’s best days are behind him at age 38, he has a wealth of playoff experience (108 postseason games played) and would provide experienced depth.
