After making the trade to acquire Jrue Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers, the Boston Celtics are presumably through making moves during the offseason at this point, right?
After all, after Boston traded Marcus Smart for Kristaps Porzingis as part of a three-team transaction and extended Jaylen Brown’s contract to the supermax level, it was reasonable to think that the same thing would happen. Despite this, the Celtics jumped at the chance to acquire Holiday on Sunday, after the Milwaukee Bucks dealt him to the Portland Trail Blazers the previous week as part of a blockbuster deal involving Damian Lillard.
The Celtics have a significant amount of money committed to them both now and in the future, which may prohibit them from making another significant move in free agency. However, ESPN NBA expert Kevin Pelton brought up an interesting point on Sunday when he was rating the transaction between the Celtics and the Blazers that could disclose Boston’s next offseason target.
The Celtics could also fill the roster spot that was created as a result of this trade with a free agent; however, they will be subject to new restrictions that prevent teams that are above the first luxury-tax apron from signing players waived during the season who were previously making more than the value of the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, which is $12.4 million. These restrictions will apply to the Celtics.
(It is important to note that such restrictions do not apply to veteran wing Reggie Bullock after the San Antonio Spurs and he reached an agreement on Saturday regarding a buyout. Both the fact that the move will take place before the start of the regular season and the fact that Bullock’s pay was lower than that level contribute to the fact that he does not qualify. Both Boston and Milwaukee are undoubtedly in the running for the championship, and the competition to sign Bullock could prove to be an intriguing turning point in the race.
Pelton wasn’t the only one who had thoughts regarding whether or not Bullock would be pursued. In a roundtable article that was published on Monday on The Athletic, John Hollinger of The Athletic brought up the possibility as part of a discussion, and veteran NBA reporter David Aldridge concurred with the judgement that Boston may now shift its focus to the 32-year-old swingman.
After that, Aldridge pondered whether or not the Washington Wizards’ Delon Wright was a player the Celtics may be interested in. Even though it is impossible to match pay, Boston still has assets that it may use in the trade market. These assets include both intangible and tangible resources.
What follows is what Aldridge has written:
As John pointed out, I can’t help but believe that the C’s will put all of their eggs in the basket of Bullock, who isn’t seeking to make the most money in the world but rather wants to be on a solid team that has the potential to compete at a high level. I think we can all agree that describes Boston perfectly. The machinations that were going on league-wide about Dame and Holiday made it nearly impossible to make a deal for the veteran marksman this week, and no one wanted to wait any longer. As a result, Bullock and the Spurs parted ways amicably. However, if they are unable to sign Bullock once he is released from waivers on Tuesday… I mean, a guy like Delon Wright, someone whose advanced defensive metrics are outrageously good, is someone who might maybe be acquired through a trade. At the very least, this is theoretically plausible. In the event that Boston was prepared to part with one or two of its remaining surplus selections as part of a hypothetical trade, I find it hard to believe that Washington would immediately turn down the offer.
