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To the surprise of many, the Sacramento Kings flirted with a .500 record earlier this season. However, an abysmal 2-11 record to close out the first half of the year has reportedly led the team to enter “seller mode” ahead of the trade deadline, per The Athletic’s Sam Amick.
In return, Harrison Barnes’ immediate future appears to be in limbo –– that is if you’re not already operating under the trending belief that the former NBA champion is destined to land in Boston.
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NBA Exec’s Bracing For Celtics to Acquire Harrison Barnes
According to Amick, multiple front office personnel around the league believe that the Celtics will in fact make a deal to acquire Barnes.
Another quality piece could be added to the Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart core without losing any players who are currently part of the solution.
Yet because Boston is hard-capped at $138 million, it would need to send out approximately $9 million in salary to take back the full amount of the exception in salary. Unless, of course, the Celtics go ahead and make this move for Sacramento small forward Harrison Barnes that so many front office folks around the league believe could be coming.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old is currently in the midst of a career season with Sacramento. Through 33 games, Barnes is averaging career-high averages across the board, notching 16.7 points on 49.2% shooting from the field, to go along with 6.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists. The nine-year pro is also hitting on 39.2% of his three-point attempts.
Barnes-Celtics Talks Have Begun to Heat Back Up
While the slew of trade rumors in rotation may cloud the timeline, it wasn’t all too long ago that the thought of acquiring Barnes was widely considered the best-case scenario for a Celtics trade.
Yet, as we alluded to, reports of the team being interested in the likes of Magic center Nikola Vucevic and Pistons forward Jerami Grant had led to Barnes being pushed down a few pegs on Boston’s wish list –– or rather, what others believed Boston’s wish list should look like.
Despite mostly falling out of circulation in daily trade speculation to make way for sexier names, NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine remained adamant on his belief that Barnes has always been the apple of the Celtics eye.
“The Celtics want Harrison Barnes,” Scalabrine recently said on Celtics Pregame Live. “They think Harrison Barnes is the type of guy that can come in here and make a difference.”
Just last week, Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley drew up a potential trade package to yield Boston the services of not only Barnes but his teammate Nemanja Bjelica as well. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the 6-foot-10-inch big-man “received interest” from the Celtics, along with a handful of other teams (76ers, Heat, Warriors and Bucks).
In Buckley’s hypothetical trade, the Celtics would receive the services of both Barnes and Bjelica in exchange for center Tristan Thompson, wing Romeo Langford, guard Carsen Edwards and a top-10 protected first-round pick. In comparison to some of the rumored trade packages floating around out there surrounding Nikola Vucevic or Jerami Grant, a package like this seems like a clear win for Boston.
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