Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26, part 2

[Fierce1]

t minus 2 days until Simons is no longer a celtic.

I'm not really seeing the logic here.

a) 2 days until he's eligible to be aggregated with another celtic player's salary in order to acquire a player who makes more $ than Simons (Simons + X player's salary = acquire a player making more $ than Simons) but that seems unlikely since all of our moves this offseason have been acquiring players who make significantly *less* than the player we sent out in the deal.

Trading for a player who makes more $ than Simons seems very counterintuitive to what Brad has been trying to do all summer - slash payroll and get under tax/aprons.

If we're trading for a player(s) who make less $ than Simons, then we wouldn't be aggregating Simons contract with another Celtics players contract to acquire a more expensive player. A Simons trade would likely be Simons in exchange for 1 (or more) smaller contracts. Which is something we can do now..we don't have to wait till Sept 7 to do that.

b) Even if there was a deal we wanted to do but had to wait till Sept 7, we could announce the trade now and just wait till 9/7 for it to be made official by the league, which is what we did with the Jrue trade and what has happened with tons of trades in the past where it's announced 2-10 days before it can be made official..

Hal,

We all are just going to have to wait and find out. A lot of your post makes no sense. One possible trade could be Simons and Tillman to Charlotte for Grant Williams and Connaughton. I'm not saying do that trade or saying I would do that trade. It's just an example. In that example the Celtics have to wait until Sep 7th for Simons and the Hornets need to wait until Sep 6th for Connaughton.

In other words, everyone just has to wait.

As I mentioned last week, if Simons makes it past say Sep 10th then it's probably a great chance he starts the season with the Celtics. We all will just have to wait to find out.

Brad Stevens doesn't announce deals unless they are officially completed.

[Celts17Pride]

I'm not really seeing the logic here.

a) 2 days until he's eligible to be aggregated with another celtic player's salary in order to acquire a player who makes more $ than Simons (Simons + X player's salary = acquire a player making more $ than Simons) but that seems unlikely since all of our moves this offseason have been acquiring players who make significantly *less* than the player we sent out in the deal.

Trading for a player who makes more $ than Simons seems very counterintuitive to what Brad has been trying to do all summer - slash payroll and get under tax/aprons.

If we're trading for a player(s) who make less $ than Simons, then we wouldn't be aggregating Simons contract with another Celtics players contract to acquire a more expensive player. A Simons trade would likely be Simons in exchange for 1 (or more) smaller contracts. Which is something we can do now..we don't have to wait till Sept 7 to do that.

b) Even if there was a deal we wanted to do but had to wait till Sept 7, we could announce the trade now and just wait till 9/7 for it to be made official by the league, which is what we did with the Jrue trade and what has happened with tons of trades in the past where it's announced 2-10 days before it can be made official..

Hal,

We all are just going to have to wait and find out. A lot of your post makes no sense. One possible trade could be Simons and Tillman to Charlotte for Grant Williams and Connaughton. I'm not saying do that trade or saying I would do that trade. It's just an example. In that example the Celtics have to wait until Sep 7th for Simons and the Hornets need to wait until Sep 6th for Connaughton.

In other words, everyone just has to wait.

As I mentioned last week, if Simons makes it past say Sep 10th then it's probably a great chance he starts the season with the Celtics. We all will just have to wait to find out.

Brad Stevens doesn't announce deals unless they are officially completed.

Like I said, reading comprehension issues

[GreenBlooded]

why does everybody want to get rid of simons so bad

They don't think he'll bleed on the court for Joe

[Riverwalk2021]

Simmons has about as much chance as I do to make the opening day roster. They paid to dump Niang who they could have gotten a couple picks for at the deadline. I like the Vuc trade the best because you get cheaper and he could be resigned on the cheap if it works out for him here.

I also like moving Hauser for Orlando’s Bitzade. Makes sense for both teams. Fills needs for both teams and Bitzade isn’t even in their regular rotation

[redslastlaugh]

I want to keep Hauser, I want to see if he can keep improving.

