Holy Offseason I Can’t Believe it’s July FA/Trade/Waiver Thread

[Dogen]

Stretching Tillman gets the Celtics under the 2nd apron. Alternatively they could cut one of the non guaranteed guys (Minott, Walsh, Queta, Davison).

Don't forget that once we are out of the apron, we can include cash in trades. I think it's more likely we trade Tillman (and his $2.5) to some team with $2.75 million cash or something, just paying a team a little cash premium to take Tillman off our hands.

Being able to trade cash again, this makes waive/stretch a minimum contract less necessary imo

Tillman is a good dude, but the fact that he's rarely brought up now as an option when the other bigs are Queta, Garza, and Williams is very telling. Maybe the team is quietly holding on to him as he recovers from knee issues, but even still I don't see much of a role for him on the current roster. I hope they do him right and find X a good new team, pay a bit up front while still getting under second apron.

[165bows]

Read on Twitter

The Inverse Cramer of the basketball world has spoken, I'm optimistic.

[Hal14]

Stretching Tillman gets the Celtics under the 2nd apron. Alternatively they could cut one of the non guaranteed guys (Minott, Walsh, Queta, Davison).

Don't forget that once we are out of the apron, we can include cash in trades. I think it's more likely we trade Tillman (and his $2.5) to some team with $2.75 million cash or something, just paying a team a little cash premium to take Tillman off our hands.

Being able to trade cash again, this makes waive/stretch a minimum contract less necessary imo

Tillman is a good dude, but the fact that he's rarely brought up now as an option when the other bigs are Queta, Garza, and Williams is very telling. Maybe the team is quietly holding on to him as he recovers from knee issues, but even still I don't see much of a role for him on the current roster. I hope they do him right and find X a good new team, pay a bit up front while still getting under second apron.

FWIW, he mentions Tillman here:

https://www.celticsblog.com/2025/7/10/24464596/brad-stevens-celtics-comfortable-with-roster-to-begin-next-season-boston-nba-summer-league

“We’re gonna find out,” Stevens said. “I think we had an incredible luxury with Luke and Neemy as our third and fourth centers, because I think they were both much better than that. And I think Luke will have an amazing impact in San Antonio, and I think Neemy has a great chance to be impactful here. We’ve always liked Luka Garza from afar, and we think that he has the real physicality that’s necessary on both ends of the floor, especially on the glass, in addition to his ability to score. And then, we got Amari, who’s down there now [at Summer League practice], and we think that he has a high upside.”

“And then you can flex other guys into that center role. Tillman is more of a four, probably, but he can flex into that center role. And so, we’ll have to do that by committee. That will not be the group that people will single out, based on paper, on what they’ve done with their careers thus far, as our strongest position, but it’s up to them to prove it otherwise.”

[Celts17Pride]

Absolutely zero chance the Celtics go into the season with just Queta, Garza and Williams as the bigs. Don't even mention Tillman who will hardly play if at all. Celtics will add another big before the start of the season. May not be flashy, probably a vet min guy like Charles Bassey but they will get another big.

[Hal14]

Absolutely zero chance the Celtics go into the season with just Queta, Garza and Williams as the bigs. Don't even mention Tillman who will hardly play if at all. Celtics will add another big before the start of the season. May not be flashy, probably a vet min guy like Charles Bassey but they will get another big.

We will mention Tillman. He may have had a rough season last year but he's on the roster, he played a key role in us winning banner 18. And he was a good player in Memphis - started for them in the playoffs.

Brad mentioned Tillman in the article I shared right above your post.

So that's 4 bigs. Plus Niang as a small ball 5. Norris may also emerge as a small ball 5 type.

And it's a bridge year. So if there's a position we're weak at, it's not that big of a deal. What matters is getting our ducks in a row so we're back in title contention during the 26-27 season.

[djFan71]

Absolutely zero chance the Celtics go into the season with just Queta, Garza and Williams as the bigs. Don't even mention Tillman who will hardly play if at all. Celtics will add another big before the start of the season. May not be flashy, probably a vet min guy like Charles Bassey but they will get another big.

We will mention Tillman. He may have had a rough season last year but he's on the roster, he played a key role in us winning banner 18. And he was a good player in Memphis - started for them in the playoffs.

Brad mentioned Tillman in the article I shared right above your post.

