So far this season, the Celtics have had decent success. They’re currently sitting fourth in the East, just a game and half behind second place Miami. However, the C’s could be in a much better position without some of the slumps they’ve hit this season. Obviously, the way to prevent slumps like that from happening is to address the weaknesses within the team.
To me, the biggest weakness has to be the bench production. Coming into the season, it was thought that Carsen Edwards was going to be handling a lot of the scoring off of the bench. Unfortunately that hasn’t panned out yet with Edwards struggling with consistency. The Boston bench has some quality players, but they aren’t exactly scorers.
Trade #1
Davis Bertans
Davis Bertans has been having himself quite the season. He’s averaging 15 points per game, shooting 43% from the field and 42% from deep. His shooting is something that the Celtics could definitely use on the bench. The addition of Bertans would prevent the lulls that happen when the starters are resting on the bench. It’d also make the team deeper in terms of being able to succeed with players out.
Now the question arises, what do the C’s have to cough up to get Bertans. Maybe they’d have to give up a first round pick, none of which are super useful for the Celtics this year. The Memphis pick isn’t looking so hot with the Grizzlies playing rather well behind Ja Morant. They’d also have to give up some players, maybe Carsen Edwards, Robert Williams, Vincent Poirier or someone else. Washington is trying to build around John Wall and Bradley Beal, so young pieces would be intriguing to them.
Depending what the Celtics are willing to give up, they could potentially find a way to bring back old friend, Isaiah Thomas. Thomas is shooting a career high this season from deep at 41.3%. The C’s wouldn’t be getting the prime version of IT, but he’d certainly be able to provide a boost off the bench. Plus, fans would absolutely love it.
Trade #2
Derrick Rose
He isn’t quite the MVP Rose of the early 2010’s, but Derrick Rose is having himself a nice year. Rose is the Pistons’ leading scorer this season, at 18 points per game. He’s shooting nearly 50% from the field and received a healthy amount of votes for the all star game. One thing that Celtics fans will remember, was Rose’s performance against the Celtics a few weeks back when they dropped a game at home to Detroit. DRose finished the game with 22 points, and shot 85% for the game. Obviously, if he was to be traded to Boston, his role would decrease, but he’d still get a lot of opportunities coming of the bench.
As far as the actual trade goes, Rose doesn’t make a ton of money, and his contract is for just this season. So the Celtics will likely be able to get him relatively cheap. There was some news about the Pistons wanting a first round pick for him. Once again, the Celtics have plenty of those, and should be easily able to part with one of them for the former MVP. The C’s would also have to throw in some bench players, most likely Brad Wanamaker since Rose would be filling his spot.
These trades probably won’t both happen, so some trade chips could be repeated between the two.
I’m really not sold on the idea of blowing up the core of the team to add a big man, so if that’s what you came here for, sorry to disappoint. I think the team is solid besides bench scoring, so that’s where I believe they need to upgrade.
If there are any other trades you’d like to see, let me know in the replies. Thanks for reading!
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