I think our best chance at getting back to the Finals is in '27 or '28 when we will (hopefully) still have Sam and Pritchard on these good salary contracts. Ideally those guys just keep getting better and we add a couple of pieces around them...

Also, we had late first round picks in 2023, 2024, and 2025. In '23 Brad traded down and we landed Jordan Walsh. In '24 Brad took Baylor Scheierman & in '25 we took Hugo Gonzalez. Ideally, one or two of these three players become really impactful role players like a Danny Green or Derek Fischer or Christian Braun -type because the salary cap constraints of building around JT/JB's supermaxes really necessitates hitting on some late first round picks in this window

If all three drafts in this 2023-25 window produce bupkis, I think we'll have to trade Jaylen and/or Derrick and try to retool through trades

Simmons has about as much chance as I do to make the opening day roster. They paid to dump Niang who they could have gotten a couple picks for at the deadline. I like the Vuc trade the best because you get cheaper and he could be resigned on the cheap if it works out for him here.

I also like moving Hauser for Orlando’s Bitzade. Makes sense for both teams. Fills needs for both teams and Bitzade isn’t even in their regular rotation

[Fierce1]

Hal,

We all are just going to have to wait and find out. A lot of your post makes no sense. One possible trade could be Simons and Tillman to Charlotte for Grant Williams and Connaughton. I'm not saying do that trade or saying I would do that trade. It's just an example. In that example the Celtics have to wait until Sep 7th for Simons and the Hornets need to wait until Sep 6th for Connaughton.

In other words, everyone just has to wait.

As I mentioned last week, if Simons makes it past say Sep 10th then it's probably a great chance he starts the season with the Celtics. We all will just have to wait to find out.

Brad Stevens doesn't announce deals unless they are officially completed.

Like I said, reading comprehension issues

Don't shoot the messenger.

pro·pos·al
/prəˈpōz(ə)l/
noun
1.
a plan or suggestion, especially a formal or written one, put forward for consideration or discussion by others.

[phincsfan]

Like I said, reading comprehension issues

Don't shoot the messenger.

pro·pos·al
/prəˈpōz(ə)l/
noun
1.
a plan or suggestion, especially a formal or written one, put forward for consideration or discussion by others.

I guess people need to clarify whether a trade idea is a proposal or an example

[Fierce1]

Like I said, reading comprehension issues

Don't shoot the messenger.

pro·pos·al
/prəˈpōz(ə)l/
noun
1.
a plan or suggestion, especially a formal or written one, put forward for consideration or discussion by others.

I guess people need to clarify whether a trade idea is a proposal or an example

This is what google had to say:

A proposal is a formal written document that suggests a plan, project, or idea for consideration and approval by a person or group. It aims to persuade the reader that the proposed course of action is worthwhile and beneficial, outlining project details, goals, timelines, budgets, and expected outcomes to secure approval, funding, or resources.

The idea of Grant and Connaughton for Simons was posted and it even emphasized that the Cs would have to wait for Sep. 7 and the Hornets need Sep. 6 to remove the aggregation restriction.

I myself don't like that idea because the Cs will only save 6m in cap space in that scenario.
So why take on Grant's 14m for 2026-27, right?

But like I said, I didn't come up with that idea.

[Hal14]

I also like moving Hauser for Orlando’s Bitzade. Makes sense for both teams. Fills needs for both teams and Bitzade isn’t even in their regular rotation

Celtics and Magic just battled in the playoffs this year and will be battling at the top of the eastern conference standings for the next 5 years.

Very unlikely they will do a trade with each other anytime soon.

[bucknersrevenge]

I think at the deadline Celtics fans are gonna try to give up Simons for sacrifice and then NBA GMs are gonna walk right by him and ask for Hauser instead.

And Brad's gonna bite.

People say we got til February to boost Simons' value or find some team who loses some scoring due to injury. If Brad is smart, he understands that he's got til February to see if Scheierman, Minott, or Walsh can be a cheap backup wing. Cheaper than Hauser that's for sure. If saving more money to facilitate our owners spending more later is the goal, moving Sam is gonna be the easiest option ever. And his market should actually be robust.

