The Celtics are on the verge of a very successful road trip after a victory over the Kings Thursday night. With Boston knocking on the door of the No. 2 seeded Knicks in the East, the focus is on the roster this week with trade, lineup and roster questions on the docket.
Brian,
Do you expect the Celts to be active at the trade deadline? My opinion, this roster is screaming for a more reliable back up big man. Do you go the rental route and kick the tires on Vucevic? Kevon Looney is also wasting away down in New Orleans if we wanted to make rebounding a priority.
My other questions is if, when Tatum comes back does Pritchard stay in the starting lineup? When do you talk extension with him? — Thanks,Trevor F
I do expect the Celtics to be active at the trade deadline. Whether that involves them upgrading the big man situation or simply trying to trim some of their still high luxury tax bill is the intriguing question, but the longer the Celtics play at this level, the more I lean towards the former. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the team can accomplish both of those objectives with multiple deals in the next several weeks.
Vucevic would be a nice stretch option to have obviously for Boston coming off the bench, but I don’t see the Celtics making that type of move unless it’s straight up for Simons. It’s hard seeing the Bulls being interested in that given how many guards they have. Looney would be a defensive upgrade for the bench, but his offensive production and finishing ability is non-existent at this point. Given he’s making $8 million per year, that’s just not a good contract for Boston or anyone else at this point. If the Celtics make a trade addition, would expect them to try to find a long-term option (under contract beyond this year) or someone who could be an upgrade on the cheap.
Whether Pritchard remains in the starting five is a tough call upon Tatum’s return. I think it’s somewhat dependent on whether Simons is here past the trade deadline. If he’s not, moving Pritchard back to 6th man makes sense for better offensive balance potentially. There is also the question of which wing is holding that starting spot for the next few months is holding their own. Jordan Walsh’s minutes have been trending sharply down in the last couple of weeks so who knows who will be starting by the time Tatum comes back in that spot.
If the spot is still unsettled, sticking with Pritchard will be the safer call and lead to greater offensive upside. However, keeping a bigger wing in the fold will take some defensive onus off Tatum and make the starter lineup big across the board. Either way, there should be two good options for Mazzulla to choose from whenever the times comes. Pritchard is eligible for an extension this summer.
First, it must be a lot more fun to cover the Celtics this year than you expected. It is certainly more fun as a fan. Thank goodness they never considered tanking. Adam Silver is looking at ways to de-incentivize tanking and it got me to thinking. Tanking, intentional or not, results in decisions made by the coach and/or GM. So why not make a rule that if a team finishes in the bottom five two out of three years, then the coach and GM can’t work for an NBA team for a year. I think such a rule might provide more urgency for the underperforming teams. What do you think? — Tom B
It has definitely been a treat this year to watch this group with the emergence of so many guys up and down the roster. It reminds me a bit of the 2014-15 season with better top-line talent. As for the tanking suggestion, I feel like that’s taking it a bit too far since the NBA is never going to be able to exercise personnel control over a team. If we want to discuss perhaps preventing teams from landing a top-3 pick more than a couple years in a row, I would be more open to something like that. The best way to promote urgency would be to incentivize winning for lottery teams late in the season (better lottery odds for wins tallied after being eliminated from playoffs?). How you make that work is the challenge but it would certainly lead to better basketball and fewer healthy scratches in March and April.
It seems like the Celtics are playing more zone defense than they have in years – I assume partly due to the roster. Do you think this is something we will continue to see when Tatum returns? — Joel
It feels like they have done just about the same as usual this year. They certainly try to mix in some every game and have the wing defenders that allow them to do so since they can cover a good amount of ground. I would expect this trend to continue when Jayson Tatum comes back since this is something that needs reps on the floor for if/when Joe Mazzulla wants to break it out in the postseason.
Who becomes the 15th player with a full NBA contract on the Boston Celtics roster? Amari Williams? Ron Harper Jr.? Shulga? Someone else? Nobody? — Paul D
My guess is they sign someone at the very end of the regular season (probably with a week or two left in the season) due to the tax implications. The actual player that gets signed will probably be dependent on need or injuries. If a big is hurt, Amari Williams becomes the top candidate for the promotion, if the team elects to stay in-house. Otherwise, Ron Harper Jr. is a strong candidate given that he has three years of NBA experience. There’s no obvious candidate for promotion (like Queta and Davison) over the last two years so stay tuned.
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