Getty President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics Brad Stevens looks on before Game Three of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals.
The Boston Celtics find themselves rolling during the infancy stage of the 2022-23 campaign, as they’re currently on a nine-game winning streak and sport the best record in the association at 13-3.
That said, even with this, the team could certainly benefit from partaking in some shakeups to their arsenal to help better position themselves for a late-season run of achieving the ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship, and, according to an anonymous league executive, there’s one player that could be a beneficial target for the club to pursue via trade this season.
In a recent sit-down with Heavy Sports’ NBA Insider Sean Deveney, a Western Conference exec discussed the idea of seeing the Golden State Warriors shop star power forward Draymond Green and, though they stated that such an event is unlikely, should it ever happen the Celtics are among the list of ideal landing spot for him.
“I would not say they’re planning on trading Draymond or shopping him but I think they have prepared for it. If they feel that is what they need to do, if they need to do something like that to make a bigger deal happen, or if they don’t get things turned around completely” the executive told Deveney.
“But there are only a handful of teams that could really absorb Draymond that would bring him into their culture and not be afraid of it. Boston would be one…”
The executive would continue by stating that while the Celtics may be an interesting destination for the perennial All-Star, they admitted that “it is hard to see any interest there,” most likely due to how well they’re producing thus far into the season coupled with the fact that it would almost certainly cost a pretty penny to pry the veteran away from Golden State.
However, any contending team like Boston could always use some title-winning experience within their foundation, and Green, a four-time NBA champion, certainly has that in his bag.
Celtics Interested in Frontcourt Help
On top of his championship pedigree, Draymond Green could also help address the desire to fill out the frontcourt depth for the Boston Celtics.
According to recent reports by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, many have speculated that the C’s are interested in shoring up their big man rotation, particularly at the pivot what with the absence of oft-injured Robert Williams III as he continues to rehabilitate from offseason knee surgery.
With this, names such as Jakob Poeltl and John Collins have been floated as possible targets for the Celtics to pursue via trade to bolster their talent pool up front, but one could make the argument that Green could be a far superior add.
Outside of his championship pedigree and All-Star nods, the big man is a multi-faceted talent who could help Boston on both ends of the floor.
From his impressive career assist percentage of 25.4 to his five-position defensive skills that have earned him seven All-Defensive Team honors and a Defensive Player of the Year award, Green’s skill set could easily compliment the club’s 10th-best assist ranking and 14th-ranked defensive rating, while his ball-handling and playmaking abilities could do wonders to find them more success on fast breaks.
At the right price, Draymond Green could actually be the missing piece to unlocking the full potential of the Boston Celtics.
Celtics Star Sounds Off on Turnovers
After Boston’s 117-109 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night, star wing Jaylen Brown couldn’t help but highlight some of the team’s struggles despite coming away from the contest victorious, and specifically went in on their turnover woes on the night during the team’s post-game media session.
“Just being careless with the basketball, you know? We came out well, got to an early lead, and kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit,” Brown explained.
“And that’s something that we gotta, you know, challenge ourselves throughout the year – to keep our foot on teams’ necks, don’t let up, don’t let them get back into the game. We were still able to win, but that’s something that we got to be better at and monitor.”
Leading the charge in the turnover department for the Celtics was Brown himself, who coughed the ball up 7 times out of the team’s 17 lost possessions.
With this, however, the franchise cornerstone still finished the night posting a stellar stat line of 27 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals on 50% shooting from the field and beyond the arc.