-@threalmattmoney
After making moves to acquire Josh Richardson and Kris Dunn, the Celtics have sured up some spots on their roster that were worrisome. Our depth chart as it stands right now looks like this, PG: Smart, Dunn, Pritchard, Edwards; SG: Richardson, Romeo; SF: Brown, Nesmith; PF: Tatum, G.Williams; C: R.Williams, Horford, Fernando. There is a noticeable lack of depth at the forward position, Nesmith is more of a 2/3 rather than a 3/4 and Grant being the only other option at power forward unless we run lineups with Rob & Al together is not ideal. We need a guy who can step in and play some minutes at the 4 when Tatum subs out as well play alongside Tatum in bigger lineups. I've picked out three names I would really like to see the Celtics target in free agency. The theme that Brad has gone with so far had been defense and ball movement, I tried to continue that theme.
Rudy Gay: Gay is a very underrated defender, and one who had some of the best on/off splits in the entire league. The Spurs were a much better team when he was on the court rather than off, especially on defense. The Spurs allowed 9.2 fewer points per 100 possessions when Gay was on the court than off, that ranked in the 97th percentile among players in his position group. As a whole the Spurs had a 9.1 Net Rating while Gay was on the Court. He also is a very versatile player, in the past four seasons he has logged 14% of his minutes at small forward, 82% at power forward, and 4% at Center. I mentioned before the importance Brad has seemed to stress on having ball movers, Gay is another guy that can do that with his assist percentage in the 65th percentile for his position group. He also isn't a bad floor spacer which is certainly a plus, he shot 38% from three last season on over four attempts a game.
Otto Porter Jr: Another guy who fits in the same mold as Gay is Otto Porter, a guy coming off a real down season but is still young enough and fits a lot of the Celtics' needs. As far as floor spacer, he was in the 71st percentile or better in both assist percentage and assist to usage ratio. He is excellent as a floor spacer, Porter has shot 40.2% from deep for his career over 9 seasons. As a defender Porter's teams have been two points per 100 possessions better while he is on the court the four of the past five seasons. Same as Gay, Porter has shown positional versatility, logging 63% of his minutes at small forward and 35% at power forward during his last three years in Chicago. Lastly, he is still 28 years old.
Justise Winslow: This pick is entirely personal, I do fully admit there are better forwards in our price range than Justise, but I really like Justise. Like Porter, Winslow is coming off a really down year that was plagued with injuries. Unlike the other two guys mentioned, Justise absolutely cannot space the floor. His last year with relative health was '18-'19 and if we could get that version of him it would be a steal for the MLE. That year he ranked in the 96th percentile or better in both assist percentage and assist to turnover ratio. He is a legitimate point forward who is extremely versatile on the defensive end. He has played significant minutes at shooting guard, small forward and power forward in the past and has even started a playoff game at center when he was playing for the Heat. The craziest part about Justise Winslow's up and down career is he's still only 25 years old. Injuries are certainly a concern, but Winslow sure is an intriguing pick up.
With NBA free agency getting started in about three hours, I would really like to see one of these forwards in talks with the Celtics.
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