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The 2020-2021 Boston Celtics team is going to look quite a bit different than last year’s team. The first few days of the free agency was like a roller coaster ride, especially following the news of Gordon Hayward. After looking like Hayward might opt-in to be traded, be a part of a sign-and-trade with Indiana, it appears like he has just signed outright with the Charlotte Hornets. This is obviously a pretty significant blow, just to lose him for nothing, but I believe we recouped a lot of the value lost in both the draft and free agency. As good as Hayward was as a fourth option, he was still a fourth option. Along with Hayward there were a few more pieces that have gone elsewhere for this upcoming season.
After not extending the qualifying offer to Brad Wanamaker, he signed a one-year deal with Golden State. After expressing displeasure with his role with the team, Vincent Poirier was dealt to OKC for a conditional 2nd round draft pick. The last departure from the Celtics was Enes Kanter being traded back to Portland on a draft night trade that had some important implications. We received a future draft consideration from Memphis, as well as turning Boston's MLE from 5.7mil to 9mil, which we used to help bolster our frontcourt.
The Celtics had three big needs that needed to be addressed before this offseason was over, grabbing a solid back-up PG, adding a center who can compliment Theis and Timelord, and lastly improve our bench shooting. I was very happy that the Celtics were able to accomplish all three. The frontcourt piece that we added using the increased MLE was Tristan Thompson, a player Celtic’ fans should be very familiar with. Thompson seems to get 12+ boards every time he plays the Cs. He provides a rebounding presence and a bigger body than Theis, I believe Brad will use them in the best matchups for their respective skill sets. The other free agent we added was former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague. Teague is a guy who provides decent spacing, around a 36% 3point shooter for his career, and another playmaker that this bench unit desperately needed.
The Celtics were able to add the best shooter in this year’s draft with the last pick in the lottery, which was Aaron Nesmith from Vanderbilt. Nesmith was a 41% 3point shooter over 46 games in his two years of college ball. They also selected another player in the first round of this draft, Oregon point guard Paytan Pritchard. Pritchard will probably spend some of this year in Maine, developing his game so that he can fill the back-up point guard role in the 2021-2022 season. He looks to be a decent shooter and good facilitator.
Overall I was fairly happy with this offseason, was it a perfect offseason? No. What they did do was strengthen their weaknesses and they look poised to be competing to win the east once again. A lot of people will consider this a bad offseason because of the Hayward sign-and-trade debacle, but I believe they are a much deeper team than last year and will be propelled by the play of Tatum and Brown. I also should note that Tatum has just signed his max rookie extension, which should be exciting for Celtics fans as now we have six years of control for this 22 year-old budding superstar.
The Celtics had three big needs that needed to be addressed before this offseason was over, grabbing a solid back-up PG, adding a center who can compliment Theis and Timelord, and lastly improve our bench shooting. I was very happy that the Celtics were able to accomplish all three. The frontcourt piece that we added using the increased MLE was Tristan Thompson, a player Celtic’ fans should be very familiar with. Thompson seems to get 12+ boards every time he plays the Cs. He provides a rebounding presence and a bigger body than Theis, I believe Brad will use them in the best matchups for their respective skill sets. The other free agent we added was former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague. Teague is a guy who provides decent spacing, around a 36% 3point shooter for his career, and another playmaker that this bench unit desperately needed.
The Celtics were able to add the best shooter in this year’s draft with the last pick in the lottery, which was Aaron Nesmith from Vanderbilt. Nesmith was a 41% 3point shooter over 46 games in his two years of college ball. They also selected another player in the first round of this draft, Oregon point guard Paytan Pritchard. Pritchard will probably spend some of this year in Maine, developing his game so that he can fill the back-up point guard role in the 2021-2022 season. He looks to be a decent shooter and good facilitator.
Overall I was fairly happy with this offseason, was it a perfect offseason? No. What they did do was strengthen their weaknesses and they look poised to be competing to win the east once again. A lot of people will consider this a bad offseason because of the Hayward sign-and-trade debacle, but I believe they are a much deeper team than last year and will be propelled by the play of Tatum and Brown. I also should note that Tatum has just signed his max rookie extension, which should be exciting for Celtics fans as now we have six years of control for this 22 year-old budding superstar.
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