It may be a boring deadline for Boston.
The Boston Celtics may be the most boring team in basketball for the next couple of years. Well, from a transactions perspective, at least. Today’s league is dominated by player movement, and many fans are thrilled when their favorite team gets involved in trade and free agency rumors. But Boston is already built perfectly.
Not only do they have no need to make significant changes to their roster, but because of their financial situation, they aren’t in the position to do so. The Celtics certainly aren’t in any rush to trade guys like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, or Derrick White, and since they are a second-apron team, they can’t combine salaries in trades.
But just because the Celtics are very restricted from a flexibility standpoint doesn’t mean they’ll be completely quiet at the deadline.
Celtics destined for boring trade deadline
ESPN recently put out an article detailing the top trade candidate for every team around the league. For the Celtics, they listed Jaden Springer.
“Trading Springer is contingent if Boston is willing to attach a second-round pick to shed his $4 million salary or if it can identify a rotational player earning less,” ESPN wrote. “Because the Celtics are over the apron, they are not allowed to send cash and take back more salary than what is sent out. The Wizards have a $12.4 million trade exception and are well below the luxury tax to take back his salary. A Springer trade saves the Celtics $16 million in luxury tax payments.”
This has been a rumored move for months. As detailed, Springer makes just over $4 million, and getting rid of that money would help lessen the stress of Boston’s tax situation. Every dollar counts when a team is over the tax as much as the Celtics are.
Before the season began, there were rumblings that the Celtics looked around to see if they could dump his contract in hopes of keeping Lonnie Walker IV around. Obviously, that did not happen.
But now, it seems as though the writing is on the wall for Springer to be traded by the deadline.
If that’s the only move Boston makes, fans may be a bit underwhelmed.
Last year, the Celtics traded for Xavier Tillman and Springer. It wasn’t much, but at least there were a couple of new faces in town for fans to get excited about.
There’s still a chance Boston does that this season, too, but it’s seeming more and more like shedding Springer will be their only move.
