With just two weeks remaining for NBA teams to consummate whatever deals they plan to make for the remainder of the 2019-20 season left, we can expect the market to start heating up in the coming days.
But should we expect movement from the Boston Celtics this season, and if so, what would it look like? With so many teams believing they might be in the hunt for a ring and so few expiring deals to grease the tracks, it could well be a tepid trade season.
The Celtics are emblematic of this conundrum, with all positive value contracts for big-money players (with Gordon Hayward perhaps a minor exception), leaving them ill-prepared to make a splashy move despite a solid warchest of draft assets at their disposal.
Thus, analysts are predicting a slow to non-existent trade season for the franchise, with a small move to reinforce bench scoring and shooting being the most likely move if any are made.
That's fine. It probably should be. But that doesn't do anything towards matching salary in trades. That's the issue for the Celtics. Has been all season long. It's not about assets. It's about have the salaries to send out to bring back meaningful help. That's the tricky part. https://t.co/N3648lQMhw
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) January 17, 2020