Looking at three potential Boston Celtics frontcourt trade targets

The Boston Celtics probably need to be healthy more than they need a big man deal. But, there are a few players who might boost the big man rotation that make sense.

With the Boston Celtics in the midst of just their second losing streak of the season, rumbles about moves to bolster the team’s big man rotation are starting to bubble up again.

A few things should be mentioned about the possibility of shaking up the roster to accommodate a new face in Boston’s frontcourt.

Perhaps the biggest of which is that the team hasn’t been losing games because of roster construction, at least as far as bigs are concerned, instead dropping games with close scores to strong opponents while missing key players to injury.

Another important issue is salary matching.

A lot of wishful thinkers would love to see players like the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Steven Adams or even Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love added to the team.

As we’ve recently discussed, their significant salaries would require sending out one of the Celtics’ best, highest-paid players, and therefore doesn’t suggest a clear step forward — perhaps even backwards from the perspective of the team’s youthful age curve.

It’s also worth mentioning that the way the team could best be improved in terms of bigs is a defensively-oriented, fleet-footed five without a need for too many touches.

With four starters capable of providing significant offense and a clear signal additional mouths to feed in the form of last season, an offensively-oriented center is less likely to improve the team’s overall game planning positively.

With most of Boston’s cap tied up in point guard Kemba Walker, forward Gordon Hayward, guard Marcus Smart and recently-extended Jaylen Brown (adding an additional layer of complexity to trades), any deal for an established star would risk disrupting the team’s chemistry-driven success.

This limits the team to a range of salary matching the lower-paid players on the roster, ranging from $5 million to about $900,000.

It’d likely take a third team to absorb outgoing contracts from Boston in many potential deals beyond two players for the Celtics, placing another constraint on such prospective deals.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement limits trades in the range Boston is likely to operate in to either 175% of the outgoing salary, plus $100,000 if the deal is under $6,533,333, or the outgoing salary plus $5 million if greater.

Some of the more likely candidates out there include a different Thunder big man — Massachusetts native Nerlens Noel — who has more going for his candidacy than an accident of birth.

WEEI’s Nick Friar points out “he’s without a doubt the best shot-blocker” of any likely option, which is exactly what the team has been missing while second-year center Robert Williams finds his sea legs.

Off the Glass’ Matt Esposito agrees, noting Noel “dives on screens and gathers steals and blocks at a remarkable rate” while remaining “efficient as a scorer, too”.

While Malden’s favorite son may only be scoring 7.7 points per game this season, his field goal percentage is a robust 65.4 % with 5 boards and 1.6 blocks over 18.6 minutes per game for good measure.

The most important aspect of any Noel trade is his exceptionally low salary, meaning the team could likely construct a deal around any of their lowest-paid players without a need for cutting or moving additional players.

Another intriguing option is New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson.

His excellent production — 9.6 points, 6.8 boards and 1.9 blocks over 22 minutes per game — on a four-year, $6.5 million deal means he’d likely require one of Boston’s better assets in addition to a quality player.

But as a non-shooting rim protector, able to provide much of what the Celtics need on the cheap, Robinson should be on Boston’s radar, given New York is going nowhere in a hurry.

It would likely be worth the squeeze should the front office decide to stockpile assets to use on a better-constructed roster in the future.

In fairness, though, there’s little to suggest a front office widely seen as among the NBA’s most dysfunctional would have the foresight for such a move.

Should the Detroit Pistons decide to throw the towel in on the season, or maybe even overhaul the roster, a call about forward Christian Wood could yield another player on a low salary with the skills Boston needs.

While not a lockdown defender, Wood has averaged just over a block per game while playing about 19 minutes per game.

The UNLV product can shoot quite well from deep, with a career percentage of .384, but does so rarely enough (1 attempt per game over his career) that it shouldn’t rock any boats, even opening space for drives.

Like the other names on this list, Wood makes little, at least for now, at $1.6 million on an expiring deal.

But with salary matching and available roster slots not being an issue for the team, convincing Detroit remains the issue.

While perhaps not requiring a premium asset to sweeten the deal, as long as the Pistons have a shot at the postseason, Detroit would likely pass on anything the Celtics could reasonably offer.

But at 10-15 a bit more than a quarter way through the season, its quite possible the team will wave the white flag in search of a solid draft pick well ahead of the February trade deadline.

It should be stressed that it’s far too early for a panic trade, even in the midst of a (two game) losing “streak”.

But, it never hurts to keep an eye on potential moves for the future, so long as any such moves make sense from both a fit and cap perspective.