The Boston Celtics are preparing to make some big moves heading into the NBA Trade Deadline.
Sitting at 24-24 on the year and in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, as presently constructed, Boston is going nowhere fast.
To make matters worse, the team isn’t just embarrassing itself on the court. Off the court, the Celtics are a mess too. Boston’s role players hate its stars. The stars, for what it’s worth, feel the same way about the role players. Franchise icons are calling out this current edition of the team for degrading a proud legacy. It’s a catastrophe.
One way or another, a trade will be made in the next few weeks. And the smart money appears to be on Marcus Smart being a part of that deal.
This week, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report suggested that Dallas was a team to watch as it pertains to Smart.
“One dark-horse team mentioned as being interested in [Jerami] Grant was the Dallas Mavericks, with Dorian Finney-Smith and probably Dwight Powell as the primary pieces,” he wrote. “The Mavericks have also been linked to Collins in Atlanta and Marcus Smart in Boston.”
That would make sense. During a recent appearance on ESPN, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski revealed that Smart was in fact on the trade block.
“It’s to build around Jaylen Brown-Jayson Tatum, not to break those two up,” he said.
“The hard part for Boston is what are the other tradeable assets that they’re willing to move on from? They don’t want to trade Robert Williams, their young center. That’s a player that they really see at the center of what they’re doing moving forward.
“But I think Marcus Smart, some of the young players on the roster, second- and third-year guards/forwards, I think they’re seeing what the value for those players out there. Josh Richardson, but I’m not sure. Dennis Schroder — that’s a player I think if they can keep building up his value. … I think those are all players available on the marketplace.”
Aside from Smart, the Celtics have also expressed a willingness to part ways with one other star. Time will tell if they can ultimately find the right deal for all these guys.
Yikes. https://t.co/xa7x4gTMGW
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 23, 2022
The Mavericks, meanwhile, seem to have two stars they’d really like to trade for. Whether or not they’ll eventually be able to do so is up in the air.
One way or another, this is shaping up to be a crazy few weeks in the NBA.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
