Rumor season shows up like a used car dealer having a sale: They're being screamed into your face, everything must go, and the deals are impossible to believe.
The best we can do is try to figure out what makes sense out of them and hopefully we can be pointed in a direction at some point. Whether it’s a name or at least a sense of what they're trying to do, we might be able to follow the smoke to a fire.
So the first rumor out of the chute come from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, who wrote “Derrick White, who turns 31 in July, has always drawn interest from teams around the league. However, Boston has rebuffed previous inquiries to this point, and he’s still young enough to potentially be a difference-maker during the 2026-27 season when Tatum should be fully healthy.”
I consider any consideration of a White trade, outside of a Godfather offer for a megastar player, a sign that Boston is pivoting to a gap year rebuild. If the rumor signals shift to Boston listening to offers for White, that, to me, means hopes for Jayson Tatum returning at some point during the season have probably vanished.
And to be clear, no one really knows how Tatum’s recovery is going to go. It’s going to be a long recovery either way, but Tatum is a rare case of youth, speed of surgery, and technical innovation that gives him a good chance at recovering more quickly than normal. At the same time, Achilles injuries are prone to setbacks, and any little delay can have a compounding effect that costs Tatum time. Basically, the gap between optimism and pessimism is wide.
That gap is what I think the Celtics are watching. If Tatum returns on the optimistic side of it, then there's no reason to trade White. One thing Brad Stevens has made abundantly clear is that Boston is looking to contend next season if at all possible. Having White as the point guard is the best way to do that, considering Jrue Holiday’s departure feels all but guaranteed.
If Tatum faces a setback and isn’t able to contribute at all next season, then moving White becomes more palatable because he and Jaylen Brown are the “good return in a trade” guys on the roster. Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Sam Hauser are the “cut salary” guys. If White and/or Brown get moved, the Celtics will be trying to rebuild/retool.
Which brings us to the Houston and San Antonio portion of the rumor mill. The Athletic reports the Rockets are anticipating conversations with the Celtics while SI’s Chris Mannix says San Antonio is a team to watch if Brown is moved.
Again, I don’t expect Brown to be moved this summer, but it’s not out of the question in the next year or so. And as I’ve written before, Stevens can make a move or two this summer to get close to or just under the second apron and then have a few moves in the queue that he executes depending on Tatum’s recovery.
That probably takes Boston out of the draft night fireworks, but those will probably be reserved for bigger names anyway. If Brown was 100% on the trade block, this would be a different story, but because keeping him is a stronger path to contention, the Celtics will probably pass on trying to fly up the draft boards.
We have to consider the strength of the Eastern Conference in this discussion. If the Celtics were out west, I might be singing a different tune. A blow up/rebuild on the fly in the West makes more sense because the competition is incredible. And if Giannis Antetokounmpo gets moved to the West, the balance shifts even further.
In that scenario, keeping Brown would make even more sense because you can make an argument he’d be the best or second-best player in the conference. The Celtics could certainly stay afloat long enough to see if Tatum can make a late return and boost Boston in the playoffs.
Houston saying they anticipate having conversations with the Celtics doesn’t exactly scream “hot gossip,” but I do think there's value to those teams talking. I’m not sure they’d be a landing spot for a salary dump, but my best guess is Boston can sniff around the periphery and hop into a multi-team deal. Maybe they end up with some center depth by getting Jock Landale or something. I don’t think anything bigger than that is happening with the Rockets.
For now we’re just trying to read the tea leaves, and all I’m seeing is the Celtics keeping their options open while trying to cut costs. Boston will be roped into a lot of these rumors, though, so we’ll have to keep doing this exercise from time to time to see what’s real and what’s not. Just like those used car deals, what you see at first is almost never what you get.
