The Boston Celtics once again fell short of their goal this season. They lost to the Brooklyn Nets in 5 games and now face more questions than answers as the franchise goes through a transition.
Danny Ainge decided to step away from the team and Brad Stevens will quit coaching duties to handle the basketball operations, meaning that there are going to be a lot of changes in terms of personnel.
The Celtics have some interesting young players and moveable assets to build around their stars, and that’s exactly what they intend to do.
According to A. Sherrod Blakely of Bleacher Report, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would be the only untouchable players right now:
“Tatum and Brown are as close to being untradeable as you will find, according to multiple league executives. But beyond those two, the Celtics are expected to listen as well as propose trades involving the rest of the players who will be under contract next season,” reported Blakely.
That reaffirms an earlier report from Hoopshype that states that the Celtics have been trying to trade Kemba Walker for some time and that Marcus Smart could also be on the move:
“They’ve been trying to move Kemba Walker for a year now and no one is touching that. Their best bet would be to move Smart, but I don’t know what his market is. They could trade Brown to try to fill a different position, but that would be a bad move. I think they’ll trade Smart this summer if I had to guess,” an NBA executive told HoopsHype. “Retool around Tatum and Brown if they can get real value for Smart, but a lot up in the air there,” read the report.”
Boston should try and keep other productive young players such as Robert Williams III, while also giving a longer leash o Payton Pritchard, Romeo Langford, and Aaron Nesmith.
As for the rest of the roster, it seems like Stevens will head back to the drawing board to try and finally surround Tatum and Brown with the pieces they need to lead the franchise back to the top of the NBA.
