The Boston Celtics came up two games short of the NBA Finals in the Orlando Bubble, losing in six games to the Miami Heat. With a young, budding superstar in Jayson Tatum and a complementary young star in Jaylen Brown, Boston has a duo that they hope can be the core of a championship contender.
The question is how they feel about the rest of their roster and their ability to compete for championships in the near future. Gordon Hayward has long seemed like he would be on his way out either this year via trade or next year in free agency given the Celtics wing situation. As such, it’s not surprising to see his name popping up in trade rumors. But in an interesting twist, Kemba Walker has likewise been mentioned in rumors despite an All-Star season in his first year in Boston, which indicates the playoff performance may be steering Boston to a larger shakeup.
What should be noted is that the Celtics are always a team mentioned in trade rumors, as they aren’t afraid to let their desire for star hunting to be made public. Oftentimes, those rumors stay just as that and never form into anything concrete. As such, rumblings of their pursuits of the likes of Jrue Holiday (per Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer) and possibly even Myles Turner should be taken with a bit of a grain of salt, understanding how they like to operate in the offseason. Should they make moves to really shake up their roster, however, it will be very telling about where they see themselves as currently constructed in the hierarchy of an Eastern Conference that figures to be even more competitive at the top next season.
When Walker arrived in Boston, it appeared to be a more snug fit than what they had with Kyrie Irving, particularly his relationship with the two budding stars, but in the postseason, some of the same issues began popping up. Walker struggled with consistency after returning from his knee injury and Brown seemed to waver in and out of rhythm and effectiveness as a tertiary option at times. On defense, Walker was targeted relentlessly by Miami and Toronto, and if they feel that is an Achilles heel for this team that can’t be solved simply by adding an upgrade at center — which, one would think, would be their top priority this offseason, hence the Turner rumors — then having his name attached to a Holiday rumor makes some sense.
Swapping Walker for Holiday would be a massive upgrade defensively, but would certainly take away from the other end of the floor for Boston. If they were to do so, it would show they were going all in on Tatum and Brown, as Holiday simply isn’t the type of player to create great shots — particularly perimeter shots — for himself in the same way Walker can. With the Draft arriving soon and Boston surely moving some, if not all, of their three first round picks to make a move for more immediate help, we should get answers soon as to how aggressively they want to upgrade their roster.
At this point, you could talk me into the Celtics doing just about anything and it’s representative of how wild this trade season might be. With financials locked in now, teams know they aren’t having to worry about a cap drop or massive tax penalties on top of declining revenues, and the result is, I think, going to be a much more active trade market than we may have expected even a couple months ago as the playoffs were on going. The free agent market isn’t strong and most teams are pretty well capped out, so most moves have to come through trades and Boston has the ammunition to make some big moves should they so choose. Whether they do or don’t, we’ll know exactly where Ainge and company believe they stand in the East and how they want to build around their young stars.