The Boston Celtics lack a lot of resources to improve their team. As I laid out yesterday, their offseason plan really only allows them $5.9 million to spend on free agents in the form of the taxpayer mid-level exception, and a variety of traded player exceptions that could be used to acquire a player via trade. They also can make traditional trades, but while they can send a player out in a sign-and-trade, they can’t receive a player via sign-and-trade or else they’d be hard-capped.
And so everyone is scanning the league for players who might fit into the few options Boston has while helping the team, and one name many people have settled on is Memphis Grizzlies forward Kyle Anderson.
He makes perfect sense from a Boston perspective. They have the remainder of the Gordon Hayward TPE to absorb his contract, so there’s no issue on that front. Anderson is a 6’9” 27-year-old whose best production came this past season when he moved to primarily playing power forward. He rebounds, he sets up teammates, and he’s reliable from deep.
Which, of course, leads to the most obvious question: why would Memphis trade him?
“For the Grizzlies in terms of their timeline, it makes sense to trade present value for future value,” said Shawn Coleman, host of the Locked On Grizzlies podcast. They have in Anderson a trade chip who is at the height of his value on a team full of 21, 22, and 23-year-olds. He provided a valuable service for them, he’s on an expiring contract, and there are younger guys who will get long-term opportunities over him when push comes to shove.
The problem for Boston is that while Memphis has the type of player Boston could use in a realistic trade scenario, Boston might not have the assets the Grizzlies could demand.
“I don't know if Boston puts together enough of a return that really makes the Grizzlies be like, ‘Okay, this makes us wants to move off Kyle Anderson,’” Coleman said. “They love their culture, and Kyle Anderson is a big part of that. And he's come off his best year in Taylor Jenkins’ system, I think they're going to have to be wowed.”
There are a couple of questions here that stand in Boston’s way. First, what is Memphis’ exact asking price and is there a team out there willing to match it. Anderson is a good player, but we’re not looking at an All-Star here, so they can’t go too high with their demands, but a low first round pick could be attainable for them, and I strongly doubt Boston would be willing to part with one in this scenario.
“Two seconds is not going to convince Memphis to move off Kyle Anderson this offseason,” Coleman said. “It could, at the deadline, in the right situation, but I think Memphis would rather hold on to Kyle Anderson or use him as a money-matching aspect to get a better, longer term piece moving forward.”
The second question for Boston is whether they’d want to pay Anderson moving forward. He’s in the final year of his contract earning $9.9 million. By trading for him and giving up any trade assets, even if it’s two second round picks, they’re making some level of commitment to him. Those picks are valuable, so there would have to be some desire to keep him long-term.
Going after Anderson makes sense, and maybe there’s another way to make this work. Adding a third team to this deal certainly complicates things, but it could also be a way to make everyone happy.
The other option for Boston would be to put a pin in this idea, find another route for this summer, and revisit it if Anderson is still in Memphis in February.
“You look at the trade deadline,” Coleman said. “If it's not going their way, if they're ready to focus on the future and obviously you're only going to have Anderson for a few months, at that point ... two seconds coming to Memphis for Kyle Anderson, maybe it can make sense. So timing also changes perspective.”
The issue there is Boston loses the rest of the Hayward TPE in mid-August, but they could maneuver for a straight trade by offering Memphis two second round picks, Tristan Thompson, and cash to waive Thompson and let him enter the buyout market. It essentially amounts to the same deal, but it would require the Celtics to keep Thompson until the deadline.
So while Anderson makes sense as a trade target, and he could certainly help the Celtics, it will be tough to pull off. Brad Stevens could try getting creative, or he could revisit this idea during the season, so we shouldn’t rule it completely out at this point. However, considering the challenges, it still seems unlikely.
Here’s the full conversation between me and Shawn Coleman: