The Boston Celtics are currently the best team in basketball this 2023-24 NBA season and sit atop the Eastern Conference standings with a 14-4 record. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics have the 9th-best offense and the No. 2 defense in the league. This balance of offense and defense has earned them the best net rating in the NBA.
It isn't obvious given how good they've looked this season, but the Celtics underwent a pretty significant overhaul this past summer. Sure, Boston managed to bring in two former All-Stars in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. However, they lost some pretty significant pieces. They traded away a fan favorite in Marcus Smart, who was often described as the heart of the team. They parted ways with high-level role players like Malcolm Brogdon, Grant Williams, and Robert Williams.
As you can see, the Celtics lost a lot of depth — which has been their strength over the last couple of seasons — by bringing in more star power in Porzingis and Smart. But so far, guys like Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet have stepped into bigger roles off the bench. Still, can Boston rely on them to play real minutes in the postseason? The Celtics might need to make a trade to address their lack of depth. One player who the Celtics should trade is Payton Pritchard.
Why the Celtics should trade Payton Pritchard
The Boston Celtics showed their trust in Payton Pritchard and rewarded him with a four-year, $30 million extension this past summer. There were talks during the February trade deadline earlier this year that Pritchard grew frustrated with his lack of playing time in Boston and preferred a move elsewhere. However, the Celtics signed him with a deal that keeps him in Beantown until 2028.
Fast-forward to over a month into the 2023-24 NBA season, Pritchard isn't having a desirable start to his fourth year in the league. There were expectations for the former Oregon standout to become a key piece in Boston's bench, considering there were more opportunities that opened up. However, Pritchard just hasn't made the leap that many Celtics fans expected, especially after signing that extension.
In 18 games this season, Pritchard is averaging just 6.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, while shooting only 38.9 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc — both of which are career-worsts.
Still, despite his struggles, Pritchard is likely Boston's most valuable trade asset outside of their core veterans. But trading him comes with a poison pill provision that makes any deal more complicated, since he just signed his extension this October.
With the poison pill, any team who receives Pritchard will take on the average of his current-year salary ($4.0 million) and his annual salary during his extension ($7.5 million). Meanwhile, only $4 million will count off Boston's books.
Celtics trade targets using Payton Pritchard
Nonetheless, there are veteran players on relatively cheap deals the Celtics can target in a trade using Pritchard as the main piece. One of the more highly-coveted role players in the NBA right now is Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso. As one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, Caruso would be a terrific bench upgrade in Boston's backcourt rotation.
Boston can also target Bulls reserve big man Andre Drummond to address its lack of depth up front. Kristaps Porzingis is already currently nursing an injury right now and isn't particularly the most durable player out there. Al Horford is also 37-years-old and needs his rest days throughout the grueling 82-game season. As such, Drummond would provide the Celtics some sort of big man insurance
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