The Celtics need to take a big swing this offseason, maybe even something Giannis-sized
I’ve got a prediction for you, Celtics fans, pecked out with the utmost confidence:
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Brad Stevens is going to summon everything within his considerable power and team-building imagination to make a big move this offseason.
Maybe even something Giannis-sized.
And he should, unless the franchise’s mission statement has suddenly been revised after all these decades. The Celtics’ goal is — say it with me — to win championships.
This would not have been Bill Russell’s, or Larry Bird’s, or Kevin Garnett’s favorite season, because someone other than the Boston Celtics will be standing triumphant in the hurricane of confetti when it is over.
A charming underdog makes for a decent interlude every now and then. But banners fly forever, and champs live on long after the players that made it happen go their separate ways.
We still agree on this, right? It’s clear Stevens does. His postmortem press availability nearly two weeks ago after the Celtics’ season ended with a first-round loss to the 76ers might have been the most candid the president of basketball operations has been since moving to that role in June 2021.
There were several notable moments, none more so than his unsolicited mention of the Celtics’ 3-11 record this season against teams that earned top-three seeds in the two conferences.
That was a blunt confession that this team is not good enough as currently constructed. The Celtics, for some reasons beyond their control and others well within it, have gone backward since collecting that 18th banner two years ago. Last year, the Knicks ruthlessly bounced them in the second round. This year, a flawed 76ers team sent them away for the summer without winning a single playoff series.
So ask yourself this: How does Stevens make the Celtics a championship contender again while Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are in their primes?
As Celtics fans found out with the breakup of the 2024 champs after essential two seasons as a unit, the punitive current collective bargaining agreement slams that window shut on expensive veteran teams in a hurry.
Stevens has some options to improve the team around the margins, and perhaps even more substantially than that, including a $27.7 million trade exception.
But even the appealing names that may be attainable, such as Knicks shot-swatter Mitchell Robinson, probably wouldn’t make the Celtics the Eastern Conference favorite next season, let alone a team that would have a snowball’s chance in Texas of beating, presumably, the loaded Spurs or Thunder in the Finals.
This isn’t an add-a-few-pieces-and-run-it-back situation. A big swing is necessary.
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I wasn’t convinced two weeks ago, but I am now:
That swing should be for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Trading for the Bucks’ two-time MVP and one-time champ carries immense risk. He will be 32 in December. He’s endured four calf injuries in a year and a half. He’s been something of a drama king in recent years. And then there’s the deal-breaker for a large segment of Celtics fans: Acquiring him would almost certainly mean parting with Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP, the sixth-place finisher in the MVP race this year, and someone who has an appreciation of what it means to be a Celtic.
But taking all sentiment out of it — which is Stevens’s job, and one he has done stealthy and fearlessly, such as when he traded Marcus Smart — it’s the right move.
When making trades in the NBA, it’s close to imperative to be the team getting back the best player.
How often has Brown been as good or better than Antetokounmpo during the nine-year overlap of their careers? You could argue this season, but that’s mostly because Brown was more durable, playing 71 games to Antetokounmpo’s 36. Brown averaged more points per game (28.7 to 27.6), but Antetokounmpo had him beat in rebounds, assists, and blocks per game, and turned it over at a slightly lesser clip.
In every other season, Antetokounmpo was, undeniably, in a more elite tier of player than Brown.
Will that be the case going forward? I believe so, and I believe the Celtics do too, based on common sense and some of the recent reporting on their past and current interest. He appears to be in decent shape.
He used to be one of the most earnest players around before the recent drama. The Celtics will have to do their due diligence on what he’s like as a teammate, or Jrue diligence, so to speak.
He’s approximately three months older than Kevin Garnett was when the Celtics acquired him in the summer of 2007. If you’ve somehow forgotten how that season played out, look toward the rafters at the Garden.
Someday, of course, Brown’s No. 7 will fly in those same rafters. He’s a true Celtic, his place in franchise lore already secure.
But if you don’t believe he wants the on-court dynamic to change between him and Tatum going forward, it’s because you don’t want to hear it. This might be the time to give him his own team. Just not this one.
There’s an overriding truth about the Celtics, isn’t there? The mission is championships, even if it means sending a beloved Celtic elsewhere.
Antetokounmpo — a superior player who fills an assortment of Stevens-cited needs — would, in tandem with Tatum, offer a better shot at Banner 19.
And banners, not numbers, are the reason we look up.
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