The Boston Celtics are in full-rebuilding mode after trading star point guard Rajon Rondo to Dallas. With the team likely to make more moves before the trade deadline, will forward Jeff Green be next?
For the last couple of years, the Boston Celtics have been a team without an identity. Following the departures of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the Celtics were left with Rajon Rondo and a squad of inexperienced players that had just enough talent to make the playoffs, but not compete for a championship.
When the Celtics decided to trade Rondo — the last remaining piece from the 2008 team that won the NBA Championship — to Dallas in exchange for young talent, expiring contracts and draft picks, the team signaled to the rest of the league it was in full-rebuilding mode.
The post-Rondo Celtics are still a team without an identity, loaded with young talent and a few veteran journeymen. That means Boston will likely be a seller at the trade deadline, looking to move what few remaining assets it has left to stock up on more draft picks and salary cap space.
However, the problem with that theory is the current Celtics roster doesn’t have many players that will drum up interest with other teams. The Celtics would be reluctant to part with any of their young talent, and their older players simply aren’t appealing for the most part.
If Boston agrees to any trade, it will likely want at least a first-round draft pick in return. Out of players likely to be available, only a few — Jeff Green, Brandan Wright, and Avery Bradley — would have any chance of yielding that type of return. Of those three, Green would offer the most bang for the Celtics’ buck.
Green is having a career year, and leads the Celtics in scoring with 18.9 points per game. He is an intriguing trade prospect because he would make an immediate impact for any contender in need of a small forward.
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For a team like the Clippers or Grizzlies, Green could be the missing link that wins them a championship. With the Western Conference as competitive as ever (and Eastern Conference wide open), there will be no shortage of offers for Green in the upcoming weeks.
Even though the Celtics are still very much in the playoff picture in the East, it makes sense for them to move Green.
He is 28 years old, and does not fit into Boston’s youth movement. Green is owed $9.2 million this season, with a $9.2 million player option next season, and by moving him the Celtics would free up cap space to sign free agents who fit their long-term plans.
The move would make the Celtics terribly bad this season, but would help the team in the long term. In addition to whatever assets the Celtics received in return for Green, it would also give the team’s young wing players more playing time — most notably James Young, the No. 17 draft pick in last year’s draft.
In five games for the Maine Red Claws this season, Young has dominated against D-League competition, averaging 22.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, while shooting over 45 percent from behind the arc. However, he has been unable to get off the bench for the Celtics, averaging 2.2 points in only five appearances.
If the Celtics traded Green, it would mean more minutes for Young, which would be vital for his development. Young was a standout on a Kentucky squad loaded with talent that lost in the National Championship. Unlike Green, he is part of Boston’s long-term plan, and needs to be developed now in order to reach his full potential.
Even if the Celtics decided Green fit into their rebuilding plan, it is unlikely he would agree to stick around after next year, meaning the team would risk losing him in free agency for nothing in return. Green was very close to Rondo, and with Rondo now gone the chances of him sticking with the Celtics are diminished.
Furthermore, it is unlikely Green would want to wait for the Celtics to rebuild. He will be over 30 years old and past his basketball prime before the Celtics start competing in the Eastern Conference again, and his window for being a contributor on a championship-caliber team is now. When his contract with Boston is up, he will consider all his options and pick the one that gives him the biggest opportunity.
If the Celtics are truly rebuilding and trying to do what’s best for the team long-term, trading Green makes the most sense. Not only will he yield the first-round draft pick that Boston covets, but a trade will also allow the team to develop its young players this season.
That’s not to say there won’t be plenty of growing pains with this young squad — there will certainly be a learning curve, and the team will be frustrating to watch at times. But if the Celtics are smart with the draft picks it has stockpiled, they can build a team that can contend for a championship in the future.