The Boston Celtics spent day one of free agency on the sidelines, which really wasn’t much of a surprise. They don’t have a lot of money to spend, and they don’t want to make a long commitment to any single player besides Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown.
To put it in dating terms, the Celtics are emotionally unavailable right now, but if anyone wants to hang out for a season, they’re open to it.
It’s pretty clear where Boston is going with this. It’s pretty obvious that Brad Stevens was brought in to undo Danny Ainge’s entanglements and start as fresh as possible. Stevens can put his notorious spreadsheets to good use as he marches through the offseason with an obvious directive from ownership.
Stevens is, if nothing else, a good soldier. In fact, he seems to revel in limitations; his neurons flicker when presented a greater challenge. If the job was easy, anyone would be able to do it. Stevens seems to rather enjoy, at least to some degree, when the job is more difficult than normal. For him, it makes success a little sweeter.
That is if he succeeds.
Boston was never going to come close to New York’s offer for Evan Fournier, and they certainly weren’t going to come close to matching any of the deals doled out after Fournier was gone. The Celtics are saving money at every turn right now, and they’ll get themselves below the luxury tax once the Tristan Thompson trade goes through.
Stevens is preparing Boston to be a cap space team next summer. And as odd as this may seem, it's a decision that comes with tremendous risk with Tatum and Brown.
Tatum is entering the first year of his max extension and Brown the second of his new contract. Both are considered pillars of this franchise, around whom the team is to be built. For that to happen, though, both have to be willing pillars. Both have to want to be in Boston.
It will be easy for Brown, especially, to look around at a team slowly being stripped down and wonder if this is what he signed up for. Brown turns 25 years old this season, which is the equivalent of a jet running at full speed down the runway for takeoff. His prime is around the corner, and he’s itching to get back to the playoff success that he’s known so far in Boston.
It’s hard to justify to a player like Brown that a year of his career is essentially being punted away. The same goes for Tatum, who needs the team to be good to help bolster his All-NBA and MVP goals. How can these two young stars look at what’s happening with this roster and think ‘yeah, this makes me feel great about our future.’
That puts a lot of pressure on Stevens to get this right.
He has one chance to sit his two stars down and tell them this is how it’s going to go. As painful as a pseudo-rebuild might seem, Stevens has the chance to convince them both that this is a one year thing, and they should feel lucky that they’re only going through one year of it.
It might be an easier sell for Tatum if the ultimate prize is Bradley Beal. If the Celtics are either moving towards a trade or looking to sign Beal outright, then Tatum will be on board with the plan. He might be able to convince Brown to hop on board as well.
But that means the Celtics absolutely have to land Beal, and while having Tatum makes that possible, it doesn’t make it a lock.
Beal is nothing if not loyal, and he has continued to be through some rough stretches in Washington. There is a timeline where Beal likes what the Wizards are doing and decides to stick around for a little while. There is also a timeline where Beal looks at another team and likes their situation better. We can presume Boston would be ahead of the pack in the race for Beal, but that just means they’d better win it.
There’s no fallback plan here. There’s no real pivot. There’s no one else next season who is a realistic choice for the Celtics. They’re either going to land Beal, or be stuck empty-handed.
This pursuit will be costly. They will likely let Marcus Smart go to clear room. Al Horford might not finish the season in Boston. Young players will have to be moved, all in the name of clearing enough space to sign Beal and have enough money left over to put some semblance of a team together.
This is the last path for Boston before a full-on rebuild. This is either going to work and Stevens will be able to build around the edges of a contender for four years, or the pursuit will fail.
I often compare sports to nature shows because the business of the NBA has a very predator/prey, survival of the fittest dynamic. We know what happens to predators when they can’t catch food. It won’t be too long before they become the prey themselves.
This very well could work. Stevens could be operating with intel from Tatum that all but guarantees Boston their shot at Beal, which makes this all a bit more palatable.
This also very well could fail, which means it might not be long before Boston’s pillars are propping up someone else’s title hopes.