It is not outlandish to say that the Celtics had a tumultuous 2018–2019 season. It featured a cavalcade of chemistry issues stemming from a mercurial point guard, force-feeding Gordon Hayward minutes and plays, and a stretch of time where Marcus Morris was the most consistent player on the floor. (1) The fallout from the season makes it look like the championship window was slammed shut and locked for a couple of years:
-The Celtics former point guard is by all reports Brooklyn bound.
-Al Horford has opted out and is now seeking a four-year max deal elsewhere.
-Aron “All of Australia” Baynes is now playing in the dry heat of Phoenix. (2)
-There is very little coverage of Marcus Morris’s free agency, other than the Knicks are rumored to be interested in both him and his brother.
This leaves the Celtics with few adults in the under contract other than Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart. Everyone else of consequence is on a rookie contract.
But given the draft night trade of Aron Baynes and the opt-outs of both Al Horford and their former point guard, the Celtics are left with a pool of cap space about 25 million. This number could grow a lot higher if the chasm between the team and Terry Rozier is too wide to mend in restricted free agency.
The Celtics will have room for a max player, and if the reporting of Marc Stein is to be believed, (3) the team is turning their sights to Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker. At a glimpse, Kemba is an amazing player who averaged 25.6 PPG on impressive splits (43/36/84) considering that he was the lone offensive producer for the Hornets last season. He gets to the line 5.5 times a game, which would help a team that was allergic to the free throw line last year (19.5 per game last year). Kemba also has the clutch gene that the last two Celtics point guards had fused into their DNA.
As previously stated, Kemba is an excellent player. There is just one problem: The Celtics are no longer on his timeline.
With the likely departures of Al Horford and Marcus Morris and the trade of Aron Baynes, the Celtics are now a very young team. (4) Their draft yielded them a high upside scorer in Romeo Langford, a flamethrower in Carsen Edwards and a do-it-all forward, albeit undersized, in Grant Williams.
Their big men are now Robert Williams, Grant Williams, Daniel Theis if he returns, and a dancing bear. (5) Signing Kemba Walker to the max would erase their cap space without enough money to spend on a playoff ready big man who could spend valuable minutes on the floor in today’s NBA.
In addition, Gordon Hayward is still a giant question mark. Even though it will have been two years since his horrific injury and he showed signs of returning to his old self towards the end of the season, he is still one giant question mark of production. There is no guarantee he will return to the Utah Jazz version of himself that got a max contract or even 85% of that. Adding a 29-year-old Kemba Walker to a four-year contract and playing to support Hayward’s timeline is a fool’s errand when the Celtics have so much young talent to draw from.
Jayson Tatum is 21, Jaylen Brown is 22, Robert Williams is 21 and Marcus Smart is 25. This is the timeline the Celtics should be prioritizing. The Celtics could pull in a couple of young pieces that not only fit around their young core but enhance it for years to come.
Malcolm Brogdon is the first person to come to mind.
The Bucks are a championship ready team with a lot of personal question marks. They have to juggle the free agency of the players who surrounded Giannis on their way to a 60 win season last year; the most pressing being Brogdon and Kris Middleton. Giving both of them big deals would put them in a cap situation that would make filling out the rest of the team a huge financial burden. It is in the realm of possibilities that the Celtics, or any other team, can make them blink by offering Brogdon a boatload of cash.
Malcolm Brogdon is a 26-year-old swiss army knife who could fit into any team’s offense and defense. (6) Last year, he was a member of the exclusive 50/40/90 club and played outstanding defense. He would be the perfect complimentary piece to an offensive built around Tatum and Brown’s rising stardom. (7) Bonus: The Celtics have the Buck’s first-round pick next year, stealing Brodgon away would weaken the frontrunner of the Eastern Conference and yield a better pick.
However much money it takes to make sure the Bucks don’t match an offer sheet can be spent on a big man who can fit into the correct timeline. Kevon Looney and Julius Randle instantly pop out. During the playoffs, it became clear that unlike centers of the Warriors past, Kevon Looney can play basketball. He is an absolute trooper, proving so by playing through a fractured collarbone. Plus, he is only 23 and can be obtained without coughing up an absurd amount of money.
Julius Randle, like Looney, can also play basketball pretty well. At 24, he averaged 21.4 PPG on 52% from the field. He can stretch the floor at a high enough clip to make sure that he is respected (34%) from range. He would be the perfect fit next to pogo stick Robert Williams, providing the offensive punch to William’s rim-protecting potential. Or he can play a small ball five, with Smart, Brown Tatum and a point guard to be named later.
From there, the Celtics could fill out the roster to get a couple of adults in the room at a low cost; a reunion with high-quality human being Amir Johnson or Vince Carter (8) sounds rather appealing.
The Celtics should not feel the need to compete for a championship right away. They have a solid young core and enough money to put add more young pieces to it. Kemba Walker would be a flashy addition to Boston but would do little to put them in serious contention now or later.
Every penny from my writing goes to supporting my fiance pay off her student loans. Please read, clap and follow for more posts on teaching, reading, and basketball. Follow on Twitter: @kuujamzs
1: *Gasp*
2: A fate no one deserves.
3: Which it is.
4: One might even say they are green. (4a)
4a: Sorry…
5: I refuse to call Guershon Yabusele by his real name.
6: Google him and you will see that apparently every team is thinking about how they can pry him loose from the Midwest.
7: Plus, if the Celtics gave him a big deal, sports talk radio hosts can still yell about the value of a player that scores 15 points per game like Al Horford never left.
8: Now that his podcast partner has been traded to the opposite coast.
