ET might be phoning home, if now-Minnesota Timberwolf Evan Turner still considers the Boston Celtics as such.
Heavy’s Sean Deveney reports the former Celtic wing could be on Boston’s radar as a buyout candidate after being dealt from the Atlanta Hawks as part of the mega-deal that sent Houston Rockets center Clint Capela to Atlanta in the wee hours of February 5th.
Turner, who flourished with the Celtics early in head coach Brad Stevens’ tenure with the team after some of the shine came off of the former lottery pick’s game, went on to ink a large deal with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2016 he will only just be coming off of now.
One of many bloated contracts signed when the league was flush with capital from a major television broadcast deal, the Ohio State product has been a solid rotation player since. In his last meaningful season, he put up 6.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 2018-19 with Portland before being traded to the Hawks in June.
Barring another trade, Evan Turner is expected to get a buyout from @Timberwolves.
The @celtics are expected to be among teams interested him — but no roster spot (as of now).
Another East contender would have interest, too, I'm told. More on @HeavySan :https://t.co/dpSQHbE6Lt— Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney) February 5, 2020
Since then, he’s taken a backseat in Atlanta, and even before that he was not producing anywhere near the value of his $18.6 million paycheck.
Turner is thus a strong buyout candidate if Minnesota doesn’t try to use his contract in another deal before the Feb. 6 deadline, and one that does (and should) interest Boston, if Deveney’s intel is accurate.
While he wouldn’t be a major coup by any means, he knows Stevens’ system to an extent and can provide a bit of scoring and passing off the bench. The Celtics do not currently have an open roster slot for him, but could gain one of they make an end-of-bench consolidation move before Thursday.
They’d then have until the March 1st deadline to add a buyout candidate eligible for postseason play to add Turner, or cut a player to make that possible if no deals are made in the interim.
Boston won’t be alone in pursuit of ET if he is bought out, though — Deveney notes several other teams have interest in the Chicago native, including the Miami Heat.
[lawrence-related id=28513,28496,28476,28429]