2025 Offseason Trade and Free Agency Thread (Wow this is fun!)

[bisme37]

This is the thread where we talk about trades and free agency and whatnot you guys.

Wall of fame/shame:
Fierce1 (177)
Celts17Pride (151)
Larry_Russell (145)
165bows (109)
djFan71 (95)
phincsfan (86)
Curmudgeon (77)
playa-hater (71)
chrisab123 (68)
hugepatsfan (56)
brackdan70 (49)
Hal14 (48)
redslastlaugh (44)
ConstableGeneva (43)
GoCeltics123 (41)
yeleven11 (36)
ddb (35)
fallguy (33)
celtxman (32)
NotAKnicksFan (28)

Continued from here: https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2458220&start=1980

[djFan71]

I wouldn't be shocked if the Celtics traded Holiday, Porzingis and Hauser for cap space, young players and draft picks, don't resign Big Al Horford and resign Kornet. Celtics would end up with a team something like the following:

Pritchard, Davison
White, Lanier (#32), Walsh
Brown, Scheierman
Hayes-Davis, Tillman, Peterson
Kornet, Queta, Kalkbrenner (#28)

Get a high draft pick, play the young guys (which you will find keepers or trade bait) and then refocus in 2026/2027 with Pritchard, Tatum, Brown, Kornet and White.

Going to be interesting to see what direction Brad Stevens and the Celtics go in next year.

Yeah, that's kinda been my default thinking. But, you do have to have the salary/players we get back in your lineup there. It gets tough to add too many guys if you keep Walsh, Tillman and JD. Draft 28. Get probably more guys than you send out for Jrue/KP. I've found it hard to fit 32 in, even. Much less a FA or Peterson.

There are ways - paying BKN to take Klay / another guy, or sending ATL/SAC/DET good players for 2nds. Definitely will be interesting to see how Brad pulls it off.

[bisme37]

Read on Twitter

[Larry_Russell]

Read on Twitter

What would Joe Mazulla scouting entail?

Cutting him to see if he bleeds?
Checking to make sure he shoots threes?

[165bows]

Read on Twitter

What would Joe Mazulla scouting entail?

Cutting him to see if he bleeds?
Checking to make sure he shoots threes?

Staring deep into each other’s souls
Becoming deeply emotionally vulnerable
Prob some overly extended breath holds
Bonding over MMA convos

[djFan71]

New JB trade idea! I'm pretty not on board with trading him, but everything else has been covered so:

JB to DET for:
- Jaden Ivey
- Ron Holland II
- Tobias Harris (expiring filler - placeholder for Tatum)
- 27 DET first
- 29 DET first
- 31 DET first
- 28 2nd via CHA or LAC
- 29 2nd via MIL

It's a pupu platter for sure. But Ivey and Holland have some real upside. Saves $7.7M this year, then Harris' $26.6M expires. And lots of picks for future deals. Most will be 20s if that teams is any good, which it should be. I wanted to include Duren, but it doesn't make sense for DET then, imo. You could get Stewart, but it's less $ saved then. So, overall pretty meh other than the financials and sheer # of picks.

DET has Cade, JB, Ausar, Duren, Stewart, Sasser and brings back Beasley, Schroeder and Hardaway Jr. That's a really solid squad.

I really don't do it, but if we are in "duck the tax the next 2 years" mode and ATL doesn't wanna send us their stuff, here you go. You get more rotation level type guys back from the Jrue/KP deals.

[Shak_Celts]

Brad Stevens not leaning on young guys is just blatantly false. Peep Celtics roster when they made ECF in 2020 with Brad as coach. Somewhat similar state when they made ECF in 2018 with Kyrie and Hayward injured.



EDIT: Or is it, if he had a choice, he'd pick a vet over a young guy? He still played the likes of Ojeleye and Langford in his time as coach even if they weren't really good.

Romeoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Hal14]

Yea, no, I meant Brad as GM providing a roster for Joe to coach in comparison to Danny as GM putting together a roster for Doc and then Brad to coach.

When Brad was coach he was playing rookie Semi Ojeleye 13 minutes a night in the playoffs for crying out loud, lol. Course, we were down Haywood and Kyrie in those playoffs but still, Brad would play younger players quite a bit ... But it's not clear if that was his preference or the only options Danny gave him to choose from.

