The Boston Celtics were active at the trade deadline, pulling off a couple of deals that accomplished a lot of what the team was trying to do.
First off, let me say that Brad Stevens runs an impressively tight ship over at the Auerbach Center. There was never a peep about Daniel Theis or Derrick White in the days leading up to the deadline. I think the first lesson we need to learn out of all of this is just because there are rumors out there that don’t involve a team, it doesn’t mean that the team isn’t doing anything. Rumors come from teams that want to accomplish something.
What they did:
OUT: Josh Richardson, Dennis Schröder, Romeo Langford, Enes K. Freedom, Bruno Fernando, PJ Dozier, Bol Bol.
IN: Derrick White, Daniel Theis.
The Specific deals:
Celtics-Spurs: Boston gets White. San Antonio gets Richardson, Langford, 2022 1st round pick (protected 1-4), 1st round swap rights in 2028. According to a league source, the 2028 pick is top 1 protected.
Celtics-Rockets: Boston gets Theis. Houston gets Schröder, Freedom, Fernando
Celtics-Magic: Boston gets a 2nd round pick. Orlando gets Dozier, Bol, 2nd round pick, cash
Current roster:
Guards: Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard
Wings: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Aaron Nesmith
Bigs: Robert Williams, Al Horford, Daniel Theis, Grant Williams
Two Ways: Brodric Thomas, Sam Hauser
That's ten guaranteed spots. The minimum is 14. Boston has at least four roster spots to fill. More on that coming up.
Karalis’ Analysis: The Celtics have solidified themselves as a defensive team. Not that they needed these deals to do that, but this really hammers the point home. The nine players left is basically their nine-man rotation. We can expect to see the same starting lineup: Smart, Brown, Tatum, Horford, and Tatum. Adding Theis and White gives Boston two good defensive players, White especially, that can keep this defensive mindset. White adds more passing to the back court and a more tenacious defender.
Nesmith is a big short-term winner here because he’s now in line to get Josh Richardson’s minutes. In the short term, we might see what Nesmith can do with some sustained playing time. If White is getting Schröder’s minutes, then Richardson’s minutes are up for grabs. Those could go to Grant Williams, but Grant has been getting his own minutes in relief of Horford.
If Grant slides over to the wing, we could just see 48 minutes of double-big lineups, but I don’t think that's going to be the plan. I think Theis is more injury insurance and a guy who can help reduce the workload on the rest of the front court.
The closing lineup seems likely to be Smart, White, Tatum, Brown, and Robert Williams. Smart and White are similar builds and skill sets, and I wonder if playing next to Smart will help White level-up a bit defensively. The Celtics can now throw an ultra-switchable lineup out onto the floor with five strong passers without really sacrificing size. It’s a closing lineup that will be able to run and score in transition after forcing stops.
White isn’t a knock-down shooter by any stretch, and he’s shooting 31.4% this season, 3% below his career average. If that was a function of playing on a bad Spurs team with no space to shoot, then maybe his numbers will go up playing next to Tatum and Brown.
This will be important because it can keep Smart on the ball in these situations, which suits him better. However, I do question whether White is here to be just another defensive pit bull next to Smart in the back court, or Smart’s eventual replacement. They're basically the same age and they basically make the same money.
That's a question for this summer.
For now, I can see how the opening and closing of the games will go. Now, what about the middle?
Again, the minimum roster is 14 so Boston needs to sign four players within the next two weeks. They could upgrade one or both of their two-way players to get here quickly. It’s very easy to convert Hauser and Thomas to rookie minimum contracts. Those are $925,258 and only count for half on the books.
The Celtics created about $2.5 million in luxury tax wiggle room, so taking up $925,258 for two players allows them a little bit of space to fill the remaining couple of spots. Don’t expect them to go for older, more recognizable names. The veteran minimum for a player with 10+ years of experience is $2.6 million, and even though minimum deals only count for half, that's still a bit much. They’ll be looking for younger, end-of-bench guys with specific skills to help in a pinch.
OVERALL GRADE: I’ll give this an A- for Stevens. He turned Schröder into a useful player in Theis. He took in Richardson for nothing, and flipped him and his increased value, plus Langford and future pick into Derrick White, who is a pretty good player. They also created a Richardson-sized $11.6 million TPE so I’m sure you’re excited about that.
Am I psyched about giving up the pick? Not really, but this team clearly doesn’t care about adding another mid-first round guy to the mix. Am I psyched about the lack of depth, not really, but this also could free up some time for Nesmith.
Did the Celtics get better? Yes, partly because they got good players and partly because of addition by subtraction by moving Schröder.
Do the Celtics still have a lot of questions? You betcha.
Do the Celtics still have options for future trades? Yup. The Richardson TPE could come in handy, and they have a bunch of contracts that can be added together in a number of ways to match most any contract that might come available. And yes, they got under the tax so I’m sure you’re all happy about that.
All in all, I’d say a good day for the Celtics, but their work is clearly not done.