So that's 4 bigs. Plus Niang as a small ball 5. Norris may also emerge as a small ball 5 type.

And it's a bridge year. So if there's a position we're weak at, it's not that big of a deal. What matters is getting our ducks in a row so we're back in title contention during the 26-27 season.

Yeah, it may be it. Main thing is somebody has to go out if we bring in another big. If we make don't make a Simons move, this could be what we roll with. If we do it's probably 2 for 1 at least, or if we sign Dame, we'll have to do some juggling.

My guess still is that we move Simons and get a frontcourt player or 2 back. Quality of that player ranges from Kuz to someone good depending on if we include a pick or not.

[Celts17Pride]

Absolutely zero chance the Celtics go into the season with just Queta, Garza and Williams as the bigs. Don't even mention Tillman who will hardly play if at all. Celtics will add another big before the start of the season. May not be flashy, probably a vet min guy like Charles Bassey but they will get another big.

We will mention Tillman. He may have had a rough season last year but he's on the roster, he played a key role in us winning banner 18. And he was a good player in Memphis - started for them in the playoffs.

Brad mentioned Tillman in the article I shared right above your post.

So that's 4 bigs. Plus Niang as a small ball 5. Norris may also emerge as a small ball 5 type.

And it's a bridge year. So if there's a position we're weak at, it's not that big of a deal. What matters is getting our ducks in a row so we're back in title contention during the 26-27 season.

Brad mentioned, Brad mentioned, what do you expect him to say?

[cloverleaf]

Any honor for being last in on a thread?

[redslastlaugh]

it's generally a $100 dollars, American
talk to the mods

Any honor for being last in on a thread?

[dortmunder]

Pass those 100

[flintsky21]

Read on Twitter

Play JB as a big. Easy.

[cloverleaf]

So I was too early? (Or maybe not!)

[Dogen]

it's generally a $100 dollars, American
talk to the mods

Any honor for being last in on a thread?

Just takin' a shot here.

[GreenBlooded]

Brad's making the same play with Simons as he did with Brogdon

[djFan71]

Brad's making the same play with Simons as he did with Brogdon

Do you mean the part where he waited til other stuff happened and did it on October 1? That could end up a pretty good comp.

[GreenBlooded]

Brad's making the same play with Simons as he did with Brogdon

Do you mean the part where he waited til other stuff happened and did it on October 1? That could end up a pretty good comp.

Exactly. After the botched trade before the draft, Brogdon obviously needed to be moved but Brad patiently waited the entire summer for the right opportunity. This time it may be into the season but it feels like the same approach....wait for the trade he will win.

[Hal14]

Brad's making the same play with Simons as he did with Brogdon

Do you mean the part where he waited til other stuff happened and did it on October 1? That could end up a pretty good comp.

Exactly. After the botched trade before the draft, Brogdon obviously needed to be moved but Brad patiently waited the entire summer for the right opportunity. This time it may be into the season but it feels like the same approach....wait for the trade he will win.

Brogdon also played an entire season for Boston. So perhaps Simons will as well..

And if Brogdon didn't suffer a serious elbow injury on his shooting arm, he might still be a Celtic right now.

[vct33]

253 post combined from the top two contributors and counting in this thread alone.

It's like reading someone's personal diary.

This is what switched me from a daily contributor to a couple of times a month. I liked it way better before threads were merged. I rather see 20 random trade threads than have to dig through one to find anything worth discussing. Especially when you have a situation where a couple of people are just debating and quoting each other for three pages.

[cloverleaf]

Do you mean the part where he waited til other stuff happened and did it on October 1? That could end up a pretty good comp.

Exactly. After the botched trade before the draft, Brogdon obviously needed to be moved but Brad patiently waited the entire summer for the right opportunity. This time it may be into the season but it feels like the same approach....wait for the trade he will win.

Brogdon also played an entire season for Boston. So perhaps Simons will as well..

And if Brogdon didn't suffer a serious elbow injury on his shooting arm, he might still be a Celtic right now.

Brad didn't take Brogdon in a salary dump. Really, they are two very different situations. IMO Brad grabs at the first bite he gets to ship Simons out for some more money relief. Jrue was the ultimate bluebird, and Brogdon had some value coming off 6th Man of the Year.

[Parliament10]

Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2468842