At least one notable big man is on the Celtics\u2019 radar as the NBA\u2019s Feb. 5 trade deadline approaches.<\/p>\n
Boston is among the teams that have expressed interest<\/a> in Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac, according to a report from HoopsHype\u2019s Michael Scotto.<\/p>\n An experienced 7-footer with 480 career starts, Zubac is averaging 15.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game for LA this season. The 28-year-old missed time with an ankle injury but returned to action in Saturday\u2019s 146-115 home loss to the Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last season was a breakout year for Zubac, who made the All-Defensive second team and finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting after starting 80 games for the Clippers.<\/p>\n The Celtics entered the season with major questions in the frontcourt after trading away Kristaps Porzingis and losing Al Horford and Luke Kornet in free agency, but Neemias Queta has emerged as a quality starting center (10.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks per game), and backup Luka Garza has impressed since working his way back into the rotation late last month.<\/p>\n Zubac has a much stronger NBA track record than both of those players, and he\u2019s on a manageable contract, with salaries of $18.1 million this season, $19.6 million next season and $21.0 million in 2027-28. It\u2019s unclear, though, whether the Celtics would be willing to pay LA\u2019s reported asking price (at least two first-round draft picks, per Scotto\u2019s sources), and whether the Clippers are open to dealing him now that they\u2019ve climbed closer to play-in contention in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cPredominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season,\u201d Scotto wrote Tuesday. \u201cHowever, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Celtics likely would need to include guard Anfernee Simons and\/or wing Sam Hauser in any trade for Zubac to make it work from a salary perspective. Simons, who is on a $27.7 million expiring contract, has been mentioned in trade rumors since his arrival this summer. He\u2019s played well as Boston\u2019s sixth man of late, most recently scoring 27 second-half points<\/a> in a win over the Chicago Bulls on Monday.<\/p>\n Scotto reported the Celtics \u201chave been unwilling to part with a future first-round pick to move Simons,\u201d who\u2019s reportedly garnered interest from the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least one notable big man is on the Celtics\u2019 radar as the NBA\u2019s Feb. 5 trade deadline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[4329,7,75,46,14815,15517,559,532,72293,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":["post-522749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-anfernee-simons","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-trade","tag-celtics-trade-rumors","tag-clippers","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-ivica-zubac-celtics","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115854496728034271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}