The Celtics Have Roster Spots To Fill So Here's A Look At Who The Hell Is Even Left On The Market

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After the Marcus Smart and Grant Williams trades, the Celtics roster currently sits here

If you assume they guarantee Champagnie's deal (who the hell knows) and both Walsh and JD Davison are on Two Ways, this is essentially what Brad is working with for the rest of the summer to round things out

and you can add in the TPE to the mix that Brad created yesterday if you'd like. While most of us are hoping Brad has more up his sleeve this summer given all the picks he just stacked, I do think it's important to talk through the more logical scenario where they are mostly done with big moves and the focus is now about rounding out the roster with veteran players. Maybe we get that Woj/Shams bomb that has a larger trade, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Looking at that roster as it stands now, maybe you think they need another ball handler, or wing depth, or maybe some frontcourt help given the health uncertainty and age of the current guys. 

The problem is, if you look around the free agent landscape it's…..not great. Sure there may be an intriguing name or two, but then you remember that we're talking about minimum deals here. Of those free agents that are left combined with the playing time the Celts could realistically offer, you're probably talking about the 2nd or 3rd tier of current UFAs. 

To work through this, let's just go by position. These are simply the current UFAs that can choose to go wherever they want

Guards

Alright, with this position you could essentially look to fill a couple of different types of players. If you want a wing, maybe you look at the SGs, if you want an additional ball handler, that's obviously the PGs. So who do I think makes sense/would want/would play for the minimum?

Will Barton: No thanks

Hamidou Diallo: Not really a shooter, but he could be that athletic wing and he is coming off a season in which he shot 57% from the floor in 56 games. He's young (24) but again he can't shoot. Just a career 27.4% three point shooter, but maybe that's OK for what we're talking about here. 

Ish Smith: Part of me wants to see him to play for every team in the NBA and he is a Celtics killer. A little small for my liking and I'd rather just give JD minutes at that point

Terence Davis: We have to include him since we already heard Brad was talking with his camp. He's a guy who is a decent shooter (career 36%) and is 6'4 while also being young (25). He showed some good defensive flashes in SAC last year so it wouldn't shock me if we hear his name again

Javonte Green: Basically Tatum's best friend and actually showed some progress in CHI. Helps you on the wing and shot 37% from deep last year. Also, it keeps your best player happy

Austin Rivers: His 5 seconds as a Celtic was enough for me.

Romeo Langford: It'd be pretty funny if Romeo came back on a minimum, but there was essentially no progress made in terms of his development in SA so I doubt Brad's interested

So as you can see, the ball handler group is pretty shitty. That tells me if Brad is using one of his minimum spots on a guard, it'll most likely be a bigger SG

Wings

There are a few repeat names here, but also some interesting additions.

Kelly Oubre Jr: I know this is the name most will probably recognize, but I'd say don't hold your breath. A guy who just put up 20 points per game isn't going to take the minimum to be the 3rd or 4th wing on this roster. Also, he only shot 31% from deep in 2 of the last 3 seasons and doesn't exactly play defense. 

TJ Warren: Nobody has seen him since the Bubble and the Suns weren't even interested even though he was on their team and they needed to sign a billion minimum guys. Maybe you take a flier on him or something but at this point I'm not even sure TJ Warren even really exists. 

Danny Green: He's old, but after basically having another full year to recover from his ACL, maybe you kick the tires on a proven shooter with tons of playoff and championship experience? At 35 I can't imagine he has too many offers around, and maybe that's the type of ring chasing vet that's an option.

Anthony Lamb: Good size at 6'6, he's young at 25, and he did shoot 36.7% from deep in 62 games for the Warriors last year. Granted he was essentially unplayable in the playoffs, but so will all these guys.

Much like the guard group, you can see this shit is mostly gross. 

Power Forwards

I'm pretty sure Saric has already been penciled into the Warriors, and even if he wasn't I'm not sure he's down to come to Boston to be the 4th big. Other than that, who makes sense?

Derrick Jones Jr: Young (25), super athletic hustle player who can't really shoot (33% last year) and frankly I consider him more of a SF or small ball four than a true PF, so I don't think that helps you if you're looking for a back up big man

JaMychal Green: What's interesting about Green is that his numbers from last year don't look terrible (54/37%), but I also don't think any Warriors fan would tell you he was good last year. He was always someone I thought Ainge would try and trade for when he was on MEM, and he did have a run from 2018-2021 where he shot 39.5% from deep. Maybe this is your Great Value brand Grant replacement?

Bol Bol: We were robbed of this when Brad traded him for a TPE during last year's trade deadline. It'd be pretty funny to see a reunion, but he probably wants to go somewhere where he can play and make mistakes. That's not really Boston. 

Again, slim pickin

Center

I mean christ, things are getting bleak pretty quickly here. 

Blake Griffin: I am in on Blake. He was great in his role last year, there's continuity there which this team just lost a shit ton of this summer, he's willing to die on the court for this team and he does give you the strength that you're losing with Grant. Plus he was great for the vibes. Of all the names here, he might be who I like most

Christain Wood: I say that about Blake because I do not think Wood is coming to Boston on the minimum to be a 4th string center. I dunno where he goes, and even if it is somewhere on the minimum, it'll be a team that can offer him way more minutes. He's also the exact opposite of Blake in terms of a vibes guy

Willy Hernangomez: OK so things with his brother didn't exactly work out, but he had some moments on the Pelicans. A decent rebounder (22% TRB%) a good passer (10.7% AST%), but he basically only plays 50 games a year at best. 

Taking a step back and looking at the market, as you can see it's not great. We're not talking about major impact players at this point of free agency, but the team does need bodies that fit how they want to play. So if you're telling me Brad needs to find 2 guys from this group because there are no other paths to bring in talent, I think my two would be Javonte and Blake or Terence Davis and Blake. 

Part of me wonders if Brad is going to use one of these spots with the $6M+ TPE money he just got because that opens things up to much better players, and as we know he now has a billion 2nd round picks to throw around. In most cases with a TPE, you toss over 2 of those things and it usually works out.

So that's the market as it stands as of the writing of this blog. Knowing that, who are your guys?