Boston Celtics: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Adam Taylor
Pick swap with 76ers
Trading the 20th pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in return for the 24th and 33rd pick in the same draft didn’t seem to make much sense at the time.
The Boston Celtics were already short on cap space and mired in uncertainty; there was a feeling another trade would follow shortly after. And it did indeed, with the 24th pick being used in conjunction with Aron Baynes to be sent to Phoenix.
The 33rd pick then turned into Carsen Edwards, who is arguably better than Matisse Thybulle, who the 76ers selected with the 20th pick they received from Boston. Also note, that by making this trade Boston saved some money.
Thybulle will collect a salary of $1,347,400, while the Celtics inked Edwards to a four-year deal worth $4.5 million or $1,125,000 per year. A few hundred thousand dollars is not a large sum of money to an NBA franchise, but when operating close the salary cap it can make all the difference.
With the Bucks’ pick not due to convey until 2020 at the earliest and neither Thybulle or Edwards having played a minute of NBA basketball, it remains to be seen who really won this trade.
However, Boston landed a solid guard of the future and another pick to play with moving forward while also saving themselves a few hundred thousand dollars.