And once Brad took over as POBO he's traded like 6 firsts (and did a '28 swap) and he's also traded many, many seconds. And these trades of draft picks have not ever been to trade up or into a draft to get the rookie Brad wants on a favorable rookie scale contract, but Celts sending out draft capital for various NBA players in the league already (Muscala, Springer, Tillman,etc) .

In 2023 Brad acquired the 25th pick for Marcus Smart, traded it down 4 times and acquired Jordan Walsh and 4 seconds. He could have gone into 2024 and traded those extra four 2nds for a pick in that draft and nabbed a player he liked and we'd have the player a full four years cheap... but he hasn't used his assets to do that. Basically, we've acquired rookies to stick them in the G like Walsh, Davison, etc ... Scheierman is the most minutes a rookie has played, which is not even 400 minutes and Baylor is gonna be 25 yrs old in the fall.

And so yea... I don't know the thinking because not having contributors playing minutes for their first four yrs on rookie scale, makes the budgetary math a big freakin problem...

I don't know if Brad believes the draft is too much a crapshoot or if he feels young players are an emotional burden on locker room chemistry? I can only guess because it just seems like the team would be more financially viable if we had some cheaper salaried guys but we've not gone that route

I think you're overreacting.

-You say Scheierman played not even 400 mins as a rookie and will be 25 in the fall. Well that's like 3x the minutes that Hauser played as a rookie and Hauser was about the same age. Seems like Scheierman is on track to be as good as Hauser or perhaps better

-We traded back after trading for the 25th pick, yes. But rumor has it, Walsh is the guy Brad wanted at 25. So he was able to trade back, pick up 4 extra 2nd rounders and still get his guy. Brilliant GM'ing. Walsh hasn't worked out so great so far, but the hit rate is pretty low for any pick 25 or later. Also, Walsh is only 21 yrs old, only played 2 NBA seasons. A lot of guys don't really find their groove till year 3 (or even year 4) in the league. I wouldn't write him off yet..

-If we look at the guys who got picked in the 25-38 range in 2023, it's hard to really even say that Brad missed by picking Walsh..it's not like a list 13 studs with Walsh being the only dud. I guess Strawther is a guy you could look at and say, gosh we could've taken him at 25 instead..especially with his shooting ability and how our offense looks for 3's. But still, that's what, like 1 out of 14 picks in that range of the draft that has hit so far? Can't really fault Brad for missing when the odds are so low. And all of those other GM's in that range missed too. Plus Denver has really been weak these past 2 years in terms of wing depth...which has allowed Strawther to get lots of playing time. He likely wouldn't have gotten even close to that amount of playing time here. Plus he's playing in a system in Denver with lots of ball movement, player movement and one of the greatest passers of all time which allows him to take open looks - in rhythm. It wouldn't be the same in Boston so he likely wouldn't be as effective here.

-We could look at the 2024 draft and do the same thing..if you say we should've taken our 4 2nd rounders and traded up..that gets us where, to like the 19-25 range? Who are we taking there instead of Scheierman? I guess maybe we could've taken Yves Missi. But is he any better than Queta? There's a chance he would've just gotten buried on the depth chart behind all these other bigs we have. As I mentioned earlier, Scheierman is looking like a good pick for where we drafted him..hard to complain much, especially if he ends up being like Hauser..possibly better

-We've traded 1st round picks for Horford, D-white, Brogdon (who we traded along with 2 more 1st rounders for Jrue) ..I think overall the strategy has worked out well..that strategy played a huge role in us winning the 2024 NBA title

[Shak_Celts]

My bad. I think i can post in the locked thread, totally forgot. Hugs bis, won’t do it again!


Let’s get some action, I don’t care what team does it, I’m bored!!

[bisme37]

My bad. I think i can post in the locked thread, totally forgot. Hugs bis, won’t do it again!


Let’s get some action, I don’t care what team does it, I’m bored!!

I moved your Romeo post to this thread haha xo

[hugepatsfan]

Giannis staying in MIL is good for us I think. We're not a serious contender for him right now, but I think we COULD be if he's dealt next year. Our 2026 pick will presumably be higher value than anything we can offer now and presumably we'll duck the 2nd apron this year which relaxes some future pick capital and salary matching restrictions. Tatum coming back will make us more attractive for him to come join. But then even on the short term, MIL is probably going to try and appease him by acquiring good players for their limited assets available which lines up perfectly for us trying to trade Jrue as someone's who's on court value>trade value. Exactly the type of player that MIL will pursue and it's a move that would probably be well received by Giannis.

