In the NBA, everything can change in a hurry. On May 5, the defending champion Boston Celtics were rested up after five days off following a rough but ultimately one-sided first-round playoff victory over the Orlando Magic. Boston won that series in five games, and as they prepared to face the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinal, they were generally predicted to take that series in five as well.
They seemed well on their way to a repeat championship.
Just 11 days later the Celtics’ season, and their quest for a second-straight championship, was over. They blew back-to-back 20-point leads in Games One and Two, and never recovered. But that wasn’t even the worst news.
The face of the Celtics, three-time All-NBA first team pick Jayson Tatum, was recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, suffered in Game Four against the Knicks.
And the Celtics’ other key player, three-time All-Star Jaylen Brown, revealed that he had been playing through a torn meniscus â the cartilage that acts as padding between the two main bones of the knee â and could also be facing possible surgery.
Celtics Looking at Roster Overhaul
With a payroll well over the “second apron,” the Celtics already knew that changes were coming to their roster, but now facing the prospect of a lost season Boston must make a decision. Whether to maintain a championship contending team, or to enter a rebuilding period with the aim of contending again once Tatum and Brown are fully healthy.
If the Celtics choose the second option, as seems likely, they will need to unload at least a couple of their high-salaried players â though presumably they would do whatever is necessary to keep the core of their roster, Tatum and Brown, together.
The site FanSpo.com offers an online tool for users to create their own trade pitches while also managing each team’s salary cap. One user created a three-team trade that if it actually happened, would be a major blockbuster deal that would free the Celtics from more than $60 million salary in one trade.
But would the Celtics want to help out their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers? Under this FanSpo trade proposal, three current Celtics players including a two-time NBA champion in the second season of a four-year, $134.4 million contract, head to the Lakers. The Chicago Bulls also benefit from the trade.
Holiday Out, Ball In
“In all honesty, might be the best fake trade idea I’ve seen,” wrote Dan Greenberg of Barstool Sports. “I like the thinking. Gets you under the 2nd apron, decent talent for a gap year that’s expiring, keeps Jays together.”
Here is how the proposed three-team trade would work:
Lakers get:
⢠Jrue Holiday (from Celtics)
⢠Sam Hauser (from Celtics)
⢠Neemias Queta (from Celtics)
Bulls get:
⢠Kristaps Porzingis (from Celtics)
⢠Maxi Kleiber (from Lakers)
⢠2025 first-round draft pick No. 28 (from Celtics)
Celtics get:
⢠Nikola VuÄeviÄ (from Bulls)
⢠Lonzo Ball (from Bulls)
⢠Rui Hachimura (from Lakers)
⢠Dalton Knecht (from Lakers)
According to the FanSpo calculations, the blockbuster trade leaves the Celtics $61.3 million under the second apron. It replaces Porzingis (on an expiring contract), whose ineffectiveness due to a long-term viral illness was a significant factor in the Celtics defeat to the Knicks, with 14-year veteran and two-time All-Star VuÄeviÄ.
Ball, who was picked second overall by the Lakers in 2017 who passed on Tatum â who went third â to take him, would take Holiday’s spot at guard.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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