[Fierce1]

I think at the deadline Celtics fans are gonna try to give up Simons for sacrifice and then NBA GMs are gonna walk right by him and ask for Hauser instead.

And Brad's gonna bite.

People say we got til February to boost Simons' value or find some team who loses some scoring due to injury. If Brad is smart, he understands that he's got til February to see if Scheierman, Minott, or Walsh can be a cheap backup wing. Cheaper than Hauser that's for sure. If saving more money to facilitate our owners spending more later is the goal, moving Sam is gonna be the easiest option ever. And his market should actually be robust.

That's why my trade proposal is Simons and Hauser for Vucevic and Coby White.

A White and White backcourt would be awesome.

DWhite and Coby White have the potential to be a great duo.

[Bad-Thoma]

A White and White backcourt would be awesome.

I'm going to report this as a hate crime.

[Fierce1]

A White and White backcourt would be awesome.

I'm going to report this as a hate crime.

That's a good one.

[Fierce1]

t minus 2 days until Simons is no longer a celtic.

I also believe that Queta's play recently impacted the Simons choices for Brad (I hope he has options at least)

If Queta played like **** we would 100% HAVE to target a center exclusively, seeing he should be somewhat serviceable, then a big forward is probably the target

It's Sep. 8.

I believe NASA calls that failure to launch because launching Simons out of Boston didn't happen.

[165bows]

I haven’t paid a second of attention for a month but I still think Simons if He’s Still Around goes into the season.

I definitely get the argument about aggregation and getting the move done it just seems hard to do even past this aggregation date. Most likely imo for a trade to happen after other teams make moves and something fitting shakes loose.

Plus simply entertainment value on my end keep him for three months and just see what happens. That angle seems more fun than just salary dumping him for some cheap old guy or flier or whatever in September.

[Fierce1]

I haven’t paid a second of attention for a month but I still think Simons if He’s Still Around goes into the season.

I definitely get the argument about aggregation and getting the move done it just seems hard to do even past this aggregation date. Most likely imo for a trade to happen after other teams make moves and something fitting shakes loose.

Plus simply entertainment value on my end keep him for three months and just see what happens. That angle seems more fun than just salary dumping him for some cheap old guy or flier or whatever in September.

Bingo!

[Curmudgeon]

Anfernee, Anfernee, wherefore art thou Anfernee?

[Fierce1]

Interesting that Simons can now be aggregated but the trade proposals have stopped.

[bisme37]

Has this been posted yet?

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Hal14]

Plus simply entertainment value on my end keep him for three months and just see what happens. That angle seems more fun than just salary dumping him for some cheap old guy or flier or whatever in September.

I wouldn't mind seeing what a team that has Tatum, Brown, White, Simons, Pritchard, Queta, Boucher and Hauser can do.

There's a non-zero % chance that team could win a championship.

We would likely be the favorites to win the east in 2027. And perhaps by that time OKC has had to move some of their key guys because of the 2nd apron could make it hard to keep their guys together..

And before anyone says "oh, they'd give up 150 points a game" well, out of those 8 guys, only 1 of them is a subpar defender (Simons), you've got an all-defensive guy (White), a borderline all-defense guy (Tatum), a guy who shut down Luka defensively in the finals and (when he's locked in) is a very good defender (JB).

Simons could improve defensively in a different environment and with more development/coaching.

And think about how potentially explosive that squad could be offensively. Pritchard/Hauser/Boucher off the bench, coming in to bring energy, getting after it on D and hitting 3's. Queta (26 mins) and Boucher (22 MPG) isn't an ideal center rotation but the hope is they could be serviceable enough while there's also a chance that someone like Garza, Tillman, Amari or a guy we draft in the 1st round of the 2026 draft could end up being a solid rotational big as well.

Then of course there's a chance that 1 of Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh ends up being a really solid 9th/10th man. Think the odds are pretty good that 1 of them can develop into a decent 9th/10th man and even if they don't, you really only need an 8 man rotation in the playoffs.

I get the reasons for trading Simons. But there's also a world where he fits well here, puts up some big numbers, signs a team friendly 3 year contract and helps us win Banner 19 imo.