[165bows]

Giannis staying in MIL is good for us I think. We're not a serious contender for him right now, but I think we COULD be if he's dealt next year. Our 2026 pick will presumably be higher value than anything we can offer now and presumably we'll duck the 2nd apron this year which relaxes some future pick capital and salary matching restrictions. Tatum coming back will make us more attractive for him to come join. But then even on the short term, MIL is probably going to try and appease him by acquiring good players for their limited assets available which lines up perfectly for us trying to trade Jrue as someone's who's on court value>trade value. Exactly the type of player that MIL will pursue and it's a move that would probably be well received by Giannis.

Their roster is just so bad, outside of Giannis it’s probably among if not the worst set of contracts in the league.

I’d be looking for AJ Green and probably the sloppy seconds of one of their pick swaps. Make it 2026 that could low key be a great value.

[yeleven11]

Just found out that duncan robinson’s contract has a unique guarantee structure/date that allows his outgoing salary to be the full amount (19.9) for the Heat while the incoming salary for whichever team he gets traded to is about half that (9.9) if a trade happens prior to July 8. So a team can trade for him prior to July 8 for 9.9 and then waive him to not pay the remaining guarantee. I think that’s a contract we should target to get back if possible.

Hypothetical:

BOS: Duncan Robinson (absorb 9.9m and waive after), Keon Ellis
SAC: Jrue Holiday
MIA: Demar Derozan

This saves Boston 20M

[Larry_Russell]

Just found out that duncan robinson’s contract has a unique guarantee structure/date that allows his outgoing salary to be the full amount (19.9) for the Heat while the incoming salary for whichever team he gets traded to is about half that (9.9) if a trade happens prior to July 8. So a team can trade for him prior to July 8 for 9.9 and then waive him to not pay the remaining guarantee. I think that’s a contract we should target to get back if possible.

Hypothetical:

BOS: Duncan Robinson (absorb 9.9m and waive after), Keon Ellis
SAC: Jrue Holiday
MIA: Demar Derozan

This saves Boston 20M

Jrue has FAR more value than just a salary dump.


I think in a deal with Sacramento you can probably nab Murray.

[CelticFaninLBC]

Just found out that duncan robinson’s contract has a unique guarantee structure/date that allows his outgoing salary to be the full amount (19.9) for the Heat while the incoming salary for whichever team he gets traded to is about half that (9.9) if a trade happens prior to July 8. So a team can trade for him prior to July 8 for 9.9 and then waive him to not pay the remaining guarantee. I think that’s a contract we should target to get back if possible.

Hypothetical:

BOS: Duncan Robinson (absorb 9.9m and waive after), Keon Ellis
SAC: Jrue Holiday
MIA: Demar Derozan

This saves Boston 20M

Miami has to give up their FRP and more.

[yeleven11]

Just found out that duncan robinson’s contract has a unique guarantee structure/date that allows his outgoing salary to be the full amount (19.9) for the Heat while the incoming salary for whichever team he gets traded to is about half that (9.9) if a trade happens prior to July 8. So a team can trade for him prior to July 8 for 9.9 and then waive him to not pay the remaining guarantee. I think that’s a contract we should target to get back if possible.

Hypothetical:

BOS: Duncan Robinson (absorb 9.9m and waive after), Keon Ellis
SAC: Jrue Holiday
MIA: Demar Derozan

This saves Boston 20M

Miami has to give up their FRP and more.

I can see Miami giving up #20 and maybe SAC giving up the 2027 spurs 1st

[The Corey's]

I can see they haven't committed to the tank yet.

[Curmudgeon]

Is Giannis really staying? Or is Milwaukee just trying to raise the price?

The best the Bucks can hope for with their current roster and coach is 40-45 wins and it goes downhill from there as Lillard ages. Is that enough to keep ownership happy? Enough to keep Milwaukee fans happy?

[hugepatsfan]

Read on Twitter

A lot of the focus for re-signing guys is on Horford/Kornet, but Craig could be a guy to consider. Didn't play much for us or CHI last year but in the season prior he played a pretty decent 20 minutes per game. Tatum really was the only real PF on the team. Otherwise it was double bigs with Horford there or going really light with Brown/Hauser playing there. Craig addresses that positional area (not that he's a prototypical PF sized player, but playing style wise he's more natural there than anyone else we have).

[brackdan70]

Read on Twitter

Banner 19 incoming!!!!