While there’s a case to be made for a bigger move, shoring up the bench rotation with shooting and scoring should be the Boston Celtics top priority.
The Boston Celtics will not fix their recent woes by trading away one of their starters.
While it might be in the Celtics’ best interest to explore the return they could get for veteran forward Gordon Hayward, such a move is less about his recent play.
It would be more about roster management and maximizing the responsibility handed to wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, which then begs the question — are there things behind this losing streak which can be fixed with a trade?
The short answer is yes, but also no.
Let’s tackle the “no” first. Defensive lapses and unengaged play — particularly early — has been a problem, maybe the problem in all the losses save perhaps against the Milwaukee Bucks.
They won as much through superior talent as they did execution, though there is an argument to be made that Boston might have pulled off the upset had they come out a little more coherent.
And we’ve seen this team come out with that level of intensity, with plenty of quality wins this season against playoff-level rosters.
No need to trade to get the level of energy and buy-in they’ll need on defense — they already have demonstrated that. But they have not demonstrated much in the way of bench scoring, and that shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Now for the “yes”.
Bench scoring has been a serious problem for the Celtics, who don’t have a consistent threat off the bench save veterans Marcus Smart and Enes Kanter, and even then, both have had rough stretches, particularly recently.
As the Athletic’s Jay King notes, reserve forward Semi Ojeleye leads the team’s 3-point shooting from the bench with 21 total made 3-pointers.
For the season.
Smart attempted more (and made half!) in his last game. Clearly, this is unsustainable, with much of the play without multiple starters on the floor looking more like 1990s basketball than anyone should be OK with in 2020.
Moreover, there isn’t a single player outside of the starters who is averaging north of ten points per game, and only two players shooting better than .350 from deep, wing Javone Green at 35.3 % and Ojeleye at 36.2 %.
The duo take a combined two 3-point attempts per game.
There have been a host of trade proposal articles focused on sprucing up Boston’s starting five, and some of them could even perhaps be a good idea.
But for the Celtics to truly make a move that is both realistic and likely to impact winning, consolidating some talent by moving some end-of-bench players will help considerably.
The team is unlikely to bring back all of their seven rookies next season anyway, and could get a jump on both acquiring the contracts of players who could help in a season the team will likely look to contend as well as opening up more playing time for players who could have an impact.
So while the future of Hayward in green and white is definitely a conversation worth having, if it’s serious trade talk we’re looking to get into, the best place to start is the second unit rotation.
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