Boston Celtics big men ignoring trade chatter after recent losses

Trade chatter is an easy way to screw up a team’s chemistry. So far, however, Boston’s big men have done a great job of ignoring it.

With recent rumbles from fans and analysts alike on the topic of frontcourt upgrades making the rounds through Boston Celtics media, it’d be easy to get frustrated as a member of that frontcourt.

Thankfully, it seems Boston’s bigs know it’s just part of the package of Celtics fandom — they expect big things, and lose patience quickly when success isn’t coming.

A pair of losses can be all it takes to get trade proposals popping up like mushrooms after a rain, which could spell trouble for a franchise feeding off of chemistry.

While the team doesn’t exactly have a set starting center, instead rolling with whomever is best suited for the matchup, more nights than not it’s been Daniel Theis on the court when the buzzer sounds.

“I don’t listen to [trade chatter],” offered the 27-year-old in an interview with NBC Sports’ Chris Forsberg.

The German understands the dynamics after two seasons and change with the Celtics, and pays the armchair general management no mind.

“We have so many bigs and it’s whoever plays good that night … You don’t guard the best bigs with one person. It’s a team effort. We’re [the third best team] in the East and we’re playing really good basketball as a team.”

“So, no, I don’t listen to that,” he continued.

Turkish big man Enes Kanter has taken a similar approach, citing experience as guiding his lack of animus against the calls for trades.

““I don’t ever take [the criticism] personally,” said the Zurich native. “We’re just going to go out there, our big-man unit, and show that we can do it.

“Now, it’s my ninth-year in the league, man,” he continued. “I used to take [the criticism] really really serious and let it get to my head. Now, I look at the comments and I’m like, ‘Yeah, right, OK.”

This is a mark of a mature player in a good situation, able to trust head coach Brad Stevens to put him in the game when his skillset best fits the opponent.

As has been noted, Boston hasn’t been losing games because of shortcomings in the frontcourt, but rather simply facing off against healthier opponents with a similar range of talent who happen to be healthier, or having better shooting nights.

Of the big men opponents the team has struggled against, only Joel Embiid stands out as consistently problematic, and there aren’t likely to be many — if any — upgrades out there that the team can pull off without risking the combination of four shot creators the Celtics have found success with.

“It’s a challenge but it’s also a team effort because those guys, especially someone like Embiid, it’s hard to guard them 1-on-1 for 35 or 38 minutes,” explained Theis. “He gets his shots, he’s fierce, he’s big. It’s hard to guard him 1-on-1 during the game, so it’s a team effort.”

Throw in that players like Daniel Theis are the ideal sort of low-usage, high-level defending bigs Boston needs to optimize that foursome of Gordon Hayward, Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, and there’s little evidence a big trade would even improve the Celtics’ enviable record.

With few other examples of big men in the East that the team can’t collectively handle, Boston may just have to hope being healthy is the cure to defeating the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting center, as there are few other options the team could realistically acquire.

A smaller-scale rotation big might be able to be pried loose from a team that’s surrendered their dream of contention, but apart from a comparatively minor move to shore up the second unit, standing pat is likely the best option available to the Celtics.

With one of the youngest rosters in the NBA, internal growth remains a viable tool to improving an already-great team.

In other words, Boston should, to paraphrase the great songwriter Steven Sills, “love the ones their with“.