Celtics Predicted to Make Veteran Trade With Arch-Rival Lakers

The Boston Celtics are predicted to trade veteran center Kristaps Porziņģis to their arch-rival Los Angeles Lakers.

This is one of the bold offseason predictions of Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale.

According to Favale, the Lakers’ search for a center to pair with Luka Dončić could lead them to one of his former teammates.

“This inevitable search will lead them to someone alongside whom Luka Dončić has already played. Don’t ask me who, specifically. But it will be one of Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II or Kristaps Porziņģis. It probably won’t be Dwight Powell (player option),” Favale wrote.

The Lakers have only the $5.7 million midlevel exception, which is not enough to get a starting-caliber center. The trade assets — Dalton Knecht and 2031 first-round pick — they nearly gave up in the rescinded Mark Williams trade will be the same capital they would use this offseason. They also have up to four swaps (2026, 2028, 2030, 2032) to sweeten a deal for a center above Williams’ talent.

Favale predicts the 29-year-old Porziņģis could be the easiest for the Lakers to acquire.

Favale’s optimism for a potential Lakers-Celtics trade involving Porziņģis stems from the reported significant changes that is going to happen in Boston.

With Jayson Tatum set to miss most, if not the whole next season due to his Achilles injury, the Celtics are projected to enter a gap year and slash their staggering $500 million payroll, including luxury tax penalties.

One of those moves could involve Porziņģis, who was a non-factor in the Celtics’ abruptly halted playoff run, NBA insider Marc Stein reported in May, following the Celtics’ second-round exit.

“Most rival teams continue to regard Kristaps Porziņģis as the most movable Boston vet thanks to the Latvian big man’s $30.7 million expiring contract,” Stein wrote on the “The Stein Line” Substack newsletter.

The 7-foot-1 center played a pivotal role in his first season with the Celtics last year, which ended in Boston’s 18th championship. However, a mysterious respiratory illness rendered him ineffective in this dispirited Celtics playoff run, particularly in their second-round loss to the New York Knicks.

Jrue Holiday Named as Another Prime Trade Candidate

Getty Jrue Holiday of the Boston Celtics ponders his future amid trade rumors.

In a separate Bleacher Report story, Favale named veteran guard Jrue Holiday as the most likely member of the Celtics roster to be traded this summer.

“Having just turned 35, the backcourt defensive ace isn’t going to be part of the next great Celtics team,” Favale wrote. “Next year is kaput while Tatum recovers from his Achilles injury, and Boston may need a feeling-out season in 2026-27 when he returns. Holiday will be entering his age-37 campaign by the time this team is anywhere close to whole again.”

But with three years left on his four-year, $135 million contract, Holiday’s trade value is tricky to gauge coming off an injury-riddled season in which he had his lowest scoring average in 13 seasons.

“Moving him should be even easier knowing the Celtics won’t be trying to extract value,” Favale wrote. “Just breaking him up into multiple smaller contracts that are easier to reroute can go a long way, and at least one suitor should be enticed by the idea of exchanging filler for an All-Defense punch.”