Going to hat tip SleeperKings, James Ham is the new host of Locked On Kings, and was talking about Keon Ellis and where he could end up. This is the first I've heard the Celtics mentioned.

Convo starts around 15 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LQPO1mnZE

13 comments

  1. I feel like with Gonzalez and Walsh it wouldn’t be smart to spend assets on Ellis. Hes ok but hes not significantly better and he’s about to be a FA.

  2. great find… maybe Brad thinks Ellis can re-sign at a cheaper contract than Anfernee Simons… kind of weird for Celtics to pursue a FA though, unless they think the next contract figure will work on BOS books

  3. I think this signals to me that Brad is looking to trade for a guard AND big if he trades Simons, because you gotta replace Ant’s role on the roster if you move him. A lower-cost guard like Keon or Ayo Dosunmu plus a big like Jalen Smith would make sense to turn Simons into (if you move him).

    Then they can flip Boucher for a 2nd or something and convert Amari

  4. He’s good, and he deserves a shot at a bigger role than the Kings have given him, but he’s an expiring contract. A trade adds pressure to re-sign him, and we’re up against it financially. If he wants a real payday, like $10-15M/year, then we might have to choose between him and Simons.

  6. If he’s available for the right price and it wouldn’t interfere with us getting a good big man (Zubac, Claxton, Okongwu, Gafford) then Keon would be a decent addition to the team.

    As far as I know, he’s a 3&D guy that could maybe help with our limiting the amount of 3s we’re giving up (Though this is partially due to the 2-1-2 zone that Joe runs). If this guy is to be trusted, then that means Keon might be someone Brad might acquire if he were to trade Simons, as that would free up guard minutes

  8. Alright yall ready to yell at me? Get your pitchforks ready

    Sabonis/ellis/mcdermott/eubanks for Simon’s/hauser/minott/tillman/boucher/‘26 first

    White-brown-Hugo/walsh-tatum-sabonis

    Pritchard-Ellis-Baylor-hugo/walsh-queta/garza

    I’m sorry but that team would be fucking sick to watch play basketball lol

    Alright now that I got that out of my system, I’d probably give our ‘26 first for Ellis assuming Brad would plan on keeping him simply because I think we should be very motivated to trade it for value, because I’d rather draft with one of the pels or bucks second rounders we own this summer because you get a wayyy better contract for high second round picks vs late firsts

    So sure, ‘26 first plus Boucher/tillman for Ellis, wouldn’t hate it at all

  10. At the beginning of the season I would’ve been all over this. But at this point, while he is a useful player, he doesn’t bring anything the Celtics don’t already have

    What he does well: low usage 3 point shooting, poa defense, lots of deflections

    Where he comes up short: not very switchable (he’s skinny so he can only guard in the backcourt), not a ballhandler

    10-20 teams could probably use him but he would crowd the rotation without bringing in new skills 

  11. The part about Sacramento giving up you g player switch promise that annoys me is that they’ve been 1-2 players from competing several times in the last few decades.

    Find themselves a legitimate center and move Sabonis to the 4, and the Kings are actually probably pretty good.

  12. I know they’ve tried to move Malik monk in the past. We could theoretically do Simons for Monk and Keon Eliis. It would put at us a full roster of 15 while also getting us under the 1st apron.

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