The Celtics made a flurry of deadline moves, essentially clearing out the end of their bench and providing a clearer picture of the team’s short-term goals.
The first move was trading Chris Boucher to the Utah Jazz, who will reportedly waive him. The 33-year-old forward has only played in nine games, the last of which came after a 30-game stretch on the bench. That game actually ended in controversy when Boucher hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of a blowout win over Sacramento. The final memory of Boucher in Boston is him and Russell Westbrook barking at each other and then hashing it out at mid-court.
The next move was moving Josh Minott to Brooklyn. Minott fell out of the rotation after Christmas, only playing in five games since then. He got into the Rockets game last night, but was underwhelming in seven minutes.
Then the third trade of the day was snuck in under the wire, with Xavier Tillman Sr. and cash being sent to the Charlotte Hornets.
The net effect after these trades will be four open roster spots and the Celtics ducking under the tax.
League rules require teams to fill 14 of their 15 roster spots with guaranteed contracts. The Celtics were at 14 with all of their moves on Thursday, so now they are down to 11. How they fill those will help the Celtics stay under the tax line.
Without getting too boring and technical, the Celtics have two weeks to fill their empty roster spots. Milking that clock and then officially upgrading Amari Williams, which was announced today, and then presumably Ron Harper Jr., the Celtics can fill out the end of their bench with cheap enough talent avoid paying a tax. The plan works because both Williams and Harper are already on two-way deals and can play on those until they are upgraded.
On one hand, it doesn’t scream, “Let’s go for it!” There is certainly a section of Celtics fandom that sees this as an owner just trying to save money.
On the other hand, Brad Stevens traded away three guys who aren’t playing, so who cares who is sitting in those seats? The Celtics have gotten this far without contributions from Tillman or Boucher, and Minott stopped being effective a while ago. Meanwhile, both Williams and Harper Jr. have had a hand in winning games recently, so their efforts are being rewarded.
The Celtics will be spending plenty of money to build a winner around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the coming years. Finding a way to save money now (and, by the way, get a cut of the tax payouts) without disrupting the core is a fiscally responsible thing to do to maximize future spending.