The Boston Celtics have too many guards on their roster and should consider moving on from some of them. This was once a good problem to have, but the team is too deep to keep the amount of players they have tied in one position.
It’s worth mentioning that the new CBA will make it challenging for the Celtics to retain and re-sign their homegrown players this offseason. The situation for Grant Williams remaining in Boston, for example, isn’t as ideal as it once was at the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
The same can be said for Payton Pritchard, but it’s worth keeping in mind that he requested a trade by the trading deadline this past year, but he became too valuable for the Celtics to lose this year, despite only playing limited minutes.
Pritchard still has another year left on his rookie contract and it seems likely Boston will move him so that he can actually play on a game-to-game basis. He is too good to be sitting on the bench on a deep team.
Pritchard was a great backup option to have before the Celtics acquired Malcolm Brogdon, who went on to earn the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year this season. Although he played well in his first season in Boston, it’s hard to tell how well Brogdon fit in with this group and how much he actually helped the team.
The goal was for Brogdon to get the Celtics over the hump in the playoffs and to land back in the Finals as the savvy veteran presence that the team lacked down the stretch last season.
Brogdon put the Celtics on blast during his exit interview about not focusing on the defensive end, however he’s been on the decline for the past three seasons now on that end of the court.
Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out the way Boston had hoped, as Brogdon wound up with a torn ligament in his arm during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, making him limited and unavailable for Boston.
With Marcus Smart starting to take a slight decline on defense, the Celtics need to consider revamping their guard position. But to do so, however, Boston will likely need to part ways with two of their guards and it shouldn’t be Derrick White.
The argument could be made to move on from Smart, as it’s very likely any contending team would want him on their team to enhance their chances of going all the way. It’s also likely Smart would be the most sought in a potential trade package.
The new CBA is going to impact a lot for the Celtics in the near future and the long term plans. That said, it’s starting now with how Boston can navigate through the offseason and retool the team in specific areas by signing players to certain contracts based on the spending.
The player that would be a great fit with this group is D’Angelo Russell. He’s an unrestricted free agent and is looking to join a legitimate contending team as he made the playoffs for only the third time in his career this past season with the Lakers.
Russell made over $31 million last year in the final year of a max deal he signed with Brooklyn in 2019 that turned into a sign-and-trade with Golden State as Brooklyn was interested in pairing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Russell finished out playing for the Lakers the last two years and is now an unrestricted free agent. It’s fair to assume that D-Lo is interested in playing for a contending team rather than cashing in on a huge payday again.
Considering the way the new CBA will allow teams to build their rosters, it’s fair to assume Russell isn’t going to get another max contract during this free agency period.
The Celtics need a legitimate playmaking guard to run the floor for the team but still create and score points for himself. Russell is a player who can run a pick-and-roll with Jayson Tatum, Rob Williams, and can set up Jaylen Brown to shoot and score, which is what Brown is best at.
Russell is reliable at this stage of his career. He will be 27-years-old this season and is currently in his prime as a player. He averaged 17.8 points on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 39.6 percent from behind the arc. He also had 6.2 assists in 71 games this season between two teams last year.
He isn’t the greatest defender but he can hold his own and Boston could scheme to hide his flaws on the defensive end if they need to.
It’s worth mentioning the Lakers could use Russell to pull off a sign-and-trade deal with the Mavericks for Irving or the Bulls for DeMar DeRozen.
If Russell becomes available on the open market, I think it would be uncharacteristic for Brad Stevens not to reach out to Russell and his agents Austin Brown and Aaron Mintz.
D-Lo could transform Boston’s offense into more of a powerhouse. He totaled 897 assists over the last two seasons, which is 98 more than the Celtics top facilitator in Marcus Smart.
Boston will likely part ways with Pritchard and possibly even Brogdon. It’s hard to envision a scenario where the Celtics trade Smart but I’m not too convinced Stevens wouldn’t ponder the possibility if the right situation presented itself.
Russell could be a great fit in Boston surrounded by top talent in Tatum, Brown, and Rob Williams above the rim. I also think head coach Joe Mazzulla would enjoy having a player like Russell.
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